The Medieval Academy Blog

The Medieval Academy of America is proud to announce the launch of the MAA Database of Medieval Digital Resources (MDR).

MDR is a curated WordPress database of peer-reviewed online resources for the study of the Middle Ages. The database is designed to help students, teachers, researchers, and the general public navigate the potentially overwhelming number of online resources by directing users to trusted, vetted sites. Users can browse an alphabetical list or search using controlled-vocabulary subject tags to find vetted online resources of many types: imagebanks; bibliographies and reference works; pedagogical tools; editions and translations; music and other multimedia collections; interpretative websites; and new works of digital scholarship. Please note that in order to ensure that all medievalists have access to recommended resources, the database will not include those that are paywalled or require password access, although some resources may have restrictive use-licenses. The Database can be accessed from the Resources tab of the Medieval Academy of America website.

Recommended resources are vetted for inclusion in MDR by at least two experts (usually a subject specialist from the Speculum Review Editorial Board and a member of the MAA’s Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Committee) with reference to the rigorous Standards for Web Publication developed several years ago by the Medieval Academy’s Digital Initiatives Advisory Board (active from 2013-2017). Every resource, no matter who is responsible for creating it or how well-loved it may already be, must go through the same vetting process. No resource will be included until and unless it has passed muster with MAA reviewers. This rigorous process ensures that all users – K-16 educators, undergraduate and graduate students, independent scholars, curators, librarians, researchers, developers, and the general public – can use the database with confidence. By the same token, developers of approved resources may wish to tout their site’s inclusion in the database by adding the MDR logo (contact the Executive Director for more for information about the MDR logo and its use).

The Medieval Academy of America gratefully acknowledges the many digital humanists and medievalists who have contributed to this effort. The data model was developed by Maryanne Kowaleski (Fordham Univ.), Lisa Bitel (Univ. of Southern California), and MAA Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis, with input from the Digital Initiatives Advisory Board and the Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Committee. The website and search engine were developed by Morgan Kay of WP Alchemists.

MDR currently includes more than 130 resources and is growing daily. If you do not see your favorite resource(s) in MDR, please submit a Suggest a Resource form; do not contact the Medieval Academy directly. For general comments or questions, or to report any errors or other problems, please fill out the Feedback Form.

The Database of Medieval Digital Resources is a work in progress, and we welcome your feedback and recommendations.

The Medieval Academy of America is currently accepting self-nominations for vacancies opening up on the Graduate Student Committee (GSC) for the 2018-2020 term. The GSC comprises six members appointed for a two- year term on a rotating basis. There are three openings to be filled. Self-nominations are open to all graduate students, worldwide, who are members of the MAA and have at least two years remaining in their program of study.

The GSC represents and promotes the participation of graduate student medievalists within the MAA and the broader academic community. In addition to fostering international and interdisciplinary exchange, the GSC is dedicated to providing guidance on research, teaching, publishing, professionalization, funding, and employment, as well as offering a forum for the expression of the concerns and interests of our colleagues. Our responsibilities, thus, include organizing pre-professionalizing panels and social events annually at ICMS Kalamazoo, the MAA Annual Meeting, IMC Leeds, and biennially at ANZAMEMS. We also run a successful and popular Mentorship Program that pairs graduate students with faculty to discuss any aspect of our profession such as teaching, publishing, finding a successful work/life balance, maneuvering the job market, and more. In addition, we seek to bring together graduate students through virtual communities such as the growing Graduate Student Group on the MAA website, Facebook, Twitter, the med-grad listserv, and a regular newsletter.

GSC members are asked to attend the Committee’s annual business meeting at Kalamazoo for the duration of their term and to communicate regularly with the group via email and Skype. Ideal applicants are expected to work well both independently and as part of a team in a collaborative environment. Previous experience with organizing conference panels and social events, as well as facility with social and digital media are not required, but may be a benefit.

