The Medieval Academy Blog

As President Franklin reported in an e-mail message to you in June she has appointed, at the direction of the Council, a Centennial Committee with the goal of looking forward to the celebration of 100 years of the Academy in 2025 and beyond, into the next century of service for medievalists. My seven fellow committee members and I are to serve as a long-range planning committee. We are to think about the role of the organization in North American medieval studies, to lay out the best ways to aid members in the their work and to promote the study of the Middle Ages. Even though the first in-person meeting of the Committee will not take place until the 2017 annual meeting in Toronto, work is already well under way. Through electronic communication and a virtual meeting we have shaped a strategy for preparing recommendations to the Council, to be delivered to the Academy early in 2019. The three-year life span of the Committee is to allow for sober deliberation and, even more, to allow for extensive consultation with the membership.

The Committee has isolated areas of Academy activity to examine including, but not exclusively, the following topics: publications; the form of delivering those publications; the role of digital initiatives; identification of areas and specific programs that would benefit from Academy support, financial and otherwise; relationships with other learned societies in North America and beyond; the role and character of Academy meetings; the place of the organization in the public sphere; the effective operation of the Academy office; relations with universities and schools both primary and secondary; the pressures on early-career scholars; and the role of the Fellows within the Academy and beyond. The long list has already expanded during deliberations and discussions. It certainly could grow even more as the Committee explores the possibilities open and opening up for the Academy.

The Committee will also look at a renewed and ambitious understanding of the intellectual and institutional role for the organization. One central question is the degree to which the Academy should take a more active, even aggressive role in promoting the study of the Middle Ages at all levels in North America and how that might be done without diminishing the valuable service which it now provides. A second critical question is what will constitute medieval studies in the coming century, what will be the limits geographical, chronological and disciplinary. The scope of medieval studies has expanded dramatically since that meeting in 1925 at the Harvard Faculty Club which created the Academy as has the number of people interested in the period in its many facets. How the Academy should address that population and maintain and expand the membership are issues very much in the minds of Committee members.

Any report on the long-term trajectory of the Medieval Academy must rely heavily on the knowledge, experience and expectations of the members. We will consult as broadly as possible and invite anyone with thoughts about the future of the organization or on medieval studies in general and those with suggestions about other topics or issues that deserve our attention to please share those ideas with us at the Committee’s devoted e-mail address: MAA100@themedievalacademy.org. Members of the Committee will be contacting people who have been involved with work for the Academy in various roles, asking about their experience and suggestions for change. Anyone who has recently sat on an Academy committee or who has served as an officer is in danger of being approached; and although long experience is valued, we are equally interested in hearing from people who have recently joined. An organization devoted to interdisciplinarity even before the term was invented needs to retain that central attribute and the Committee would like to hear how that might be done. We are as interested in hearing constructive criticism as we are in knowing what you think works well. The website, a relatively new innovation for an institution approaching its one-hundredth birthday, is still evolving, and the Committee will find opinions about its effectiveness extremely useful. Please do not wait to send along your comments on this and other matters. There will also be a chance to express views more generally early in the new year, when we ask all members to respond to an electronic survey.

The Medieval Academy of America has been a valuable asset to the field, changing its character over the decades since its founding. The Centennial Committee anticipates finding ways for that to continue.   Success in creating a long-term plan will depend very much on information and assistance from fellow medievalists. All of us very much look forward to our contact with members and to producing a road map for the future of the Academy.

Richard W. Unger, Chair, Centennial Committee

On behalf of the Committee:

Patrick Geary (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
Anne Lester, CARA Chair (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)
Eugene Lyman, MAA Treasurer
Elizabeth Morrison (The Getty Museum)
Kathryn Reyerson (Univ. of Minnesota)
Barbara Shailor (Yale Univ.)
Nicholas Watson (Harvard Univ.)

