The Medieval Academy Blog

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I hope that you have had a pleasant summer! If you are anything like me or most of my colleagues, you are greeting the fall with a mix of astonishment at the rapid passage of time, and happy/apprehensive anticipation of cooler weather and the return of students (for those who teach) and the fuller fall slate of cultural and/or sports events.

I will write with news about Academy activities after the fall Council Meeting. I should also at that point be able to provide an update about the search for the next editor of Speculum, which is proceeding apace. For now, I am happy to report that the Centennial Grants Committee received an impressive number of exciting applications for educational and cultural activities related to the upcoming centennial year celebrations.

I also have the sad task of informing you of the loss of a beloved longtime member, Fellow, and Past President of the MAA (2010-2011). As many of you already know, Peggy died on August 8, peacefully, in her own home, having said goodbye to friends and family. She will be missed and warmly remembered by generations of scholars in the U.S. and Europe. There will be a full memorial to Peggy in a forthcoming issue of Speculum, and I know that several events honoring her life and work are being planned in various venues. I myself will miss Peggy dearly. She was a remarkable scholar, a fierce critic, and the warmest and most caring mentor and friend anyone could have. I was able to visit her a few days before she died; she held my hand and, waving aside questions about her health, steered the conversation toward medieval history in general, and the Medieval Academy in particular. I know that she would urge us all to continue to work, to collaborate, and to care for each other.

I wish everyone (in the U.S. that, is) a happy Labor Day and fine fall!

Sara Lipton

Medievalism Uncloistered: Bringing Underrepresented Voices into the Conversation

(a webinar sponsored by the MAA Graduate Student Association)

Friday September 27 at 1pm EST

The Middle Ages often evoke images of academia’s exclusive domain, yet the richness of medieval studies can be greatly expanded through dialogue with those outside traditional academic circles. This webinar will explore how engaging with diverse communities — across educational, cultural, and social spectrums — can deepen our understanding of the medieval world and its influence on our present moment. Our speakers will share their experiences working with varied publics whose diverse interests and backgrounds demand genuinely novel approaches — through prison education, social media, podcasting, and modern archives. They will discuss how these interactions have not only broadened their own perspectives but also enriched the field of medieval studies. Join us to learn how expanding our conversation partners through new modes of engagement can lead to more inclusive and dynamic scholarship.

Speakers: Jon Correa-Reyes (Clemson; The Multicultural Middle Ages), Stefanie Matabang (UCLA), Olivia Swarthout (Weird Medieval Guys), and Mary Wellesley (London Review of Books)

Click here to register.

The Medieval Academy of America invites submissions for the following prizes to be awarded at the 2025 MAA Annual Meeting. The Medieval Academy warmly encourages the nomination of publications written by scholars working beyond the tenure track as well as those written by faculty. Unless otherwise indicated, submissions are to be made by the publisher. If your project, monograph, or article is eligible, please contact your publisher and ask them to nominate your work. Submission instructions vary, but all dossiers must complete by 15 October 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: PDF review copies of nominated books may be submitted instead of hardcopies (PDFs should be emailed to the Executive Director). In addition, the residency restrictions limiting eligibility for some book prizes to residents of North America have been lifted.

John Nicholas Brown Prize
Awarded to a first monograph of outstanding quality in the field of medieval studies.

Article Prize in Critical Race Studies
Awarded annually to an article in the field of medieval studies that explores questions of race and the medieval world, and which is judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality.

Digital Humanities Prize
Awarded to an outstanding digital research project or resource in the field of medieval studies.

Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize
Awarded to a first article of outstanding quality in the field of medieval studies.

Karen Gould Prize
Awarded to a monograph of outstanding quality in medieval art history.

Monica H. Green Prize
Awarded to an exceptional project that demonstrates the value of medieval studies in our present day.

Haskins Medal
Awarded to a distinguished monograph in the field of medieval studies.

Jerome Singerman Prize
Awarded to a meritorious second monograph in the field of medieval studies.

The Medieval Academy of America invites applications for the following grants. Please note that applicants must be members in good standing as of September 15 in order to be eligible for Medieval Academy awards.

