Brenda Ulrich, TAA Board Secretary and an attorney at Archstone Law, received the 2024 TAA President’s Award from TAA Board President Paul Krieger at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville on June 22. The TAA President’s Award is given at the discretion of the TAA Board President based on service given to TAA in the past year.
Laura Frost Inducted Into TAA Council of Fellows
Chemistry textbook author Laura Frost was inducted into the TAA Council of Fellows at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville on June 22.
The TAA Council of Fellows distinguished authors who have a long record of successful publishing. Any author whose textbook or other instructional and academic works have established his/her presence in scholarly publishing over time and who has been innovative in the presentation of material, is qualified for nomination into the TAA Council of Fellows. Induction into the Council of Fellows is the premier honor bestowed by TAA.
Daphne C. Watkins Receives Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award From TAA
Daphne C. Watkins, a Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan, has been awarded the Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA). The award was established to honor individuals whose achievements over a career of devoted effort and service demonstrate the highest degree of commitment to excellence in authoring works to advance their discipline; encourage, enlighten and support the work of colleagues; and educate students in the field. The award is named for Ron Pynn and Franklin Silverman, two charter members of TAA who pursued and modeled these qualities in their own work.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected for this award,” said Watkins. “Thank you!”
TAA Member Phil Wankat’s Curation and Commentary of ‘The Academic Author’ Archives – Installment 2
The second installment of TAA Member Phil Wankat’s curation and commentary of the archival issues (1994 to 2010) of the The Academic Author, Bios, is now available. Articles include “And now, 50 books later, a bio of Mike Keedy, author of mathematics textbooks and the founder of TAA,” and “Cognitive Aspects of Writer’s Block,” and “Author Profile: Philip Zimbardo, Improving the human condition.”
Lauren Weingarden Awarded TAA Publication Grant
Lauren S. Weingarden has been awarded a Publication Grant from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association to cover image permission costs for her forthcoming academic book, A ‘Neuroarthistory’ of Nineteenth-Century Painters: Embodying Baudelairean Modernity. Routledge will publish the book in its “Science and the Arts since 1750” series in 2024.
A “Neuroarthistory” of Nineteenth-Century Painters: Embodying Baudelairean Modernity takes a transdisciplinary approach—combining art history, literary studies, and neuroaesthetics—to examine the modern urban experience of nineteenth-century Paris through language and images of fragmentation and transformation.
Supreme Court Sides With Respondents in Copyright Case
On May 9, 2024, the Supreme Court sided with the respondents in a 6-3 decision in favor of an amicus brief filed in the case of Warner Chappell Music, Inc. et. al v. Nealy et. al. “The Court held that, assuming the discovery rule applies, there is no separate three-year limit on the damages a copyright plaintiff can recover under the Copyright Act,” said Attorney Nathan E. Denning, from Wiggin and Dana LLP, who filed the brief.
TAA had joined with five other author groups on the amicus brief, which was filed on January 12, 2024 in support of the respondents, and argued whether under the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations rule, and the “discovery accrual rule” plaintiffs in copyright infringement cases “can recover damages for acts that allegedly occurred more than three years before the filing of a lawsuit.”