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Our Mission
Founded in 1994, Berghahn Books is an independent publisher of distinguished scholarly books and journals in the humanities and social sciences. Our program, soon expanding to 150 new book titles and 60 paperback editions a year alongside a robust journals portfolio, spans History, Social & Cultural Anthropology, Archaeology, Migration Studies, Environmental Studies, and Film Studies. With a backlist of over 2,000 book titles and nearly 20,000 journal articles, we have established ourselves as a pioneering and bold publishing house.
A family firm, the press is led by our founder, Marion Berghahn, in partnership with her daughter, Vivian, and her eldest son, Sascha. Supported by a dedicated team of nearly 30 staff across offices in Oxford, UK and Brooklyn, US we embody a fiercely independent spirit in furthering the company’s progressive mission.
Thanks to our presence in both the US and the UK, Berghahn Books facilitates close links between the academic communities of Europe and North America, pursuing a mission to advance high-quality research across national and disciplinary boundaries. Guided by our core values of integrity, inclusivity, impact, and equity, the press upholds a rigorous peer-review process to ensure high academic standards while cultivating a supportive publication process that amplifies emerging scholars and marginalized voices alongside prominent figures in their fields. Our publication range spans specialized monographs to carefully edited volumes, complemented by select titles appealing to a broader readership. Our journals program combines a blend of traditional open and thematic issues with a range of nuanced sections that disseminate novel research echoing our principles of international scholarly collaboration. Our goal across our entire publishing program is to remain innovative and agile as we work to maximize the societal impact of our authors’ works across a diverse array of publication outlets.
In light of both contemporary and historical events, we recognize the imperative of scholarly learning in understanding the human condition and advocating for equality and tolerance in theory and application. To this end, our books and journals reflect a deep commitment to publishing interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship, emphasizing the significance of understanding the social fabrics that span our diverse cultures so that an inclusive and equitable future remains possible.
About the founder:
Marion Berghahn, D Phil, PhD, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief for Books
Member of New York Academy of Science
Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, Marion studied at the universities of Hamburg, Paris, and Freiburg where she received a DPhil in American Studies, Romance Languages and Philosophy. In 1969, she moved to England where she received an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, followed by a PhD in Sociology from the University of Warwick. These subjects, together with history, later on formed the basis of her scholarly publishing program. In 1980, she started her first company, Berg Publishers, but was forced out in 1993 and subsequently started her new company, Berghahn Books, in 1994. In 1988, she moved to the US but retained an office and home in Oxford, and has been commuting across the Atlantic ever since.
The next generation:
Vivian Berghahn, Managing Director and Journals Editorial Director
In addition to overseeing the journals division at Berghahn, Vivian’s responsibilities include advancing a range of companywide initiatives across books and journals, including open access, and the strategic development of its overall publishing program. With over 20 years of experience in academic publishing, Vivian has served on the AAP-PSP Committee and ALPSP Council and is currently on the Board of Trustees for the OA Book Usage Data Trust, where she also serves as chair of its Policy and Governance Committee. She graduated magna cum laude from the Social Thought and Political Economy Program at UMASS Amherst with a double major in German and one day hopes to complete her PhD in Anthropology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Sascha Berghahn, Information Technology Director
Sascha's long-standing role in the firm goes back to customer service and sales on the pre-internet front lines at Berg Publishers in the early 1990s. After University, he embarked on a career in web development, as the Berghahn Books webmaster, and also as a web consultant in New York City for nearly 15 years in various sectors, including media and finance. Since 2013, he has focused his attention on the growing web and information needs at Berghahn Books, including various public-facing sites, as well as data management and business processes.
Advisory Board:
Mitchell Allen
Mitchell is President of Scholarly Roadside Service, a publishing consulting service for scholars, scholarly organizations, and academic publishers. Previously, he was founder and publisher of two independent scholarly presses specializing in social science and humanities, AltaMira Press (1995-2005) and Left Coast Press (2005-2016). His publishing career began with 20 years at Sage Publications, first in marketing, then acquisitions. He is responsible for publishing almost 1500 books and launching over 25 journals. Mitch has a Ph.D. in archaeology from UCLA, publishes regularly in that field, and taught undergraduates at five universities. He is author of the book Essentials of Publishing Qualitative Research and regularly teaches publishing workshops to scholars and graduate students. Allen is recipient of career achievement awards from four academic societies.
Richard Fisher
Richard read history at Balliol College, Oxford and has worked in the academic publishing sector for the past thirty-five years. Formerly Managing Director of Academic Publishing at Cambridge University Press, he is currently Vice-Chair of Yale University Press and a non-executive director of Edinburgh University Press. He is an Associate Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, responsible for sportsmen and sportswomen, and serves as the Academic and Policy Correspondent of the Independent Publishers Guild: he has also served on numerous sub-committees of the British Academy, the AHRC and HEFCE concerned with scholarly communication. He is currently serving a second term as Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and Chair of its Publications Committee.
Oliver Gadsby
Oliver is currently President of the Academic and Professional Division of Rowman & Littlefield and President and CEO of Rowman & Littlefield International, which he co-founded in 2012. He started his career as an editor in Germany and later spent three years working in Sweden. He was CEO of the educational publisher Nelson Thornes, and went on to be Director of Strategy and Acquisitions for Informa plc, the parent group of Taylor & Francis. Oliver was CEO of Continuum from 2007, leading it to become IPG Independent Publisher of the Year in 2011. Oliver is a former Chair of the Independent Publishers’ Guild, and sits on the board of the Academic and Professional Division of the Publishers' Association.
Frances Pinter
Frances is Executive Chair of CEU Press and advises a number of small university presses around the world. She was CEO of Manchester University Press, the founding Publisher of Bloomsbury Academic and founder of Knowledge Unlatched. Previously she was Publishing Director at the Open Society Foundation where she established EIFL and the Centre for Publishing Development, providing grants and training for publishers in all post-communist countries. Earlier she founded Pinter Publishers that also owned Leicester University Press and launched the environmental studies imprint Belhaven Press.