Schallek Fellowship

Funded by the Richard III Society, American Branch. As of July 2024, the scope and amount of the Schallek program have changed in accordance with the Society’s instructions, as follows: “Applications will be solicited from graduate students whose work, in any relevant discipline, focuses primarily on the late medieval period in England or any of the British Isles, or which involves British connections to the European Continent in the late medieval period. ‘Late Medieval’ will be defined broadly as the period c.1350-1500 or so.” The Schallek Fellowship provides a one-year grant of $40,000 to support Ph.D. dissertation research. (Deadline 15 October 2024)

Travel Grants

The Medieval Academy provides travel grants to help Academy members who hold doctorates but are not in full-time faculty positions, or are contingent faculty without access to institutional funding, attend conferences to present their work. (Deadline 1 November 2024 for meetings to be held between 16 February and 31 August 2024)

MAA/CARA Conference Grant

The MAA/CARA Conference Grant for Regional Associations and Programs awards $1,000 to help support a regional or consortial conference taking place in 2024. (Deadline 15 October 2024)

Supported entirely by donations from the Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America, the Fellows Fund supports two annual awards for members of the Medieval Academy who do not have access to research funding. Two awards of $5,000 will be granted annually to Ph.D. candidates and/or non-tenure-track scholars to support research in medieval studies. The awards will help fund travel and/or access expenses to consult original sources, archives, manuscripts, works of art, or monuments in situ. Applicants must be members of the Medieval Academy of America by Sept. 15 of the year in which they apply.

To apply for a Fellows Research Award, submit the application form and attachment by October 1, 2024. Awards will be announced at the 2025 Medieval Academy annual meeting. Click here for more information and to apply.

After three successful seasons, The Multicultural Middle Ages (MMA) will return for its fourth in 2025. Sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America, MMA is an anthology-style podcast that welcomes the global turn in Medieval Studies. This podcast series is a platform from which to continue ongoing conversations and generate new and exciting avenues of inquiry related to the Middle Ages that emphasize its diversity. We seek to highlight thoughtful reflections on culturally responsible approaches to the study of the Middle Ages. This is a space from which to speak to fellow medievalists and, more importantly, the wider public to inform our audience about the multicultural reality of the medieval period and the plurality of voices that comprise the fields of medieval studies.

We invite proposals from individuals and collaborators of all ranks and disciplines, including graduate students, for single podcast episodes aimed at fellow medievalists and the wider public.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Innovative methodological/disciplinary approaches to the Middle Ages
• The future of Medieval Studies
• Research on the multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic Middle Ages
• Discussions of recent scholarship
• Archival discoveries
• Academic activism and responses to misappropriations of the Middle Ages
• Pedagogical approaches
• Medievalisms
• Medieval culture in contemporary political discourse
• Cultural heritage and approaches to curating exhibitions of the Middle Ages

Possible formats may include narrative expositions, interviews, textual analysis, visual analysis, oral performances, and panel discussions.

No previous experience with podcasting is required. The Graduate Student Committee of the MAA has hosted several podcasting workshops, which are now available on the MAA YouTube channel. If accepted, an MMA team member will support you through the episode development process and post-production. If you would like our technical assistance to realize your episode, such as facilitating an interview, helping record the episode, or taking care of the audio editing, please make a note of it in your proposal.

Your application should include a brief description (500 words) of your proposed episode, noting the following:

• The chosen topic and its relevance;
• the plan for adapting the topic to a podcast medium (we encourage 40-50 min. episodes, but also welcome proposals for shorter or longer episodes);
• the episode format (interview, narrative, etc.) with an overview of its structure
• a description of the support you’ll need (if any) from the MMA production team.

This information is not binding but will help the committee assess the potential of the project. Please include the name and CV of each author. Submit your proposals and any questions to mmapodcast1@gmail.com and to Loren Lee (lel7qsf@virginia.edu) by October 11, 2024.

The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast Series Production Team

Will Beattie | wbeattie@nd.edu
Jonathan Correa Reyes | jonatcr@clemson.edu
Loren Lee | lel7qsf@virginia.edu
Reed O’Mara | rao44@case.edu
Logan Quigley | quigleylogan@gmail.com

Several MAA members have recently been awarded major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities:

Helen Davies (Univ. of Colorado, Colorado Springs), Illuminating the Past: A Summer Institute on Multispectral Imaging and Cultural Heritage Preservation

Amanda Madden (George Mason Univ.) et al., La sfera (The Globe): A Late Medieval World of Merchants, Maps, & Manuscripts.

Dot Porter (Univ. of Pennsylvania), VCEditor 2.0 Project

Marina Rustow (Princeton Univ.), Indian Ocean Documents from the Cairo Geniza

Monica H. Green has been elected an Associate Member of Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society (https://www.sigmaxi.org/).

Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis is the subject of a lengthy profile in the September issue of The Atlantic. The article can be freely accessed here until 12 September.

If you have good news to share, please contact the Executive Director.