The Medieval Academy Blog

The 2019 Annual Meeting (University of Pennsylvania, 7-9 March) was a great success, with more than 500 attendees, four plenary sessions, more than 200 papers, receptions at the Penn Museum of Art and Archaeology and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, hands-on workshops, pop-up manuscript exhibits, and more. The full program, which was centered on idea of “The Global Middle Ages,” is available here.

The opening plenary, “Interconnection and Separation: Medieval Perspectives on a Modern Problem,” was delivered by Nora Berend (University of Cambridge), who charged the attendees to think carefully about the use of the term “Global Middle Ages.” MAA President David Wallace (University of Pennsylvania) focused his plenary lecture on Medieval Studies in the 1930s, discussing the work of medievalists in Europe and in the United States and considering how their work reflected the time in which they lived and foreshadowed the uses (and mis-uses) of medieval history and narrative then and now. The Fellows’ Plenary was delivered by Father Columba Stewart (Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), and St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary), who spoke movingly and powerfully about the critical work being carried out by HMML to digitize, preserve, and protect ancient libraries in the Middle East and other war-torn regions of the world.

Newly-inducted Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America (L-R, T-B): Sara Lipton, Susan Mosher Stuard, Amy Remensnyder, Walter Pohl, Thomas Kelly, Celia Chazelle, Linne Mooney, and Keith Busby

In the CARA plenary roundtable “Working in the Middle: Writing the Global Medieval Textbook,” five scholars presented their work on a forthcoming textbook that will introduce students to a wider view of what we mean when we talk about the Middle Ages – broadening the traditional scope of European medieval studies to include Africa, Byzantium, the Middle East, India, the Mediterranean, and Asia. The K-12 Committee session addressed questions of how K-12 educators can participate in these globalizing efforts. The Graduate Student Committee and the Inclusivity and Diversity Committees’ joint session “MOC (Medievalists of Color), Graduate Students, and Race: Classes We Teach, Classes We Take” addressed the importance of developing curricula that are both expansive and inclusive, and the necessity of outreach to and mentoring of students of color.

Mentoring was a thread that ran throughout the conference, with several dozen mentoring pairings arranged by the Graduate Student Committee and a new event on Friday morning, a Mentorship Reception co-sponsored by the Inclusivity and Diversity Commitee and by the Graduate Student Committee. We hope to continue to host this event in the future. The annual meeting of the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) took place on Sunday morning and was attended by more than forty CARA delegates, each of whom was there representing their program or department. The morning began with a roundtable that continued the valuable discussions of the previous days, “Taking Up the Global Challenge: Expanding the Purview of Medieval Studies–Questions, Solutions, Innovations.”

The Annual Meeting was supplemented by a graduate student workshop centered on digitized manuscripts; several “pop-up” manuscript exhibits curated by graduate students; five hands-on workshops; and a lightening-round session showcasing more than a dozen digital humanities projects.

We are extremely grateful to Lynn Ransom, Julia Verkholantsev, the Program Committee, the graduate student volunteers, and the University of Pennslvania staff for their work in organizing and implementing such a splendid meeting. We look forward to seeing you at UC Berkeley next year!

The Council of the Medieval Academy held its annual meeting on Thursday morning, March 7, and, among other items of business, considered the report of the Centennial Committee. With the submission of a final report and list of recommendations, the Centennial Committee has completed its charge and has been formally dissolved. We are all extremely grateful for their three years of hard work and valuable service. A variety of Centennial Committee recommendations will be considered by the Council annually for the next several years and will be publicly announced if and when they are approved.

By-Laws Changes: Based on Centennial Committee recommendations, several changes to the By-Laws were approved and will be implemented over the course of the next year. The specifics will be announced in the coming months.

Support for Independent, Contingent, and Academic-Adjacent Scholars: The Council adopted a Position Paper composed by Laura Morreale and others laying out the issues facing medievalists who are, by choice or necessity, not employed as full-time faculty. The Position Paper proposes a visionary way forward. The Council has charged President Ruth Mazo Karras with the formation of an Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Pathways to study the issue and propose a series of recommendations to the Executive Committee and Council over the course of the next year. In the coming months, you will hear much more about this initiative to support our colleagues who are independent, contingent, or academic-adjacent.

The 95th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley on 26-28 March 2020. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Medieval Academy of America, the Program in Medieval Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Medieval Association of the Pacific. The Call for Papers is online here. Submissions are due on 1 June.

As always, the Medieval Academy of America will have a strong presence at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo (May 9-12).

1) The Friday morning plenary, sponsored by the Medieval Academy, will be delivered by Bissera V. Pentcheva (Stanford University), “Icons of Sound and the Exultet Liturgy of Southern Italy” (Session 151, Friday, 8:30 AM, Bernhard, East Ballroom). Two related sessions organized by Prof. Pentcheva will take place on Friday at 1:30 PM (Session 236) and 3:30 PM (Session 294). Both sessions will take place in Sangren 1750.

2) On Friday at 3:30 PM, the Graduate Student Committee is sponsoring a roundtable titled “Stepping into the Professions: Tips on Navigating a Variety of Career Paths for Medievalist Graduate Students and Early Career Scholars” (Session 285, Fetzer 2016). The GSC reception will take place immediately afterwards in the same room.

3) On Thursday at 1:30 PM, the Committee for Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) is sponsoring a roundtable on “Teaching a Diverse and Inclusive Middle Ages” (Session 58, Fetzer 1005).

4) The annual CARA Luncheon will take place on Friday at noon (Bernhard, President’s Dining Room). We hope you will attend as a representative of your institution, center, program, or institution. There is no fee to attend, but pre-registration is required. All are welcome! Click here to register.

5) Finally, we invite you to stop by our staffed table in the exhibit hall to introduce yourself, transact any Medieval Academy business you may have, or pick up some chocolate to keep you going during those long afternoon sessions.

See you at the ‘Zoo!