Jerry Singerman (Liason with the Council, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press)
Lisa Fagin Davis (Ex-officio, Medieval Academy of America)

To the Members of the Medieval Academy,

I am pleased to announce the names of the Medieval Academy members who have generously agreed to stand for election to office in 2017:

President: Margot E. Fassler (Music History and Liturgy, Univ. of Notre Dame)
1st Vice-President: David Wallace (English and Comparative Literature, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
2nd Vice-President: Ruth Mazo Karras (History, Univ. of Minnesota)

Council (four seats available):
Suzanne Akbari (English, Univ. of Toronto)
Michael D. Bailey (History, Iowa State Univ.)
Elina Gertsman (Art History, CWRU)
Stacy S. Klein (English, Rutgers Univ.)
Sara Lipton (History/Judaic Studies, SUNY Stony Brook)
Therese Martin (Art History, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Spanish   National Research Council)
Stephen J. Shoemaker (Religious Studies, University of Oregon)
Andrea Tarnowski (French, Dartmouth College)

Nominating Committee (two seats available):
Eric Goldberg (History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Bernice M. Kaczynski (Religion, McMaster University)
Susan R. Kramer (History, Independent Scholar)
Eric Ramirez-Weaver (Art History, University of Virginia)

The list of candidates with their photos and brief biographies appears online here:

http://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/default.asp?page=2017Ballot

This year, for the first time, we have asked all of the candidates to submit a statement detailing their vision for the Academy and their reasons for wanting to participate in its governance. It is our hope that these statements will assist members in making informed choices about the governance of the Medieval Academy.

There are eight candidates for four openings on the Council, the governing body of the Academy. There are four candidates for two openings on the Nominating Committee, tasked with proposing candidates for the annual election. As is our practice, the slate of presidential officers is presented unopposed, although nominations by petition may be made as follows, in accordance with article 26 of the By-Laws:

Nominations of other members of the Academy for elected officers, Councillors, or members of the Nominating Committee may be made by written petition signed by at least seven members of the Academy. A nomination by petition may be for a single office, several offices, or an entire slate. Such petitions must be received by the Executive Director within twenty days of the circulation of the report of the Nominating Committee (article 25), unless the Council extends the period for making nominations by petition.

As the slate of candidates is being announced on 6 October, the closing date for nomination by petition has been set at 11:59 PM, 26 October 2016. Additional information about the governance of the Academy can be found here . My thanks to the 2016 Nominating Committee for their work in establishing this slate of candidates: Adam Cohen (Univ. of Toronto, Chair), Adam Kosto (Columbia Univ.), Brett Edward Whalen (UNC-Chapen Hill), Sean Fields (Univ. of Vermont), and Fiona Griffiths (Stanford Univ.).

Electronic balloting will open on 1 November. If you would like to receive a paper ballot and have not received one in the past, please contact me at LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org.

Voting in the Medieval Academy election is one of the most important means that members have to impact both the Academy and the future of medieval studies in North America. Please vote and let your voice be heard. I look forward to your participation in the election of the leadership of the Medieval Academy of America.

– Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

To the Members of the Medieval Academy,

The end of the year is now quickly approaching, and we encourage you to renew your membership in the Medieval Academy for 2017 as soon as possible. If you have not already paid your 2017 membership dues, please do so by 31 December 2016.

We hope you will renew your membership and support our worldwide community of more than 3,400 medievalists. The Academy’s mission is to foster the study of the Middle Ages at all levels throughout North America, a mandate reflected in our newly-codified Values Statement:

Membership in the Medieval Academy is open to all persons concerned with the study and teaching of the Middle Ages, including, but not limited to, independent scholars, secondary teachers, graduate students, curators, librarians, and college and university professors of all ranks and at all types of institutions. We aim to foster an environment of diversity, inclusion, and academic freedom for all medievalists. Further, we affirm the right of students and junior faculty to receive supportive, professional mentoring that respects their intellectual freedom and personal integrity.

Click here to renew online for 2017. You will need to sign in with your username and password; if you have forgotten either, please contact us at info@themedievalacademy.org. While you’re online, don’t forget to take advantage of the reduced subscriptions to several online bibliographies and the ACLS Humanities E-Book Library that are available to Medieval Academy members. We invite you to take this opportunity to explore our website and, after signing in with your username and password, update your personal homepage so that you can connect with other members with similar interests. Members can now use their personal MAA homepage to indicate an interest in being considered to serve on one of our committees or to review books for Speculum. In this way we hope to engage more members in our work.

