Welcome to our weekly roundup of news from university presses! Once again, there is a lot to share this week from our fellow academic publishing houses and much to learn on What SUP at the social university presses. This week, the presses are featuring posts inspired by Black History Month, thoughts on the Oscars, insights into the multiverse, and much more. What did you read this week?

Over at Columbia University Press, we find an exploration of the multiverse. Did Thomas Aquinas think there was just one world or many? Columbia University Press gives us an excerpt from Mary-Jane Rubenstein’s book on that very topic.

As Black History Month comes to a close, University of North Carolina Press presents a guest post by Stephen G. Hall, author of A Faithful Account of the Race: African American Historical Writing in Nineteenth-Century America. Hall considers what it means to commemorate the 150th anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Battle of Gettysburg, and what Black History Month can say to us today.

Also in honor of Black History month, Oxford University Press hosts an infographic by Social Explorer on African American demographics in America. Important data is presented clearly, from geography, to income and employment across the country.

We find more infographics over at University of Chicago Press. Here, Goethe’s shifts in vocabulary over time are presented in visually mesmerizing form. This all comes from Andrew Piper’s study on aging and writing, which provides plenty of food for thought on the connection between words and our lifetime.

Stanford University introduces their new Executive Editor, our very own former YUP editor Eric Brandt. Brandt discusses his career in publishing, from Harper Collins to other excellent scholarly presses, and considers the exciting new opportunity ahead of him. From New Haven snow to sunny California, we wish him the very best in his new position!

The Oscars are approaching next week, and Oxford University Press includes a round-up by author Kathryn Kalinak on who should win Best Original Score, including embedded songs to listen along.

Princeton University Press points us toward an interview in Physic s Today with author William Bialek. Bialek discusses the intersection between physics and biology, good teaching, his next textbook, and what he’s reading now.

Harvard University Press has an introduction by Steve Nadis and Shing-Tung Yau to their new book, A History in Sum: 150 Years of Mathematics at Harvard (1825-1975). We meet Benjamin Peirce, hired by Harvard in 1831 to lead their math department, and find the barriers he met in pushing his field forward.  By looking at the how mathematical research developed at Harvard, we get a broader view of how math grew as a discipline, and how creative minds interacted with their institutions.

Delve into the diaries of Emilie Davis, a free African American woman during the Civil War in Philadelphia. Penn State University Press links to author Judith Giesberg ‘s piece in Common-place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life.