Roxanne Goldberg
Academic Editing
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* Penholder and reed pen from the gun set of Mahmud I, ca. 1732 (Ottoman), gilded silver, reed tip, emeralds (or beryls), rubies (or spindels), 14.3 x 0.9 cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 51.87. Robert S. Pardo, Istanbul; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1903; by bequest to the Walters Art Museum, 1931. Public domain.
About me.
I'm an academic editor who specializes in substantive/developmental editing and line editing in art and architectural history. I take great pride and joy in collaborating with authors to produce lucid and engaging texts with convincing arguments. I enjoy the unique challenges of tenure monographs and specialist journal articles as well as cross-over books and museum catalogues aimed at wider audiences. I am additionally experienced in collaborating with editors on multi-authored works.
My clients' books have been published or are currently under contract with the American University in Cairo Press, Brill, Double Day/Viking, Edinburgh University Press, and Indiana University Press.
I am a trained art historian (MIT PhD '25) with museum experience in Islamic and contemporary art. My research has primarily focused on aesthetic theory and questions of value and social belonging in relation to the cultural brokers who introduced Islamic art to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (e.g., missionaries, diplomats, design theorists, dealers).
Seated man painting or writing, first half of 17th century (Safavid), ink and opaque watercolor on paper, 11.2 x 8.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986.183. Adrienne Minassian, New York; sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchased with the Fletcher Fund, 1976. Public Domain.
Academic editing.
Do you have a first draft? What about a dissertation you're ready to turn into a book? Has an acquisition editor suggested you work with an outside editor?
As a developmental editor, I thoroughly assess early drafts at the manuscript and chapter level for argument, structure, narrative, and voice. Authors tend to find my specific, strategic suggestions for restructuring and rewriting the most valuable aspect of this critical feedback.
Has your book been accepted for publication? Congrats!
As a line editor, I edit your manuscript at the sentence and paragraph level for style, grammar, syntax, and usage. I also address clarity, narrative flow, and argument logic.
Are you planning an edited volume?
I am especially skilled at line editing multi-authored works and providing targeted feedback for volume coherence.
Other services include proofreading, fact checking, and editing notes, bibliographies, and/or figures.
Regardless of the type of editing that your project needs, our work together always begins with an in-depth conversation about your goals for the manuscript.
I adopt the position of your ideal reader and simultaneously aim to be the person, after the author, who is most knowledgeable of the ins and outs of the manuscript.
I genuinely love working with academic authors and promise to approach your writing with the same meticulous care as I do my own.
Costs.
I price on a sliding scale and take into account an author's accessibility to financial resources. For an idea of typical editing costs, see the Editorial Freelancers Association rate chart and rate estimator.
If you are unsure whether you can afford editing, I urge you to send me an email. Editing is an essential part of the academic ecosystem, and I feel strongly that scholars with contingent or teaching-intensive appointments or in "alt-ac" roles should have equitable access to high-quality editing.
Kind words.
Working with Roxanne was one of the best decisions I made for my book. Every step of the way she was professional, attentive, diligent, and also very thoughtful and creative. Her comments were clear and judicious throughout. I appreciated how well she understood the argument, which in turn enabled her to provide insightful commentary and helpful suggestions for structure and word choice. I felt very much in safe hands from start to finish, which took a great deal of pressure off me. I am delighted with the end result and so was the press.
Heba Mostafa, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Architecture of Anxiety, Body Politics and the Formation of Islamic Architecture (Brill, 2024)
October 2025. Currently . . .
Dissertation-to-book developmental edit for a historian of Islamic art and photography
Manuscript edit (line editing + proofreading) of a Festschrift
Availability: Get in touch with me now about your winter (November–February) projects.
"Visual Cultures of Giving In and Around the Calouste Gulbenkian 'Charity' Papers," Calouste
Gulbenkian Conference in Art History, "Artistic Networks of Trust: Collecting and Dealing in Times of War and Diplomacy," Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, October 8–10.
See the conference program and live stream information here.
Editorial Freelancers Association, International Chapter Meetup, Frankfurter Buchmesse.
Join us on October 17 at 11:00 at Café Giardino, Hall 5.0!
Robert Walser, The Walk and Other Stories, translated by Christopher Middleton (Serpent's Tail, 2013)
Sarah Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh University Press, 2004)
Suzanne Duchamp, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
Jehnny Beth, Bogen F, Zurich
Editing.
Presenting.
Organizing.
Reading.
Seeing.