The NDU Press, in collaboration with the Benedict XVI Endowed Chair of Religious, Cultural, and Philosophical Studies and the Faculty of Law and Political Science, recently launched a new e publishing initiative at NDU with the publication of the conference proceedings: “Thomas More’s Utopia: 500 years on… and counting”. The first open access book published by the NDU Press with a Creative Commons (CC) license was launched by an event held in the Benedict XVI Endowed Chair Library at the Zouk Mosbeh campus on 10 April 2019.
The Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) conference upon which this book is based was organized in May of 2016 to review the impact of the 1516 socio-political satire “On the Best State of a Republic on the New Island of Utopia”. In 2000, the Catholic Church took the decision to proclaim Saint Thomas More the patron saint of all politicians and statesmen. The Benedict XVI Endowed Chair and the Faculty of Law and Political Science (FLPS), with the support of the Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon, the British Embassy, and the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation, brought together a wide spectrum of experts, politicians, theologians, and researchers to assess what role utopian thinking plays in the 21st century, particularly in the Middle East.
Through this open access publishing initiative, NDU Press are proud to join the movement to make academic books available to readers around the world, free of charge for everyone to use at their own discretion under the conditions specified by the applicable CC license. “Thomas More’s Utopia” has been made available in NDU’s Institutional Repository (IR) which is managed by the NDU Libraries and is accessible online at URL: http://ir.ndu.edu.lb. Along with book chapters written or edited by NDU faculty members, the IR also hosts a growing number of research articles and conference papers, master’s theses and PhD dissertations, and educational videos created by members of the university community. By making research and academic publications available to all, NDU is helping to realize Thomas More’s utopian ideals of a free, equal, and educated global society.
NDU Press’ first e-book is edited by Dr. Edward Alam, holder of the Benedict XVI Endowed Chair, and contains chapters by prominent scholars and theologians, including Dr. Robert Christian, Professor of Theology, Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, and Dr. Richard Woods, Professor of Theology, Dominican University, both USA; authors from NDU include Dr. Joseph Yacoub, associate professor of Educational Psychology (Thomas More and Dostoevsky: Kindred Spirits), Dr. Dany Ghsoub, chairperson of the Department of Government and International Relations (Revisiting the concept of "Just War"), and Dr. Eugene Sensenig, professor for Gender, Communications, and Global Mobility Studies (Catholic Social Theory and Practice in the 21st Century: A challenge for believers in the Middle East). Because of the book’s online presence, the authors have already received feedback from readers from around the world. Open Access publishing is thus creating research ties with colleagues globally and facilitating NDU’s mission of promoting open, liberal arts education and scholarship.