News, Webinars, and Opportunities for Mutual Aid

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Chris

From The Bibliographical Society of America:

    • BSA will offer five free, forty-minute webinars Monday, March 23 through Wednesday, April 2. Please find a complete list of online learning opportunities below, and spread the word to your friends and colleagues. Registration required, scroll down for details.
    • Webinar recordings will be posted to our YouTube channel. Created to meet a need of our time, we hope that these will be lasting resources for you, your colleagues, and students.
    • We are working with Dr. Megan L. Cook of Colby College to publish a static version of her crowd-sourced list of digital repositories for teaching book history on our website. Check bibsocamer.org on Monday for an update.
    • Calling all BSA-member-librarians and power users of digital repositories! Are you interested in remotely pairing up with an educator who has moved their course online, and needs help finding subject-specific digital collections? Contact me directly at erin.schreiner@bibsocamer.org to volunteer. This should be a relatively small time commitment.
    • In light of the current situation, we must cancel the 2020 Community Grants Program. ​We will redirect those modest funds to anyone who cannot volunteer their time but would like to lead a webinar or other virtual activity. We recognize that many BSA members will face financial difficulties during this uncertain time, and hope that this small gesture demonstrates our goodwill and support for our community.
    • The call for proposals for programs scheduled for October – December 2020 remains open, with the original April 15 submission deadline. The Program Committee is proceeding with cautious optimism, and we remain firm in our commitment to sponsoring all events committed to for 2020.
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Text for Teaching and Research Exchange

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Chris

In the hopes of bringing the community of medievalists together as many of us move online, a working group comprised of Sara McDougall, Merle Eisenberg and Laura Morreale, with the help of the Haskins Society, is creating an online Teaching and Research Exchange entitled “Middle Ages for Educators.” Before we put the site together, however, we want to determine what is most needed from our MedievALList colleagues (medievalists in any professional placement). We have compiled the following survey to help with that effort: https:/tinyurl.com/u59mn6v. We are interested in both what is needed, and what you as a medievalist would be willing to contribute; we have already had generous offers to share pdfs, to host 5-10 minute introductions to primary sources, and to serve as remote guest speakers in digital classrooms. Medievalists are a generous group indeed.

We are asking whether you would fill out the questionnaire to let us know your needs and competencies, and if you could also circulate it to interested medievalists. According to your wishes, we may also reach out to you for further participation once you have completed the survey, but our most urgent goal is to determine what we can do to facilitate co-operation and mutual aid within our community.

Our twitter hashtag is #middleagesforeducators

Merle Eisenberg, Postdoctoral Fellow, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) University of Maryland
Sara McDougall, Associate Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York
Laura Morreale, Independent Scholar

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Virtual Annual Meeting Program

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Chris

95TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MEDIEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
VIRTUAL VERSION, MARCH 27-29, 2020

The virtual Annual Meeting will include the Presidential Plenary
(delivered by Ruth Mazo Karras), eleven sessions,
the annual Business Meeting, and the annual CARA Meeting.

Click here for the program.

Pleas note that Zoom links for individual sessions will be added in the coming days.

We hope you will join us!

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MAA 2020 Refunds and Update

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Chris

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are well, safe, and doing what you need to do to protect yourselves and your community. The MAA office is closed until further notice, but we are all working from home and are healthy and safe.

Online Annual Meeting
We are in the process of planning an open online Annual Meeting for those participants who indicated interest in presenting their work in a live, online format. Some presenters have elected to defer their papers for special consideration by the 2021 Program Committee. Others have decided to retract their presentations so that they can present their work elsewhere. Several of our plenarists have opted to post recordings of their lectures. As a result, the online conference will consist of eleven sessions, the Presidential Plenary, and the annual Business Meeting. The online conference will take place one week from today, on 27-28 March. Please stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

Refunds
We appreciate your patience as we work with our colleagues in Medieval Studies at UC Berkeley to untangle the complicated finances of our Annual Meeting. Although we do not yet have the complete financial picture, we have decided to go ahead and offer full refunds immediately to anyone who needs one, in particular to graduate students, contingent and independent scholars, retirees, and anyone who has found themselves in financial precarity due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak.
If you do not need a refund, please consider donating all or part of your registration fee to help us offset the losses that will be incurred by the Medieval Academy as a result of the cancellation of the Annual Meeting. Your tax-deductible donation will help us to proceed in a responsible fashion that both supports those in need and stewards resources that would normally be earmarked to support the Medieval Academy’s members, including those likely to be hit hardest by the impact of COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months.