Since the Medieval Academy is a membership organization not affiliated with any other institution, we rely on the income received annually from member dues to maintain our program of publications, awards, grants, and conferences.

We are pleased to report that in 2016, with your contribution, the Academy increased its support of members, especially graduate students, through the numerous awards and fellowships offered annually. Funds awarded to graduate students topped $100,000 this year, including the Olivia Remie Constable Awards, GSC/MAA Grant for Innovation, and the broadened MAA/CARA Summer Language Stipends program. In 2017, the Academy will also be able to offer increased support to the efforts of its numerous volunteer committees that are responsible for so much of the work of the Academy, from the Speculum boards to the many awards committees, from the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) to the Graduate Student Committee. We are doing all this while continuing to streamline administrative functions and expand digital offerings. As always, online access to the entire Speculum archive remains a perquisite of membership. In addition, members receive a 30% discount on all University of Chicago Press publications.

You can easily pay your dues through the MAA website. The dues and donations categories are outlined on the website with links you can follow for further explanation. If you have already renewed, thank you. If you are a Corresponding Fellow, an Honorary Life Member, or a Life Member, no dues are payable, but we hope that you will consider making a gift to the Academy here. We encourage all members to consider supplementing their membership by becoming a Sustaining or Contributing member or by remembering the Academy with a bequest as part of our Legacy Society. In addition, you may want to give a gift membership to a colleague or student; please contact us at info@themedievalacademy.org for more information.

If you prefer to renew by mail, our traditional paper membership form can be printed here.

As we begin preparing for our 2025 centennial, the Academy welcomes the opportunity to think about our mission for the future and how we can best serve our members and the greater community of medievalists. We look forward to your participation in this important process as a member of the MAA. We sincerely hope that you will renew soon and continue your valued membership in the Academy. Click here to renew.

Carmela Vircillo Franklin, President
Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

Applications for the two-year Postdoctoral Editorial Fellowship at Speculum are due Oct. 15, 2016.

The Speculum fellowship represents a significant fulfillment of one aspect of the Medieval Academy’s continuing efforts to recognize and support extraordinary medievalists in the early stages of their careers. We believe that after the fellowship tenure, the Speculum fellow will be a more experienced scholar and editor and will be an exceptionally attractive candidate for academic positions, as well as for significant publishing and editorial opportunities.

This two-year full-time post at Speculum, which will begin 1 July 2017, offers qualified individuals the opportunity to develop as scholars and editors. The term of the award is subject to the Fellow’s acceptable performance of the duties required, as determined by the Editor of Speculum. Fellows will receive:

• $43,000 stipend
• Health benefits
• Special Borrower’s privileges at Harvard University’s Widener Library
• Limited travel funds

Fellows are expected to:

• Continue to develop their research program 1 day/ week.
• Assume responsibilities for a particular set of editorial tasks at Speculum. These tasks will include, but are not limited to: liaising with book review editors; contacting reviewers; checking citations for accepted articles; proofreading reviews, Brief Notices, Books Received, and Tables of Contents, and entering corrections; proofing full issues of Speculum.
• Participate in the cultural life of medieval studies in the Boston area.
• Reside in the Boston area during the fellowship period.

Eligible candidates must meet the following requirements and demonstrate the following qualifications:

• PhD in some field of medieval studies completed before the end of spring term, 2017, but no earlier than January 1, 2011
• Attention to detail and evidence of a high level of scholarly precision, particularly with regards to bibliographic detail
• Strong work ethic
• Facility with languages
• Demonstrated ability to manage large amounts of digital information

The deadline for applications is 15 October. Click here for more information and to apply.

Haskins Medal

The Haskins Medal is awarded annually by the Medieval Academy of America for a distinguished book in the field of medieval studies. First presented in 1940, the award honors Charles Homer Haskins, the noted medieval historian, who was a founder of the Medieval Academy and its second President. The award is announced at the annual meeting of the Academy each spring. The medal was designed in 1939 by Graham Carey. (Deadline 15 October 2016)

John Nicholas Brown Prize

The John Nicholas Brown Prize, established by the Medieval Academy of America in 1978, is awarded annually for a first book or monograph on a medieval subject judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality. To be eligible, the author must be resident in North America.