Interested applicants should submit the following by January 15, 2019:

– The Nomination Form

– A brief CV (2 pages maximum) uploaded as part of the Nomination Form;

– A recommendation letter from your faculty advisor, sent to the Executive Director of the Medieval Academy by mail or as a PDF attachment (on letterhead with signature), to LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org.

New members will be selected by the Committee on Committees (in consultation with the current GSC) and confirmed by the Council of the Medieval Academy at the 2019 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, 7-9 March. If you have any questions, please contact us at gsc@themedievalacademy.org.

Click here to apply.

Are you interested in attending the 2019 Medieval Academy Annual Meeting (University of Pennsylvania, 7-9 March 2019) but need some financial assistance to get to Philadelphia? The GSC has re-allocated a portion of its annual budget to offer graduate student travel bursaries of $200-300 to support attendance at the conference. To apply, you must be a graduate student member of the Medieval Academy and explain why attendance at the meeting is important to your research. The Annual Meeting program is online here. Apply here by January 15.

N.B.: This travel funding is for students who are NOT presenting at the meeting but would like to attend.

Belle Da Costa Greene Award (deadline 15 February)
Applications are now being accepted for the inaugural Belle Da Costa Greene Award supporting research by medievalists of color.

The Belle Da Costa Greene Award of $2,000 will be granted annually to a member of the Medieval Academy of America for research and travel. The award may be used to visit archives, attend conferences, or to facilitate writing and research. The award will be granted on the basis of the quality of the proposed project, the applicant’s budgetary needs (as expressed by a submitted budget and in the project narrative), and the estimation of the ways in which the award will facilitate the applicant’s research and contribute to the field. Special consideration will be given to graduate students, emerging junior scholars, adjunct, and unaffiliated scholars. Click here for more information. Click here to make a donation in support of the Greene Award.

Olivia Remie Constable Award (deadline 15 February):
Four Olivia Remie Constable Awards of $1,500 each will be granted to emerging junior faculty, adjunct or unaffiliated scholars (broadly understood: post-doctoral, pre-tenure) for research and travel. Click here for more information.

MAA Dissertation Grants (deadline 15 February):
The nine annual Medieval Academy Dissertation Grants support advanced graduate students who are writing Ph.D. dissertations on medieval topics. The $2,000 grants help defray research expenses. Click here for more information.

Schallek Awards (deadline 15 February):
The five annual Schallek awards support graduate students conducting doctoral research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500). The $2,000 awards help defray research expenses. Click here for more information.

MAA/GSC Grant for Innovation in Community-Building and Professionalization (deadline 15 February):
The MAA/GSC Grant(s) will be awarded to an individual or graduate student group from one or more universities. The purpose of this grant is to stimulate new and innovative efforts that support pre-professionalization, encourage communication and collaboration across diverse groups of graduate students, and build communities amongst graduate student medievalists. Click here for more information.

Applicants for these and other MAA programs must be members in good standing of the Medieval Academy. Please contact the Executive Director for more information about these and other MAA programs.

The Medieval Academy Book Subvention Program provides grants of up to $2,500 to university or other non-profit scholarly presses to support the publication of first books by Medieval Academy members. The deadline for proposals is 1 May 2019.

Click here for more information.

The Medieval Academy of America invites proposals for panels at the 2020 meeting of the American Historical Association in New York City, January 3-6.

Each year the Medieval Academy co-sponsors with the AHA several sessions at this meeting that are likely to be of particular interest to MAA members and general interest to a broader audience.

There is a two-stage process:

1) Members of the Medieval Academy submit draft session descriptions to the MAA’s AHA Program Committee by emailing them to the committee co-chairs, Professor Celia Chazelle (chazelle@tcnj.edu) and Laura Smoller (laura.smoller@rochester.edu) by January 20, 2019. Descriptions should include the session title, session abstract, paper titles, names and affiliations of the organizer, presenters, and (if relevant) respondent. Individual paper abstracts are requested but not required. Guidelines for sessions and submitting proposals can be found on the AHA website here.

