The Medieval Academy Blog

Like many of you, we’ve just returned from another splendid International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo. Speculum Editor Sarah Spence, Associate Editor Agnieszka Rec,  Assistant Editor Laura Ingallinella, and Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis all enjoyed chatting with current and potential members at our table in the exhibit hall. We are particularly pleased to welcome the new members who benefited from our annual “Fifty Free” program, in which we give away fifty one-year introductory MAA memberships at Kalamazoo.

The Friday morning plenary, sponsored by the Academy, was delivered to a large crowd by Sara Ritchey (Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville), who spoke on “‘Salvation is Medicine’: The Medieval Production and Gendered Erasures of Therapeutic Knowledge.” The lecture was introduced by Monica Green (Arizona State Univ.) and was live-Tweeted by Margie Housley (Univ. of Notre Dame) here: https://goo.gl/SbgnZ4. The two related sessions were also well-attended, expanding on themes introduced in Prof. Ritchey’s lecture.

Three distinguished journal editors offered tips on publication to a room full of graduate students and advisors during a session organized and moderated by the MAA Graduate Student Committee: “Meet the Editors: Tips and Techniques on Article Submission for Graduate Students (A Roundtable).” Sarah Spence (Speculum), Michael Cornett (Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies), and Chris Africa (Medieval Feminist Forum) helped reframe the publication process as one of collaboration and conversation. They reminded the room that all journals have a niche, a mission, and a specific audience that graduate researchers should keep in mind when crafting manuscripts. The best way to learn about these aspects of the journal, of course, is to read recent issues! They also advised graduate students to know the current state of the field, to position their arguments within the discourse, and to have a candid conversation with their advisor about whether the piece is ready for submission. Lastly, they reaffirmed the basics: Be professional in all your communications and proofread! Thanks again to all the panelists and to those who attended for helping to facilitate conversation between graduate student writers and editors. (with thanks to GSC Chair Theodore Chelis (Pennsylvania State Univ.) for this summary)

The Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) sponsored two panels this year that fostered discussion about issues of concern in educating and training of both undergraduate and graduate students. The first panel, “The 21st-century Medievalist: Digital Methods, Career Diversity, and Beyond,” featured four medievalists at various stages of their careers who spoke on the question of what it means to be, or to train our students to be, medievalists in our current environment. With the competing demands of learning new digital methods, training for a job market that reaches far beyond the academy, and worrying about widespread attacks on the humanities, it can sometimes feel like a difficult time to be or to train students to become scholars of the premodern world. On the other hand, new technologies are opening up new questions and approaches to sources, the focus on global history broadens our medieval horizons, and there is a growing openness about the various career paths medievalists can follow. The speakers on this panel addressed both the challenges and the opportunities facing our field, and in particular how both teaching and using digital methods are transforming the work we do as premodernists. The full room of audience members participated in an active and productive discussion. The second panel, entitled “Teaching a Diverse and Inclusive Middle Ages,” featured three speakers who shared their experiences and tactics in trying to engage undergraduate students in a broader definition and understanding of the Middle Ages, beyond the image of a monolithically heterosexual, white, Christian, European society that remains prevalent among the general public and many students alike. The session was very well-attended and advanced an important conversation about how students can be taught about the diversity of the premodern world in a way that responds to student needs and interests. (with thanks to organizer Sarah Davis-Secord (Univ. of New Mexico) for this summary)

The annual CARA (Committee on Centers and Regional Associations) Luncheon enjoyed a record attendance of more than forty delegates who participated in discussions of practical topics such as budgeting, fundraising, libraries, public advocacy, and improving medieval studies in K-12 curricula. If you would like to participate in the networking and advisory opportunities afforded by CARA, please join us at the annual CARA Meeting (on the Sunday after the MAA Annual Meeting) and at the CARA luncheon at the ICMS in Kalamazoo.

If you’re going to be at the Leeds International Medieval Congress this year, please join us Wednesday evening (4 July) at 7 PM in the Ruper Beckett Theatre for the Medieval Academy of America Annual Lecture:

Anne D. Hedeman (Univ. of Kansas.), “History and Visual Memory in the Library of King Charles V of France.”

