For three months over the summer I completed an internship placement as a Publishing Assistant at Peter Lang, an academic publishing house which publishes widely across the humanities, arts, and social sciences. As is customary for Publishing Assistants, my roles and responsibilities varied day to day, but were largely concentrated on contributing to the administration of the Peer Review process, finding the best possible academics to assess the quality and suitability of book proposals across a wide range of subject areas including Central European History, Trauma Psychology, Comparative Linguistics, Existential Philosophy, Business and Management Studies, and Ecofeminist Theory. As well as contributing to some more ongoing data management and communication-focused tasks throughout the placement, towards the second half of the placement I was also able to work more closely with the Editorial Team, collaborating with a number of Peter Lang’s Acquisition Editors on a one-to-one basis by (for instance) conducting market research on devising new lists for Peter Lang’s portfolio, assisting in conference preparation, and producing consultative reports on proposals during the initial suitability review process.
Whilst admittedly I was somewhat nervous at first that the remote nature of my placement would restrict my ability to get to know my team due to the lack of “water cooler” time, Peter Lang did an excellent job of creating (and following through on) a culture of frequent and open communication which was really helpful in making up for any lack of in-person contact. Along with casual, “no work allowed” catch-up calls with my teammates, I was also able to attend and contribute to bi-weekly team meetings, and was even invited to a company-wide strategy meeting during my first week, which all helped me feel connected to both my team and to the wider company. Peter Lang was also very supportive in providing training (both in the form of a week-long onboarding, and in lots of process documentation) and were great in actively asking for my opinions and input, which gave me the confidence to work with teammates to devise, create, and implement new resources for streamlining and assisting the day-to-day work of Publishing Assistants within the company. All in all, I felt very welcomed and was treated like any other Publishing Assistant. The DTP was also excellent in providing support and advice (via email and video call) both during the setting up of the placement, and the internship itself.
I hugely enjoyed my time at Peter Lang, and was able to sharpen some pre-existing skills within a new context as well as develop a number of others. I would strongly advise OOC DTP students to undertake a placement, and to take the first step in simply reaching out to companies which they would like to contribute to and gain experience with – people are often very willing to discuss, and – as I experienced with Peter Lang – are very invested in making sure placements are as supportive and generative as possible.
