The Medieval Academy Blog

Dear Academy Members,

I hope Spring is bringing all of you the cheer of blossoms and of warmer days. I write hoping to encourage all of you—especially our female members—to consider submitting your work to Speculum.

Before the pandemic, roughly equal numbers of female and male medievalists offered articles to Speculum. However, from the onset of the COVID crisis in March 2020 through the end of 2021, a disturbing gender imbalance emerged. As Editor Katherine L. Jansen recently reported at the annual meeting, of the articles submitted over those twenty-two pandemic months, “only 90 (39%) were from women, while 143 (61%) were from men, revealing a gender disparity of almost 59%.” While the reasons for this disparity are complex, it seems reasonable to speculate that women medievalists, like career women more generally, have had their ability to work negatively affected by the pandemic, and in particular by care-giving duties.

Members of the MAA Council have informally discussed how the Academy might help all care-givers to get back to publishing their work, but I would be grateful to hear from those of you experiencing pandemic-related setbacks in research and writing: what kinds of assistance would make a difference for you?

In the meantime, I encourage every woman reading this who has a research article in preparation to submit it to Speculum. The journal also welcomes co-authored papers. Your scholarship is a gift to all of us.

Maureen C. Miller (mcmiller@berkeley.edu), President of the Medieval Academy of America

As always, the Medieval Academy of America will have a strong presence at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, taking place online from May 9 – 14.

1) The 2022 Medieval Academy Plenary Lecture will be delivered by Geraldine Heng (University of Texas at Austin), “An Ordinary Ship and Its Stories of Early Globalism,” on Tuesday, May 10 at 3:00 PM EDT. The lecture will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Heng. Two associated sessions on The Global Middle Ages will take place on May 11 at 5 PM EDT (Session 189) and 7 PM EDT (Session 205).

2) The MAA Graduate Student Committee is sponsoring a roundtable discussion on “Medieval Studies and the Community: Scholarship and Outreach” on May 11 at 5 PM EDT (Session 184). An informal gathering for graduate students will take place on May 9 at 7 PM EDT.

3) CARA (the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations) is sponsoring two roundtables: “Magistri et Artifices: Defining Excellence in the Medieval Studies Classroom” on May 9 at 3 PM EDT (Session 57) and “Insularity and Regionality in the Global Middle Ages” on May 12 at 3 PM EDT (Session 238).

Click here for more information. We hope to “see” you there!

98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America
The Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC
23-26 February, 2023

The 98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place at the Grand Hyatt Washington in downtown Washington, DC. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Medieval Academy of America and a consortium of medievalists from DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland.

The conference program will feature sessions highlighting innovative scholarship across the many disciplines contributing to medieval studies. The Program Committee invites proposals for papers on all topics and in all disciplines and periods of medieval studies and medievalism, including on the themes and strands proposed below. Any member of the Medieval Academy may submit a paper proposal; others may submit proposals as well but must become members in order to present papers at the meeting. Special consideration will be given to individuals whose field would not normally involve membership in the Medieval Academy. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions from those working outside of traditional academic positions, including independent scholars, emeritus or adjunct faculty, university administrators, those working in cultural heritage institutions (libraries, archives, museums, scholarly societies, or cultural research centers), editors and publishers, and other fellow medievalists. The Program Committee seeks to construct a program that fully reflects and expands the diversity of the Medieval Academy’s membership with respect to research areas and representation.

Plenary addresses will be delivered by Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor of Medieval Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Anne Dunlop, Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne; and Maureen Miller, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley, and incoming president of the Academy.

Click here for the full call for papers.

If you’re going to be at the Leeds International Medieval Congress this year, please join us on Tuesday, 5 July, 19.00-20.00 for the Annual Medieval Academy of America Lecture: Carol Symes (Dept. of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): “Médiévistes sans frontières – Shifting Medieval Boundaries at Multiple Scales”

Afterwards, join Prof. Symes and MAA governance and staff members for the Medieval Academy’s open-bar wine reception.

The Medieval Academy’s Graduate Student Committee roundtable, “Gatekeeping the Middle Ages: Accessing, Congrolling, and Disseminating the Medieval Past in the Modern World,” will take place on Monday, 4 July, from 19.00-20:00.

We hope to see you there!