Since 2023, the University of Chicago Press has been proud to participate in the South Side Science Festival, a yearly event that brings STEM research to the families of Chicago’s South Side. Along with representatives from across the University of Chicago’s divisions, members of the press volunteer at the festival, displaying our books, sharing information about academic publishing, and talking to children and parents about the joy of learning science. We are honored to #TeamUP with our colleagues to bring new ideas and activities to the festival every year, and to #TeamUP at the event with our community neighbors on the South Side.

In 2025, the festival welcomed approximately 4,300 visitors, more than half of whom were from the South Side of Chicago. Our booth this year featured many of our science journals, including American Naturalist, The Biological Bulletin, Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology, and Freshwater Science, as well as dozens of our science books, with an emphasis on kid-friendly material. We also hosted a DIY button press, featuring hand-drawn designs of native Chicago wildlife done by one of our colleagues.

The festival allows us to share the importance of academic publishing with the broader Chicago community, and to hear from young people who love science. “I think it’s an excellent way for press staff to step out and get a good feel for the importance and impact of our work,” says James Ellis, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Plant Sciences and the press staff member who first launched our participation with the festival. “Volunteers come away feeling psyched about what we do.” We look forward to continuing to exhibit at the South Side Science Festival and continuing to make connections between our work and the people of our community.