John Nicholas Brown was one of the founders of the Medieval Academy and for fifty years served as its Treasurer. The prize established in his name consists of a certificate and a monetary award of $1,000. It is announced at the annual meeting of the academy each spring. (Deadline 15 October 2016)

Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize

The Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize, established by the Medieval Academy of America in 1971, is awarded annually for a first article in the field of medieval studies, published in a scholarly journal, judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality. To be eligible, the author must be resident in North America. Van Courtlandt Elliott was Executive Secretary of the Academy and Editor of Speculum from 1965 to 1970. The prize that bears his name consists of a certificate and a monetary award of $500. It is announced at the annual meeting of the academy each spring. (Deadline 15 October 2016)

Medieval Academy of America Digital Humanities Prize

In the spring of 2017, the Academy will award the first annual MAA Digital Humanities Prize to one outstanding digital research project in Medieval Studies. The prize is not meant to aid development of digital projects but instead to reward successful and innovative digital projects. The recipient (i.e. the Principal Investigator) will receive a cash prize of $1000, to be awarded at the 2017 Annual Meeting.

The Medieval Academy of America has long provided a variety of benefits of membership, including numerous fellowships, prizes and grants for travel, research and publications. Please see the list below for prizes and fellowships with looming deadlines, then follow the links for complete descriptions and application information. We encourage all eligible members to apply for these grants. Please note that you MUST be a member in good standing in order to be eligible for MAA awards.

We are pleased to announce that as of August 2015 all applications for Medieval Academy prizes, awards, and fellowships can (and must) be submitted using our online application system. Links to each form can be found on the Awards section of our website.

Schallek Fellowship

The Schallek Fellowship provides a one-year grant of $30,000 to support Ph.D. dissertation research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500). (Deadline 15 October 2016)

Travel Grants

The Medieval Academy provides a limited number of travel grants to help Academy members who hold doctorates but are not in full-time faculty positions, or are adjuncts without access to institutional funding, attend conferences to present their work. (Deadline 1 November 2016 for meetings to be held between 16 February and 31 August 2017)

Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies

The Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies recognizes Medieval Academy members who have provided leadership in developing, organizing, promoting, and sponsoring medieval studies through the extensive administrative work that is so crucial to the health of medieval studies but that often goes unrecognized by the profession at large. This award of $1000 is presented at the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy. (Deadline 15 November 2016)

CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching

The CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies recognizes Medieval Academy members who are outstanding teachers who have contributed to the profession by inspiring students at the undergraduate or graduate levels or by creating innovative and influential textbooks or other materials for teaching medieval subjects. (Deadline 15 November 2016)

Please see the MAA website for other grants and prizes offered by the Academy.

To the Members of the Medieval Academy:

Members are hereby invited to submit nominations for Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America. Fellows and Corresponding Fellows are senior scholars who have made notable contributions to the field of Medieval Studies.

Fellows will cast ballots in December and January for the 2017 election, which will operate under by-laws and procedures adopted in 2013 and revised in 2015. Under the established rules, four slots are currently available, for which there must be at least eight nominations. There is no established minimum number of nominations for Corresponding Fellows.

Nominations for the 2017 elections must be received by 5 December 2016.

Instructions for nominations are available here:

http://www.medievalacademy.org/?page=Election_Procedure

Lists of Fellows, Corresponding Fellows and Emeriti/ae Fellows are available here:

http://www.medievalacademy.org/?page=Fellows

Nominations should be submitted to the Executive Director at LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org or mailed to:

Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director
Medieval Academy of America
17 Dunster St., Suite 202
Cambridge, Mass., 02138

Please note that nominations are to be kept in strictest confidence, from the nominee as well as from others.

– Mary Carruthers, President of the Fellows

Judith Herrin (Professor Emerita, Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Hellenic Studies, King’s College London) has been awarded the 2016 Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for History from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Harvard Visiting Scholar Emily Rose has received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of The Phi Beta Kappa Society for her monograph The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015).

If you have something you’d like to share, please send your good news to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis (LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org).