Afterwards, join Prof. Hedeman and MAA staff members for the Medieval Academy’s open-bar wine reception.

The Medieval Academy’s Graduate Student Committee is sponsoring a reception on Monday (2 July) at 6:30 PM in the Beechgrove Room in Unversity House. The GSC roundtable, “The Academic Work-Life Imbalance: Tips and Techniques for Managing Graduate School and Your Personal Life,” will take place on Tuesday at 7 PM in Room 1.03, Maurice Keyworth Building.

We hope to see you there!

The 94th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place in Philadelphia on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, from 7-9 March 2019. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Medieval Academy of America, Bryn Mawr College, Delaware Valley Medieval Association, Haverford College, St. Joseph’s University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University.

The Global Turn in Medieval Studies: Medievalists across various disciplines are taking a more geographically and methodologically global approach to the study of the Middle Ages. While the Organizing Committee invites proposals for papers on all topics and in all disciplines and periods of medieval studies, this year’s conference spotlights the “global turn” in medieval studies. To this end, we encourage session and paper proposals that treat the Middle Ages as a broad historical and cultural phenomenon, encompassing the full extent of Europe as well as the Middle East, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, and beyond.  We also invite proposals that explore departures from traditional teleological discourses rooted in national interests, ones that apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary methods to study a broad array of subjects.

The full  call for papers is available here.

The Medieval Academy of America seeks to appoint an Editor for Speculum.  The position is configured as part-time, requiring around 25 hours per week. The Editor is appointed for an expected five-year term, subject to acceptable yearly performance reviews, with the possibility of a second five-year term by mutual agreement. The editor should be an established scholar with academic credentials in some field(s) of medieval studies, broadly defined, with good organizational and decision-making skills. Experience in journal or book editing will be helpful but not necessary. The new editor should plan on taking office in the late Spring of 2019, and at the latest by July 1, 2019. Terms and conditions are to be negotiated, as is the physical location of the Editor.

Applications should be sent to the MAA by July 30, 2018. There will be electronic interviews in Fall 2018 and interviews with finalists in early December, 2018. Cover letters may be addressed to MAA President David Wallace, Chair of the Search Committee. In addition to a curriculum vitae, the cover letter should include ideas about future directions for the journal, and discussion of how s/he envisions setting up the position, either in the MAA office, now in Cambridge, MA, or by moving the operation to a university campus. If the latter, s/he will describe possible institutional support. The search committee wants to identify the best pool of candidates, and the MAA is willing to be flexible in finding ways to accommodate the various modes of professional life encountered in the searching process. However, wherever the ultimate location of the Editor, there will need to be access to a major research library and to graduate students who can be hired for assistance. Candidates should also include the names and email addresses of three scholars who can speak to the candidate’s editorial experience and scholarship; these references will only be contacted for long-listed candidates. The MAA President would be happy to respond to immediate questions about the duties involved, but candidates should also consult the fuller description of duties posted on the Academy website. The MAA also encourages nominations for the position, and there is a place to submit these on the website as well; all nominees will be sent a letter encouraging application.

For additional information, contact:
EditorSearch@TheMedievalAcademy.org

Click here for a full job description and to apply.

Click here to submit a nomination.

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 MAA/CARA Summer Scholarships, supporting student participation in summer courses in medieval languages or manuscript studies:

Stacie Leigh Beach(University of Tennessee, Knoxville), studying epigraphy at the American Academy in Rome;

LauraLee Brott (University of Wisconsin-Madison), studying “A History of Maps and Mapping” at the London Rare Books School;

Lindsay Corbett (McGill University), studying Byzantine Greek at Bogazici University in Istanbul;

Rachel Pei Hirsch (University of Michigan), studying Mughal Persian at AISS-Lucknow, University of Göttingen;

Coral Lumbley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), studying Welsh at Aberystwyth University;

Amanda Marie Racine (Fordham University), studying Classical Arabic at the Qasid Arabic Institute, Amman, Jordan;

Jack Christopher Wiegand (University of Toronto), studying Paleography and Codicology at the University of New Mexico.