The Medieval Academy Blog

What Makes Great Medieval Associations?
CARA on Zoom, Tuesday May 13th, 1pm-2pm EST

The MAA’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations invites you to join us for a panel discussion by leaders of groups across the US and Canada on “what makes our association great?” Please join us as five leaders of medieval associations in the US and Canada discuss what makes theirs energizing, productive, and rewarding. We will address a number of issues as well as the personal challenges and rewards that come from supporting different medieval associations. We invite all to the conversation, which will include time for whole-group discussion. Topics include questions of membership, sustainability, finances, value, outreach, regionality (or not), mentoring, and hopes & dreams for the future.

Panelists
Katherine Bezio (Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association)
Natalie Grinnell (Southeastern Medieval Assocation)
Heather Maring (Medieval Association of the Pacific)
Shannon McSheffrey (Canadian Society of Medievalists)
Montserrat Piera (Delaware Valley Medieval Association)

Moderator
Virginia Blanton (Mid-America Medieval Association, CARA Executive Committee)

Click here to register.

The Medieval Academy Book Subvention Program provides two subventions of up to $2,500 each to university or other non-profit scholarly presses to support the publication of first books by Medieval Academy members. Click here for more information.

The Medieval Academy Inclusivity and Diversity Book Subvention Program provides one subvention of up to $5000 to university or other non-profit scholarly presses to support the publication of a book by a Medieval Academy member that will broaden the scope of medieval studies. Projects that focus on non-European regions or topics under the Inclusivity and Diversity Committee’s purview such as race, class, disability, gender, religion, or sexuality are particularly welcomed. Click here for more information.

Applications for subventions will be accepted only from the publisher and only for books that have already been approved for publication. Eligible Academy members who wish to have their books considered for a subvention should ask their publishers to apply directly to the Academy, following the guidelines outlined on the relevant webpage. The deadline for proposals is 1 May 2025.

The MAA/CARA Summer Tuition Scholarships support graduate students and especially promising undergraduate students participating in summer courses in medieval languages or manuscript studies.* Applicants must be members of the Medieval Academy in good standing with at least one year of graduate school remaining and must demonstrate both the importance of the summer course to their program of study and their home institution’s inability to offer analogous coursework. Click here for more information.

*Please note that the MAA will soon open application portals for three Summer Skills Workshops to be run under its own auspices (in Old French, Latin Paleography, and Medieval Latin). These workshops are heavily subsidized and will therefore not be eligible for MAA/CARA Tuition Scholarships.

Gregory Carrier

I would like to thank the Medieval Academy of America for this award of the Inclusivity and Diversity Research Grant in support of my doctoral dissertation on the life and thought of Herman of Reichenau, a severely disabled scholar from the eleventh century. Scholars have thoroughly examined Herman’s significant contributions to eleventh-century intellectual thought; Herman’s disability and what he and his contemporaries thought of it has not received the same level of attention. The grant will support a summer visit to Reichenau Abbey, particularly the additional expenses I incur as a deaf-blind scholar. At the abbey where Herman spent his adult life, I plan to examine how disability was viewed on the island in the eleventh century. I plan to pay particular attention to the Church of St Georg, a tenth-century church near the abbey containing a fresco cycle depicting Christ’s various healings of disabled people in the Gospels. Herman and the other abbey residents would have been familiar with this church and its frescoes, which hints at a broader religious and social context of ideas about disability in southern Germany during the tenth and eleventh centuries, and thus contribute to the growing diversity of research undertaken in medieval studies.

It’s not too late to book a guest lecture through the Medieval Academy Centennial Speaker Series! Twenty-one MAA Fellows are available to give subsidized and/or free talks and lectures at venues around North America, either in-person or on Zoom. These Fellows have proposed a variety of potential talks for both general and specialized audiences. It is an exciting list, and a fitting way to celebrate the Centennial of the MAA, as well as a means of supporting the Humanities in these challenging times. This series is aimed primarily at venues where scholarly talks from medievalists are not an everyday occurrence.

The University of Missouri – Kansas City recently took advantage of this opportunity by welcoming Patrick Geary to campus as part of a two-day symposium. Organizer Virginia Blanton sent this report:

“I am writing to report on the absolutely fantastic visit this week of Patrick Geary to UMKC. It was such a wonderful two days of great conversation about medieval history, grant-writing, ideal software, team-building, and more. Patrick’s lecture was a huge success, with faculty and students from across the campus. I was so excited that two UMKC geneticists from Biology and two bone researchers from our dental school were present and had interesting questions. Patrick was incredibly generous with his time and ideas, meeting with students and with our Digital and Public Humanities faculty. Out of all of this, I was able to meet one of my great heroes whose work on the cult of the saints shaped my own and offer him the chance to see that we are doing some interesting DH and manuscript research in our small corner of the world. So thank you to MAA, CARA, and the Fellows for making this program possible. I am really very grateful.”

Click the link below for more information and to learn how your institution can take advantage of this unique opportunity as well!

https://www.medievalacademy.org/general/custom.asp?page=CentennialSpeakerSeries

2026 Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting:
Consortiums and Confluences
Call for Papers

The 101st annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on March 19–21, 2026 on the campuses of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College, and will also include events at Mt. Holyoke College and Smith College. Hosted by the Five College Consortium, the theme of the meeting is “Consortiums and Confluences.” The program will bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds addressing the medieval world and critical topics in Medieval Studies. Our plenary lectures will be given by Elly Truitt (Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania), Peggy McCracken (Incoming President of the Medieval Academy of America and Professor of French, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan), and Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco (Augustus R. Street Professor of Spanish & Portuguese and Comparative Literature at Yale University). We are excited to welcome you to Amherst, MA, and its environs, and look forward to meeting you, learning from you, and celebrating our shared commitment to Medieval Studies.

Click here for more information and the full Call for Papers.