If you would like a refund or would like to donate your registration fee, please use this form to indicate your preference: 
 
https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/MAA2020Refunds

If you would like a refund eventually but don’t need it immediately, please wait until you hear from us again before submitting the form. Right now, this form is for those who need their refund as soon as possible or who know they would like to turn their registration fee into a donation.

In the current climate, your membership is more important than ever. If you haven’t renewed for 2020, you may do so on our website:
https://www.medievalacademy.org/members/membership.asp

Finally, if you did not register for the Annual Meeting but would like to make a donation to the Medieval Academy, please click here:
https://www.medievalacademy.org/donations/fund.asp?id=6844
I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Program Committee Chairs Maureen Miller and Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, the 2020 Program Committee, event planner Helena Weiss-Duman, and the MAA Staff and Governance for their hard work and support during these last few weeks.

Please stay safe, and I look forward to seeing you at MAA 2021.

– Lisa

Lisa Fagin Davis
Executive Director, Medieval Academy of America
LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org

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Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Chris

Northern Arizona University has a student population of 31,073, including approximately 23,000 on its main campus in Flagstaff and the remainder at more than 20 locations statewide and online. While our emphasis is undergraduate education, we offer a wide range of graduate programs (such as an MA in Literature) and research. Our institution has carefully integrated on-campus education with distance learning, forming seamless avenues for students to earn degrees. Flagstaff has a population of about 70,000, rich in cultural diversity. Located at the base of the majestic San Francisco Peaks, Flagstaff is only a few hours from the Grand Canyon and 140 miles north of Phoenix. The university is committed to a diverse and civil working and learning environment.

More information is available on the Human Resources site at NAU at Careers@NAU.

Lecturer of English in Ancient and Medieval Literature: Job ID 604929

The Northern Arizona University Department of English seeks applicants for the position of lecturer in Ancient and Medieval Literature. Duties include teaching four courses per semester such as Ancient and Medieval literature, British literature surveys, comparative literature, digital humanities, poetry, or other literature courses. Additional professional development, research, and service expectations will be determined in consultation with the Chair of English. The successful applicant is expected to teach on-campus and also develop and teach courses for web delivery. This is a non-tenure track, benefit-eligible lecturer position in the English Department, located on the Flagstaff, AZ campus. Review of applications will begin on April 7, 2020.

Lecturer of English in Shakespeare Studies: Job ID 604937

The Northern Arizona University Department of English seeks applicants for the position of Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies. Duties include teaching four courses per semester including surveys, Shakespeare, and other literature courses such as poetry or drama. Additional professional development, research, and service expectations will be determined in consultation with the Chair of English. The successful applicant is expected to teach on-campus and also develop courses for web delivery. This is a non-tenure track, benefit-eligible lecturer position in the English Department, located on the Flagstaff, AZ campus. Review of applications will begin on April 7, 2020.

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Now Accepting Applications for Rare Book School, Summer 2020!

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Chris

Expand your understanding of book history during a Rare Book School course this summer. There are still some seats available!

Among our thirty-eight courses, we are pleased to offer several pertinent to those involved in the study of rare books, manuscripts, special collections, and librarianship in special collections. The following is a sample of the breadth of the RBS offerings:

– B-75: American Publishers’ Bindings, 1800–1900, taught by Todd Pattison (Conservator for the New England Historic Genealogical Society)
– H-105: The Bible and Histories of Reading, taught by Peter Stallybrass (of the University of Pennsylvania)
– H-140: The History & Culture of the Tibetan Book, taught by Benjamin J. Nourse (of the University of Denver)

Applications are currently being reviewed on a rolling basis. Visit our website at www.rarebookschool.org for course details, instructions for applying, and evaluations by past students. Contact us at rbsprograms@virginia.edu with questions.

We at RBS hope that the School will be open for classes as usual this summer, with courses running in Charlottesville and at our partner institutions as planned. We are, of course, monitoring the news regarding the COVID-19 virus and understand that authorities cannot yet predict how far the disease will spread and to what extent, or for how long, normal activities may be interrupted. If you are admitted to a course, please know that we are offering a full refund (including the normally non-refundable deposit) in the event that you are unable or unwilling to attend due to the virus. If you would like to see more details regarding this plan, please visit https://rarebookschool.org/news/rare-book-school-and-covid19/.

Please share this information with colleagues, students, and friends.

We hope to see you at Rare Book School soon!

With kindest regards,
The RBS Programs Team

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Register by April 9 for the GSC Mentorship Program at Kalamazoo

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Chris

DEADLINE TO REGISTER AS A MENTOR OR MENTEE:
April 9

*Please note that if Kalamazoo is cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be running the mentorship program digitally. Please visit 
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress for more information about the status of Kalamazoo 2020.

