The Medieval Academy Blog

MAA News – Publications Update: Medieval Academy Mongraphs

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Chris

Historiated initial from Boethius, On the Consolation of Philosophy, Italy c.1385. Glasgow University Library, MS Hunter 374 (V.1.11), fol. 4r.

Everyone knows that the Medieval Academy, under the direction of editor Sarah Spence, is responsible for bringing out Speculum four times a year. Many members may not realize that the Academy also has a long history of monograph publication, with a catalogue of 173 titles in four main series:

Medieval Academy Books (MAB) (113 titles; one at press),
Speculum Anniversary Monographs (SAM) (15 titles),
Speculum Books (two titles), and
Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching (MART) (42 titles).

These monographs can be accessed in several ways, all of which are detailed on our publications pages here and here:

1) hardcopy purchase through our online store (51 out-of-print MAB and SAM volumes) (members receive a 20% discount on these volumes);

2) PDF download from our website (38 MAB volumes), see the publications page for details;

3) HTML access on our website (24 out-of-print Latin MAB editions, made available through a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities), see the publications page for details;

4) print-on-demand paperback editions through Amazon.com (72 out-of-print volumes; another two dozen will be available soon);

5) online access through the ACLS Humanities eBook Library (62 volumes) (members receive a discount on subscriptions to this service);

6) hardcopy purchase of MART and recent MAB volumes through our publishing partner, the University of Toronto Press (34 volumes).

In addition, the recently-updated Voigts-Kurtz database that incorporates the content of Thorndike and Kibre’s Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (MAB 9) can be accessed from our publications page or by using this link.

We continue to solicit manuscripts for publication in the Medieval Academy Books series. Contact Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis at LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org for more information.

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MAA News – 2015 Medieval Academy Election

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Chris

Cod. Pal. germ. 848, Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse), Zürich, c.1300-c.1340, fol. 82v.

We are pleased to announce the names of the MAA members who have generously agreed to stand for election to office in 2015:

President: Barbara Newman (English, Religious Studies, & Classics, Northwestern Univ.)

1st Vice-President: Carmela Vircillo Franklin (Classics, Columbia Univ.)

2nd Vice-President: Margot E. Fassler (Music History and Liturgy, Univ. of Notre Dame)

Council (four seats available):
Robert Bjork (English, Arizona State Univ.)
Gail Gibson (English, Davidson College)
F. Eliza Glaze (History, Coastal Carolina Univ.)
Aden Kumler (Art History, Univ. of Chicago)
Sara S. Poor (German, Princeton Univ.)
Zrinka Stahuljak (French/Comp. Lit., Univ. of California, Los Angeles)
John Tolan (History, Univ. of Nantes)
Gernot Wieland (English/Med. Latin, Univ. of British Columbia)

Nominating Committee (two seats available):
Matilda Bruckner (French, Boston College)
Andrew Cole (English, Princeton Univ.)
Adam Kosto (History, Columbia Univ.)
Brett Whalen (History, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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

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 was announced by email on 22 October, the closing date for nomination by petition has been set at midnight, 12 November 2014. Additional information about the governance of the Academy can be found here.

Electronic balloting will open in December. If you would like to receive a paper ballot, please contact the Executive Director.

Voting in the Medieval Academy elections is one of the most important means that members have to impact both the Academy and the future of medieval studies in North America. We look forward to your participation in the election of the leadership of the Medieval Academy.

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MAA News – 2015 Membership Renewal

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Chris

The end of the year is now quickly approaching, and we encourage you to renew your membership in the Medieval Academy for 2015 as soon as possible. If you have not already paid your 2015 membership dues, please do so by 31 December 2014.

Click here to renew online for 2015. 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. As a new feature, members can now use their personal MAA homepage to indicate an interest in being considered to serve on one of our adjudication 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 2014, 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, and we are poised to do even more in 2015, with the new Olivia Remie Constable Awards, GSC/MAA Grant for Innovation, and the broadened MAA/CARA Summer Language Stipends program. 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.

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.

With a healthy fiscal outlook, increased digital offerings, and expanded services, the Medieval Academy has more to offer members than ever before. We sincerely hope that you will renew soon and continue your valued membership in the Academy. We look forward to working with you in developing the future of the Medieval Academy of America and of medieval studies in North America and beyond. Click here to renew.

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Call for Article Submissions for The Reading Room

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Chris

The Reading Room: A Journal of Special Collections is now accepting manuscript submissions for its inaugural issue, volume 1(1). The submission deadline for manuscripts for the first issue is March 15^th, 2015.

The Reading Room is an open-access, scholarly journal committed to providing current research and relevant discussion of practices in a special collections library setting. The Reading Room seeks submissions from practitioners and students involved with special collections in museums, historical societies, corporate environments, galleries, public libraries, and academic libraries. We are particularly interested in Narrative Feature articles. Full submission policies and information for authors, including student scholarship, can be viewed at http://readingroom.lib.buffalo.edu/readingroom/

The journal features single-blind, peer-reviewed research articles and case studies related to all aspects of current special collections work.

