- Master of Publishing
- Admissions to the MPub Program
- Masters Courses
- PUB 600: Topics in Publishing Management
- PUB 601: Editorial Theory and Practice
- PUB 602: Design & Production Control in Publishing
- PUB 603: Journal Management and Editing
- PUB 604: Technologies and Infrastructure for Academic Publishing
- PUB 605 Fall Project: Books Publishing Project
- PUB 606 Media Project
- PUB 607: Publishing Technology Project
- PUB 611: Making Knowledge Public: How Research Makes Its Way Into Society
- PUB 631: Graphic Design: The Page and the Screen
- PUB 638: Design Awareness in Publishing Processes and Products
- PUB 648: Publishing and Social Change: Tech, Texts, and Revolution
- PUB 655: Online Marketing for Publishers (4)
- PUB 800: Text & Context: Publishing in Contemporary Culture
- PUB 801: History of Publishing
- PUB 877: Special Topics in Publishing
- PUB 802: Technology & Evolving Forms of Publishing
- PUB 899: Publishing Internship
- PUB 900: Internship Project Report
- Faculty and Staff
- Awards and Financial Support
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Undergraduate Minor
- Undergraduate Courses
- PUB 101: The Publication of Self in Everyday Life
- PUB 131: Publication Design Technologies
- PUB 201: The Publication of the Professional Self
- PUB 210W: Professional Writing Workshop
- PUB 212: Public Relations and Public Engagement
- PUB 231: Graphic Design Fundamentals
- PUB 331: Graphic Design in Transition: Print and Digital Books
- PUB 332: Graphic Design in Transition: Print and Digital Periodicals
- PUB 350: Marketing for Book Publishers
- PUB 355W: Online Marketing for Publishers
- PUB 371: Structure of the Book Publishing Industry in Canada
- PUB 372: The Book Publishing Process
- PUB 375: Magazine Publishing
- PUB 401: Technology and the Evolving Book
- PUB 410: Indigenous Editing Practices
- PUB 411: Making Knowledge Public: How Research Makes Its Way Into Society
- PUB 431: Publication Design Project
- PUB 438: Design Awareness in Publishing Process and Products
- PUB 448: Publishing and Social Change: Tech, Texts, and Revolution
- PUB 450: The Business of Book Publishing
- PUB 456: Institutional and International Event Planning
- PUB 458: Journalism as a Publishing Problem
- PUB 477: Publishing Practicum
- PUB 478: Publishing Workshop
- PUB 480 D100: Buy the Book: A History of Publication Design (STC)
- PUB 480 OL01: Accessible Publishing (OLC)
- Undergraduate Courses
- Workshops
- General Information and Cancellation Policy
- Travel and Accommodation
- Financial Assistance
- Publishing Workshops
- Contact SFU Publishing Workshops
- Research
- News & Events
- Contact
John Maxwell
Education
BA, MPub, PhD (UBC)
Biography
John Maxwell is interested in how technological change impacts book and periodical publishing, in the history of publishing, and in the emergence of digital forms, genres, and mythologies.
John has been working on the Web since 1993. Since that time, he鈥檚 been working on content management strategies, electronic publishing, SGML & XML, learning technologies, virtual communities, and reflecting on the history of all that and more. John was a member of the first Master of Publishing cohort at SFU in 1995/96.
After working on distance learning technology at the BC鈥檚 Open Learning Agency through the late 1990s, he did his PhD in Curriculum & Instruction at the University of British Columbia, where his research focused on the cultural history of personal and educational computing at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.
John has taught in the Publishing Program at SFU since 2001, and served as Director of the program from 2014 to 2023. Currently, he teaches the MPub seminar PUB 800: Publishing and the Problem of Capitalism; the project-based PUB 607: Digital Publishing Workshop; and the undergraduate foundation course PUB 101: Publication of Self in Everyday Life.
John鈥檚 current research involves digital publishing technologies, the evolution of scholarly communications, open scholarship, and, most recently, the digitization of SFU Library鈥檚 16th century Aldine Collection
John is almost a BC native (he was born east of the Rockies but has lived on the coast most of his life). He鈥檚 married with a couple of grown kids, one large dog, and a very fluffy cat.
Research Interests
Technology, Digital Media, History of Publishing, History of Technology, Content Management, Policy, Copyright.
Selected Publications
Maxwell, John W. 2022. "The Care-ful Reviewer: Peer Review as if People Mattered" Pop! Public. Open. Participatory. No 04.
Maxwell, John W. 2020. 鈥淭ext Processing Techniques & Traditions: Why the History of Computing Matters to DH鈥� in Doing Digital Humanities 2: A Companion Volume. ed by by Richard J. Lane, Raymond Siemens, and Constance Crompton. Routledge.
Maxwell, John W, et al. 2019. 鈥淢ind the Gap: A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms.鈥� MIT Press/Knowledge Futures Group. DOI: 10.21428/6bc8b38c.2e2f6c3f
Maxwell, John W, Alessandra Bordini, & Katie Shamash. 2017. 鈥淩eassembling Scholarly Communications: An Evaluation of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation鈥檚 Monograph Initiative.鈥� Journal of Electronic Publishing 20 (1), April, 2017.
Courses
Fall 2025
Future courses may be subject to change.