After a lengthy review, the MAA Ad Hoc Committee on Publication Prizes has produced this report detailing recommended revisions to the general procedures, submission process, and eligibility criteria. At its meeting in March, the Council approved these recommendations and the MAA website has now been updated in accordance with the new policies and procedures.
The MAA is extremely grateful to the members of the Ad Hoc Committee for this important and impactful work:
Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study)
Roland Betancourt (Univ. of California, Irvine)
Brigitte Buettner (Smith College)
Lisa Fagin Davis (Medieval Academy of America)
Jesse Hurlbut (Independent Scholar)
Michelle Hamilton (Univ. of Minnesota)
Ruma Salhi (Northern Virginia Community College)
The goal of this review was to ensure that all eligibility requirements are consistent and appropriate, to better serve authors (in particular independent and early-career scholars for whom these awards are a critical compenent of application, promotion, and tenure dossiers), and expand the pool of eligible authors and publications. In addition, the establishment of a single Publication Prize Portal will greatly simplify the adjudication and administration of these Prizes. In all cases, the Committee considered the history and purpose of the prize and revised criteria as necessary in order to better serve the Prize’s purpose. Specific changes to particular prizes are explained below.
1. General criteria:
Through its Publication Prize program, the Medieval Academy of America aims to accomplish three goals:
1) Honoring and promoting outstanding scholarship produced by medievalists;
2) Supporting authors in any medieval field and at all career levels by raising the visibility of their scholarship;
3) Acknowledging the work of publishers of all kinds.
Award-winning publications scholarship should function as a model of current best practices in Medieval Studies and as a model for the future of the field.
Although the various Prizes have specific eligibility criteria, general procedures and requirements are as follows:
1) In contrast to past years, authors of submitted books need not be members of the Medieval Academy of America.
2) All prize winners will receive a complimentary one-year MAA membership in addition to the prize.
3) All publishers are eligible, whether non-profit or for-profit.
4) Nominations may be submitted by authors or by publishers, but all submissions must use the central Publications Prize Portal. Please note that incomplete or late submissions will not be considered.
5) Ordinarily a nomination should go forward in a single category for a given year. Authors and publishers should contact the Executive Director LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org for queries about exceptions to this policy.
6) Monographs that have previously been awarded an MAA Publication Prize are not eligible for other MAA Publication Prizes except for the Haskins Medal.
7) Submissions may be by hardcopy and/or eBook.
8) All submissions and supporting documents must be received by 15 October.
9) Prizes will be announced in February and awarded during the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America.
10) Authors need not be residents of North America, but all submissions must be written in English.
- Eligibility Criteria:
2a. Monograph Prizes:
John Nicholas Brown Prize: Best First Monograph
1) Submission is the author’s first monograph;
2) Submission is eligible in the third year after publication (i.e. books published in 2023 are eligible for the 2026 Brown Prize, although in order to not exclude books during this transition year, books published in 2022 will also be considered);
3) Dossier may include up to three published reviews, although these are no longer mandatory.
Justification: These changes will better serve ECRs by awarding the Prize earlier in the author’s career, assisting with job searches and promotion. The change from mandatory reviews to optional will lower the barrier for books that might not have been reviewed by the time the book is eligible.
Karen Gould Prize: Best Medieval Art History Monograph
1) Submission is eligible in the fourth year after publication (i.e. books published in 2022 are eligible for the 2026 Gould Prize, although in order to not exclude books during this transition year, books published in 2021 will also be considered);
2) Dossier must include two or three published reviews.
Justification: The change from three years to four makes this Prize consistent with the Singerman Prize criteria.
Haskins Medal: Best Monograph in Medieval Studies
1) Submission is eligible in the second through the sixth year after publication (i.e. books published between 2020 and 2024 are eligible for the 2026 Haskins Medal)
2) Dossier must include two or three published reviews
3) Previously-submitted but still-eligible monographs should NOT be resubmitted, as they are already in the pool of nominated books.
Jerome Singerman Prize: Best Second Monograph
1) Submission is the author’s second monograph
2) Submission is eligible in the fourth year after publication (i.e. books published in 2022 are eligible for the 2026 Singerman Prize);
3) Dossier must include two or three published reviews.
2b. Article Prizes
Article Prize in Critical Race Studies: Best Article in the field of Medieval Critical Race Studies
1) Submission is eligible in the second year after publication (i.e. articles published in 2024 are eligible for the 2026 CRS Prize)
2) Authors may only submit one article per year.
Justification: These changes will better serve authors by awarding the Prize earlier in the author’s career, assisting with job searches and promotion. Because the Prize is specifically honoring content, a CV is no longer required.
Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize: Best Early-Career Article
1) Submission was published and nominated within five years of the author receiving or anticipating their PhD, although a complete PhD is not required.
2) Authors may only submit one article per year.
Justification: Because of the pressure on graduate students to publish as early as possible, “first articles” are no longer necessarily substantial enough to be award-worthy. By expanding eligibility to an early-career article, authors will have more flexibility to determine which of their articles they wish to submit for consideration.
2c. Other Formats
Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize: Best DH Project
1) Dossier includes three assessments, which may be published reviews or recommendation letters.
2) The nominated project must be open-access and currently available online.
3) There are no date-of-launch restrictions for eligibility.
Justification: These changes will lower the bar to entry, expanding the pool of eligible projects.
Monica Green Prize: For an exceptional project (for example, a publication, exhibit, performance, or DH project) that shows the importance of studying the medieval past to understand the present.
1) Dossier includes three assessments, which may be published reviews or recommendation letters;
2) There are no date restrictions for eligibility
Justification: These changes will lower the bar to entry, expanding the pool of eligible projects.