2) If the session proposal is approved by the MAA AHA Committee, the organizer submits the proposal directly to the AHA (using their on-line system) before the deadline of February 15, 2019, indicating that the session has the sponsorship of the Medieval Academy of America.

Please note that only sessions approved by the AHA Program Committee will appear as sponsored by the MAA and AHA on the program and that the MAA does not independently sponsor sessions.

The 2019 MAA/CARA Conference Grant has been awarded to the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities for the 17-19 October 2019 conference “Premodern Food Cultures” under the direction of Michelle M. Hamilton. The MAA/CARA Conference Grant supports regional or consortial medieval studies symposia. Click here for more information.

The year 2019 has begun, and it is time to renew your membership in the Medieval Academy of America for the current year if you have not already done so. You must be a member in good standing to apply for grants and fellowships given out by the Academy, to speak at the Medieval Academy Annual Meeting, or to participate in its governance.

Membership brings other benefits, such as:

– a subscription to Speculum, our quarterly journal
– online access to the entire Speculum archive
– access to our online member directory
– publication and database discounts through our website

Other memberships perquisites are listed here.

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 as part of your end-of-year giving. Your gift helps subsidize lower membership rates for student, contingent, and unaffiliated medievalists and also supports our grant-making programs.

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).

With your help, the Academy increased its support of members in 2018, especially student, independent, and contingent scholars, through the numerous awards and fellowships offered annually. We sincerely hope that you will renew your valued membership in the Academy as we continue this work in 2019.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to working with you in 2019 and hope to see you at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy in beautiful Philadelphia (March 7-9).

Click here to renew.

David Wallace, President
Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

Congratulations to these Medieval Academy members, recent recipients of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities:

Abigail Balbale (Bard Graduate Center): NEH Fellowship for “Memory, Genealogy and Power in al-Andalus: A Study of Rex Lupus, Medieval Islamic Ruler in Southern Spain,” a book-length study about Rex Lupus, a twelfth-century Islamic ruler in southern Spain, and the ways in which his memory was used by future Christian and Muslim historians.

Thomas Barton (University of San Diego): NEH Fellowship for “The Christianization of Islamic Landscapes in Premodern Europe,” a book on the reestablishment of two bishoprics in southern Catalonia after the end of Muslim rule in twelfth-century Spain and the complex Christianization efforts in these contested multi-ethnic territories.

Angela Bennett (University of Nevada, Reno): NEH Fellowship for “Manuscript Orientations: Mediation, Meditation, and the Movements of Piers Plowman,” a digital publication that compares and analyses the over fifty manuscript versions of the Middle English poem Piers Plowman (ca. 1370-90).

Karen Desmond (Brandeis University): NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant for “Measuring Polyphony: An Online Music Editor for Late Medieval Polyphony,” the development of a prototype of an online music editor to help scholars and students analyze medieval music manuscripts.

Erik Inglis (Oberlin College): NEH Fellowship for “Objects of Memory: The Medieval Art Historical Imagination,” research and writing leading to publication of a book about medieval art and attitudes of medieval people toward art, from 600 to 1500.

Susan McDonough (University of Maryland, Baltimore County): NEH Fellowship for “Migration and Prostitution in the Medieval Mediterranean World,” archival research and writing of a book-length study on the legal and economic history of prostitutes and their migration patterns in major port cities of the medieval Mediterranean basin, Barcelona, Marseille, and Genoa.

Anne-Helene Miller (University of Tennessee, Knoxville): NEH Fellowship for “The Formation of a Francophone Identity in 14th Century Literature, ” research and writing leading to publication of a book on the development of fourteenth-century French literary culture.

Sara Ritchey (University of Tennessee, Knoxville): NEH Fellowship for “‘Salvation is Medicine’: Gender and the Caregiving Communities of Late Medieval Europe,” preparation of a book on medieval women’s medical knowledge and religion-based caregiving practices.

If you have good news to share, send it to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis for inclusion in the next Newsletter.