Derek Krissoff (@DerekKrissoff) / X

Derek Krissoff

11.9K posts

Derek Krissoff

@DerekKrissoff

Independent publishing consultant in Pittsburgh. Editor-at-large with @oupress and @kentstateupress. Reach me at dkrissoff at gmail dot com.

Pittsburgh

linktr.ee/derekkrissoff

Joined August 2013

Pinned
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Jun 11, 2023
I may have quit my job, but I’m still sitting on the same couch hoping to do some of the same work. Authors and publishers: I’m here to write marketing material, help with proposals and questionnaires, and think about building community around your books: derekkrissoff.com
48K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Jul 15, 2024
With JD Vance looking like the Republican pick for vice president, a reminder that there's a great collection of activist and scholarly perspectives on him—Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy. A bunch of us worked on it at (no surprise) a university press.
120K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Apr 26, 2020
Arguing that universities shouldn’t go to face-to-face instruction in fall needs, I think, to be accompanied by absolutely nuclear defense of staff jobs.
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Dec 3, 2023
The Atlantic has a particularly thorough and damning story about the self-inflicted catastrophe at a poor state's flagship university. I think it's the last one I'll read. They make me too sad. (h/t @ameliaknisely) theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
136K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Apr 14, 2024
Writing something short about the closure of the Appalachian studies program at West Virginia University, and it’s leading me in a non-snarky way to a fundamental question that I find hard to answer: What does WVU, from the perspective of its leadership, care about?
150K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Jan 17, 2024
If you're ever tempted to think that last fall's protests against WVU's austerity scandal were overblown, a reminder that there is no longer an Appalachian studies program at West Virginia University in West Virginia, USA.
50K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Sep 3, 2023
The thing where WVU said they’d get rid of all languages, were surprised the announcement prompted questions, and responded “I dunno, we’ll get an app”—that careless dynamic characterizes every aspect of leadership’s shock-and-awe campaign against university workers and students.
43K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Sep 1, 2023
Our best friend, who got us through the scary early pandemic, my career change, and more, died tonight. I know there’s a lot of pain among colleagues at my former university now, but I’m going to try to stay offline and think about Piper, who looked so elegant just this morning.
55K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Apr 30, 2021
Finishing the month and wow: West Virginia University Press sold 8,100 books in April of 2021 vs. 600 in April of 2020. Great authors, supportive university, big readers—this tiny independent press thanks you all.
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Sep 30, 2022
The accounting software says that yesterday our tiny nonprofit press sold more than 2,200 books. In a world that so often celebrates free, I want to celebrate this—accessibly priced paperbacks, the sale of which supports booksellers, publishing workers, and authors.
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Aug 14, 2023
Credit to the Gazette-Mail for noting, in its story on faculty cuts, that 130 staff at WVU have already lost their jobs. At some level this feels like the staff-ification of faculty, and points to the need for all university workers to fight together.
wvgazettemail.com
WVU recommends dropping 32 majors, including all world language programs
In a move that affects hundreds of students and faculty, West Virginia University announced Friday it is recommending dropping 32 majors, including 20 post-graduate programs, as part of its restruc...
60K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Aug 21, 2023
"The fix is simple: the legislature should step up and say they truly support WVU, and cover its deficit without eliminating any programs. Then they should find a university president who is willing to ask for the funds that a major university needs." forbes.com/sites/stevensa…
49K
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Sep 2, 2019
Occasional reminder that university presses are staffed by untenured professionals who work long days, with few job protections, for modest pay. Their labor is a lot like that of others in the neoliberal university, and there’s nothing edgy about diminishing it.
Derek Krissoff
@DerekKrissoff
Jul 17, 2024
With vice presidential candidate JD Vance calling professors "the enemy," you might assume higher ed has an adversarial relationship to him. But leaders like the one pictured here, who are intent on dismantling the public institutions they oversee, were instrumental in his rise.
16K