The editors strongly encourage queries from authors regarding potential articles for The Reading Room. Please email thereadingroomjournal@gmail.com before submitting your manuscript.

For more information, please visit the journal’s website: http://readingroom.lib.buffalo.edu/

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Columbia University’s MA in Medieval and Rennaissance Studies

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Chris

Applications are now being accepted for Columbia University’s MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Applications are accepted for both Spring and Fall admission; deadlines are November 1st for Spring admission, March 15 for Fall admission.

The MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies provides the opportunity to undertake graduate level work in any relevant field of interest. Students have the flexibility to take a variety of courses in art history, religion, history, philosophy, literature or other relevant fields offered by departments in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This flexibility offers the opportunity to concentrate in one area while also exploring other aspects of the life, thought, and culture of the Middle Ages and/or the Renaissance. Through this unique interdisciplinary and cross-period approach, students gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the medieval period and the Renaissance.

The program is appropriate for students who will go on to apply to PhD programs as well as for those who wish to complete a terminal MA. In addition to choosing from a wide range of courses, students develop their skills in relevant languages, and are introduced to the study of manuscripts and early printed books. The MA culminates in a final thesis in which students develop an original research project. Students have the option to pursue the degree full time or part-time.

For more information, visit: medren.columbia.edu, or contact: medren@columbia.edu

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Come to the MAA’s Open House in Cambridge Next Week

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Chris

RSVP acceptances to smc@themedievalacademy.org

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Richard III Society

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Chris

The Richard III Society, American Branch, New England Chapter (RIII-AB-NEC) welcomes new members to its fellowship which is dedicated to a reassessment of the traditional history of Richard (Plantagenet) III as well as to the scholarly exploration of all topics relevant to 15th century England and the late Middle Ages. RIII-AB-NEC will be holding its next meeting at the Medieval and Renaissance Forum at Keene College in Keene, NH on Saturday, April 25, 2015. There is also a CFP for a session at the 2015 Forum dedicated to life and times of Richard III. Please contact with any questions about the society or membership or inquiries about session proposals the RIII-AB-NEC coordinator June-Ann Greeley at juneanng@gmail.com or greeleyj@sacredheart.edu .

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Call for Papers – “Medieval Ethics and Aesthetics: The Good and the Beautiful?”

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Chris

The UC Berkeley Program in Medieval Studies invites submissions for an interdisciplinary graduate student conference:

“Medieval Ethics and Aesthetics: The Good and the Beautiful?”
February 20-21, 2015
University of California, Berkeley
Keynote: Alex Novikoff, Forham University

In The Sense of the Song of Roland (1987), Robert F. Cook suggests that this well-known chanson de geste “should be read as certain other works of art of its time are ‘read,’ as an ethical statement, embodying values in a framework that is no less aesthetically satisfying for all that it conveys ideas. Recognizing its power means admitting that our ancestors may have been moved, even excited, by ideals whose aesthetic status is greatly diminished today.” (130)

The Middle Ages has suffered from a double-edged stereotype: on the one hand, it has been considered a time when didacticism and dogma flourished at the expense of art and aesthetics; on the other hand, it has been viewed as a period without any significant advances in the philosophy of ethics. These one-dimensional notions of medieval aesthetics and ethics have collapsed in recent years under the weight of new work dealing with the nexus between these two branches of philosophy and their material manifestations in medieval texts and objects. Innovative critics have teased out the sometimes surprising ways in which medieval art in all media could perform ethical work; the imbrication of ethics and form in the medieval discipline of rhetoric is already well-known, but is enjoying new attention. This conference invites a conversation about the varied ways in which a concern with ethics – however that may have been construed at different times and places throughout the period– entered into a fruitful relationship with artistic production. It looks, in short, to discover the manifold ways in which medieval artists, thinkers, and writers reconciled “The Good” and “The Beautiful.”

We wish to throw this conversation open to emerging scholars across the disciplines, including those whose work falls outside of standard conceptions of “the medieval”– that is, outside the Latin West.

Questions addressed might include, but will not be limited to:

The context and formal strategies of didactic art, such as allegorical pieces;
Medieval debates about the ethical status of art, particularly secular aesthetic production;
Contradictions (or congruities) between medieval theory and medieval praxis;
The development of new models of aesthetic production in the vernacular;
Prescriptive codes of conduct in secular or religious contexts (for example, chivalry/courtliness, debates about clothing and fashion, or grammatical treatises), and subversion or flaws in performance of these;
The evocation of these categories in constructing modern medievalisms.

Submit abstracts of no more than 500 words to medieval.ethics.aesthetics@gmail.com by November 20, 2014.

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Correction to Recent Speculum Review

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Chris

It was incorrectly asserted in a recent review (Speculum 89/3, pp. 827-29) that “Gablánach in scélaigecht: Celtic studies in honour of Ann Dooley” edited by Sarah Sheehan, Joanne Findon, and Westley Follett and published by Four Courts Press (www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=1165) does not have an Index. There is a full index to this book on pages 277-82.