The Graduate Student Committee (GSC) of the Medieval Academy of America invites those attending the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies, hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University (7-10 May 2020) to participate in the GSC Mentoring Program.

The GSC Mentoring Program facilitates networking between graduate students or early career scholars and established scholars by pairing student and scholar according to discipline.

Mentorship exchanges are intended to help students establish professional contacts with scholars who can offer them career advice. The primary objective of this exchange is that the relationship be active during the conference, although mentors and mentees sometimes decide to continue communication after a conference has ended.

To volunteer as a mentor (faculty, librarians, curators, independent scholars) or to sign up as a mentee, please submit the online form, linked here, by 9 April 2020.

On behalf of the committee, thank you and our best,
Austin Powell & Julia King
2020 Mentoring Program Coordinators

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MAA2020 at UC Berkeley

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Chris

Dear Colleagues,

In response to the developing situation with COVID-19, the Chancellor of UC Berkeley, Carol Christ, has today prohibited large meetings scheduled to take place on campus before March 31, 2020. As a result, it is necessary for us to cancel the upcoming physical meeting of the Medieval Academy at UC Berkeley, scheduled for March 26-28, 2020. This is a painful decision: our diverse and richly interdisciplinary program brings together scholars at various stages in their careers. And the program bespeaks the energy and collaboration of many colleagues from institutions throughout northern California. But the health and safety of our participants and of the community at large are paramount.

The Academy and the Program Committee are working on the possibility of mounting a virtual conference to allow papers, lectures, and discussion to take place via Zoom. We will have further information for you soon about participating in a virtual conference.

As you will have read in a message earlier today from Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis, the leadership of the Academy is in active consultation about the possibility of at least a partial refund of registration fees.

This is a frustrating and concerning time for all of us. We appreciate your patience as we take the many necessary steps involved in cancelling the Berkeley meeting of the Medieval Academy.

On behalf of the Program Committee,

Maureen C. Miller, Co-Chair
Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, Co-Chair

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MAA 2020 and COVID-19: Latest Update

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Chris

Dear Colleagues,

COVID-19 continues to bring uncertainty to all of us. Some of you who have registered for the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America may be unable to attend, whether because you are particularly vulnerable to the virus or are a caregiver for someone who is, or simply because the risk of travel at this time is not something you want to take on.

At the same time, however, we still hope that the conference can take place. Our colleagues at UC Berkeley and others on the program committee have put in a great deal of effort to come up with an excellent program of sessions and events, and many people have worked very hard on their presentations. It is our intention at this point to hold the conference.

Many institutions, including universities, are currently banning large meetings. If UC Berkeley, or the city of Berkeley or the state of California, decide to do so, we will of course comply and cancel the meeting. We hope that if this is to happen we will know by the end of this week, but in any case we will let you know immediately.

We plan to offer at least a partial refund of registration fees for those who cannot attend, or for all registrants if the event is cancelled. The exact amount of that refund must wait to be determined until we know which contracts can be reduced or cancelled. Some expenses have already been incurred during the multi-year planning process.

Thank you very much for your patience. This is a very worrying situation for all of us. We hope to know more soon.

Sincerely yours,

Ruth Mazo Karras, President
Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director
Maureen Miller, Program Co-Chair
Katherine O’Brien O’Keefe, Program Co-Chair

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2020-2021 Schoenberg Institute Visiting Research Fellowships

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Chris

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is accepting applications for its 2020-2021 Visiting Research Fellowship program. Guided by the vision of its founders, Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, SIMS aims to bring manuscript culture, modern technology, and people together to provide access to and understanding of our shared intellectual heritage. Part of the Penn Libraries, SIMS oversees an extensive collection of premodern manuscripts from around the world (https://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren), with a special focus on the history of philosophy and science, and creates open-access digital content to support the study of its collections. SIMS also hosts the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (https://sdbm.library.upenn.edu/) and the annual Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (http://www.library.upenn.edu/about/exhibits-events/ljs-symposium).

The SIMS Visiting Research Fellowships have been established to encourage research relating to the premodern manuscript collections at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, including the Schoenberg Collection. Affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, located near other manuscript-rich research collections (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Science History Institute, and the Rosenbach Museum and Library, among many others), and linked to the local and international scholarly communities, SIMS offers fellows a network of resources and opportunities for collaboration. Fellows will be encouraged to interact with SIMS staff, Penn faculty, and other medieval and early modern scholars in the Philadelphia area. Fellows will also be expected to present their research at Penn Libraries either during the term of the fellowship or on a selected date following the completion of the term.

Applicants can apply to spend 1 month (minimum of 4 work weeks) at SIMS between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. Applications are due May 15, 2020. For more information and to apply, please visit: https://schoenberginstitute.org/visiting-research-fellowships-2/

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