TOME open monographs logo

Faculty authors in the humanities and social sciences are invited to apply for grants of up to $15,000 to support the publication of open-access digital monographs

The first five recipients of a TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) Monograph Subvention Grant have been selected to receive funding provided by the Office of the Provost to support an open-access (OA) digital publication of a book they have written.

The 2020-22 TOME Monograph Subvention Grant recipients are:

  • Jonas Nahm, Assistant Professor of Energy, Resources, & Environment, School of Advanced International Studies
  • Michael Degani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences
  • Raffaella Del Sarto, Academic Director, Master of Arts in International Affairs and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies, School of Advanced International Studies
  • Sarah Parkinson, Aronson Assistant Professor of Political Science & International Studies, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences
  • Naveeda Khan, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences

Johns Hopkins is one of 20 colleges and universities participating in TOME, a collaborative project developed by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) to make more scholarly monographs by humanities and humanistic social sciences faculty members openly available on a broad scale. The Johns Hopkins Libraries are committed to providing new opportunities for faculty to bring their work to the world, and in support of this goal, are offering these grants for faculty authors in the humanities and social sciences.

“The TOME grants help make the important scholarship being produced by Hopkins faculty freely open and available to diverse global audiences, fulfilling our mission of bringing “knowledge to the world,” said Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums.

Recipients of a TOME Monograph Subvention Grant receive up to $15,000 to be used in support of the open-access digital publication of a standard monograph project of up to 90,000 words. Monographs must have been accepted for publication by an eligible publisher, including all members of the Association of University Presses. Eligible monographs must be authored or co-authored by a member of the Hopkins faculty.

Three TOME grants of up to $15,000 each are available for the 2022/23 award year (July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023). All Hopkins-affiliated researchers who are the single author of a monograph, up to 90,000 words, and accepted for publication at a participating publisher, are invited to apply. For details on how to apply, see the JHU TOME website. Please contact tome@jhu.edu for further information and support.

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Jonas Nahm

Nahm used the TOME grant to publish Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy, which argues that globalization, and the rise of China in particular, has reinforced distinct national patterns of industrial specialization, and causes persistent and consequential divergence of domestic political economies. The book was published by Oxford University Press in September 2021.

“The book is especially relevant for academic audiences that are not located at Western universities and may not have access through their institutions,” said Nahm. “The open access version of the book removes these barriers and helps me bring my message to academics in developing economies, where the book’s lessons about globalization, economic development, and engagement with China are particularly likely to resonate.”


Raffaella Del Sarto

Del Sarto used the TOME grant to publish Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East, which analyzes relations between Europe and the states of the Mediterranean Middle East and North Africa from 1995 to 2015. The book was published by Oxford University Press in September 2021.

“Several colleagues already told me how grateful they are for being able to download the book free of charge; this is particularly true for colleagues based at universities with less (or only meager) funds for their libraries. According to them, the open access to my book is also very important for their students. And, of course, I am very happy (and grateful!) that my work is accessible to a much wider readership, independently of their financial means.”

Michael Degani

Degani will use the TOME grant to publish The City Electric: Infrastructure and Ingenuity in Postsocialist Tanzania, which explores electricity and its piracy in Dar es Salaam, the commercial metropolis of Tanzania. The book is forthcoming from Duke University Press and scheduled for publication in November 2022.

“The great virtue of OA is its ability to reach diverse global publics,” said Degani. African scholars and publics have been particularly marginalized. Migration controls, political instability, and structural conditions of underdevelopment have, in effect, delinked them from an international economy of knowledge production. Bypassing paywalls or even physical distribution, OA carves out channels through which ideas and collaborations can spread, creating a more global and equitable anthropology.”

Sarah Parkinson

Parkinson will use the TOME grant to publish Beyond the Lines: Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, which traces organizational and social change in Palestinian communities in Lebanon during the civil war, the 1982 Israeli invasion, and the Syrian occupation. The book is forthcoming from Cornell University Press and is scheduled for publication in fall 2022.

“The TOME grant will also make Beyond the Lines…available to a broad audience throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA),” said Parkinson. “Currently, many people in the MENA do not have access to the thousands of articles and books that are written about them or the region, a stark manifestation of global inequality. TOME helps to challenge these boundaries, especially in a book that centers people’s lived experience of power in the region.”

Naveeda Khan

Khan will use the TOME grant to publish In Quest of a Shared Planet: Negotiating Climate from the Global South, which reveals that the accounting and audit practices at the heart of the Paris Agreement are as much about trying to create a shared framework and a sense of a shared world as treating the problem of climate change. The book is forthcoming from Fordham University Press and scheduled for publication in April 2023.

“The reviewers of the book have said that it is one of a kind and will likely be not just useful but enormously empowering for those who read it,” said Khan. “Therefore, the TOME grant means a lot to me as it will allow my publisher to make this book freely available to the world.”