The Medieval Academy Blog

Because we cannot greet each other in person this spring or summer, the Medieval Academy has been busily developing, hosting, and promoting scholarship in a digital environment. Development of the Database of Medieval Digital Resources is ongoing, with a streamlined vetting and cataloguing process that will see resources entered into the database in a much more efficient manner. The 2020 Annual Meeting and the ongoing series of MAA Webinars can be viewed on our website or on our YouTube channel. More content will be coming soon, so watch these spaces!

Dear Colleague,

We hope you are well and are staying safe.

In the present crisis, as a growing number of our medievalist colleagues find themselves facing financial precarity, job insecurity, and difficulty accessing research resources, your Medieval Academy membership matters more than ever.  Please renew by June 30 in order to avoid an interruption in your membership benefits.

With your help, the Academy increased its support of members in 2019, especially student, independent, and contingent scholars, through the numerous awards and fellowships offered annually. We have recently implemented programming in support of medievalists of color and of medievalists working in various professional contexts, and we are working to improve the representation of the Middle Ages in K-12 classrooms. As we work towards a more expansive Middle Ages, we are also working to build a more inclusive Medieval Studies. We sincerely hope that you will renew your valued membership in the Academy as we continue this work in 2020.

The combination of the dramatic recent downturn in the stock-market and an anticipated decrease in dues revenue will directly and significantly impact the MAA’s budget. If you are able to renew your membership for 2020, please do. Your membership dues will directly help us continue to award grants and fellowships in 2020 and beyond; keep dues at a lower level for independent, contingent, unemployed, and retired medievalists; and expand our programming.

You can easily pay your dues and/or make a donation through the  MAA website where, after you sign into your account, you can also adjust your membership category if necessary. Please consider supplementing your membership by becoming a Contributing or Sustaining member or by making a tax-deductible donation. In order to make membership more affordable for those in financially precarious circumstances, we have recently revised our dues structure.

You may also wish to remember the Academy with a bequest as a member of our Legacy Society (for more information, please contact the Executive Director).
When you renew, please take a few minutes to update your profile page so that members with similar interests can find you, and you can find them. You can also check a box to indicate your interest in serving on a Medieval Academy committee or reviewing for Speculum. Your profile page now includes an option to indicate gender and racial/ethnic identity. This information will not be visible to other members, but it will help the Academy immensely as we strive to increase our understanding of member demographics and work to improve diversity and inclusivity in Medieval Studies. If you have forgotten your username and/or password, please contact us for assistance.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to working with you in 2020 and hope to see you at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Stay safe –

Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, President
Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

p.s. if you have already renewed, please ignore this message and accept our thanks!

We are very pleased to announce that the 2020 MAA Publication Subventions have been awarded to: Athi Andronikou, Italy, Cyprus, and Artistic Exchange  (Cambridge University Press) and Joyce Hendrickson, Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa (Harvard University Press).

Jonathan Fruoco has been awarded an MAA Travel Grant to present a paper titled “Geoffrey Chaucer et la plurivocalité urbaine” at the Moscow conference, “‘Littérature urbaine’: une donnée culturelle médiévale ou un concept de l’histoire littéraire contemporaine?”

Our congratulations to Mary Carruthers (F ’96), who has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

If you have good news to share, please send it to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis (LFD@themedievalacademy.org)

Although Boston is slowly reopening, the MAA Staff will continue to work from home through at least the end of August. In the meantime, we recommend that you contact us by email instead of by phone. We hope you are all well, and we look forward to greeting you in person when it is safe to do so.