The Medieval Academy Blog

Help ensure the future of the

Medieval Academy of America!

Thanks to you, the first year of our Matching Campaign was a huge success. Before applying the Match, we raised more than $80,000 to support Centennial programming, non-tenure-track medievalists, and our ongoing Mentoring Programs. Thank you for your generosity!

But we aren’t done yet…

In the second year of the campaign, please help us complete the challenge by contributing towards our total two-year goal of $150,000.

As we look towards our Centennial in 2025, we must also begin planning for our second century. By contributing to the second year of the Matching Challenge in 2024, you can double the impact of your donation, helping to ensure that the MAA can continue its important support of scholars, scholarship, and expanded programming to fulfill our vision of a stronger, more inclusive Medieval Studies. A major anonymous donation will serve as the source of the Challenge matches, helping to solidify the future of the MAA as it approaches its centennial year. This pool of funds will match every dollar donated to the MAA up to a total of $150,000.

Medieval Studies, along with higher education in general, faces grave challenges now and in the foreseeable future. As the foremost organization in the world promoting scholarship and knowledge of the Middle Ages, the Medieval Academy of America is determined to address challenges that border on becoming existential threats with new programs, a broader, more inclusive membership base, and educational outreach that will complement and strengthen its ongoing mission.

As we approach the celebration of our Centennial in 2025, we seek to secure gifts and grants that will help underwrite its renewed agenda. Donors to this effort will have the satisfaction of knowing that their gifts to specific priority programs will have twice the impact, thanks to the anonymous matching gift. Even as we continue to publish the highest-quality scholarship in the pages of Speculum and support research and teaching throughout the field, we are looking to expand programming and support in 2024 and beyond. Your generous contribution will help support ongoing and innovative priorities:

Centennial Fund: Donations to the Centennial Fund will support grants to individuals and institutions nationwide that promote and publicize medieval art, music, and theater during our Centennial year.

Mentoring Fund: In 2022, the Mentoring Program brought more than a dozen scholars from underserved demographics together for remote and in-person mentoring focusing on grant-writing, dissertation abstracts, and conference proposals. In 2023, the program was entirely remote, but with additional funding we hope to conduct a fully in-person summer mentoring program in 2024 and beyond.

MedievALLists Fund: Donations to this Fund will help to make the MAA more inclusive and to strengthen the field by supporting medievalists working beyond the tenure track. Here, too, the need is increasing as more scholars are obliged to work on short-term contracts with no benefits. Expanding support for scholars working beyond the tenure track is a critical priority.

Endowment: Donations to the Endowment support our journal Speculum as well many of our other grants, fellowships, and programs. Such donations are crucial for the long-term fiscal stability of the Medieval Academy of America.

We continue to solicit donations to support these Funds and will turn to other needs in 2025. We have already secured donations of nearly $30,000 (that’s $60,000 after the match) from members of the Council, several former Presidents, and generous supporters. But we need your contribution in order to meet our goal. With your help, we can continue and expand our work: supporting medievalists and Medieval Studies in North America and beyond.

Donate online by following the links here: http://www.medievalacademy.org/page/MatchingChallenge

Please note that only donations to the funds listed above are eligible for the Match.

Thank you!

Sara Lipton
President, Medieval Academy of America

I am very pleased to announce the new MAA committee members, recently appointed by the Council in accordance with our policies and procedures:

Conferences:
American Historical Association Program Committee: Valerie Garver (Northern Illinois Univ.)
Kalamazoo Program Committee: Carolyn Twomey (Univ. of Nebraska – Lincoln)
Leeds Program Committee: John Tolan (Univ. de Nantes)

Grants:
Baldwin Committee: Sara Ritchey (Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville)
Olivia Remie Constable Award Committee: Sarah Lynch (Bates College)
Inclusivity & Diversity Prize Committee: Leah Devun (Rutgers Univ.)
Committee for Professional Development: (TBD)
Schallek Committee: Sebastian Sobecki (Univ. of Toronto)

Professional Support:
Advocacy Committee: Joseph Ackley (Wesleyan Univ.), Emily Francomano (Georgetown Univ.), Alison Perchuk (California State Univ. Channel Islands)
CARA Executive Board: Carolyn Twomey (Univ. of Nebraska – Lincoln)
Database of Medieval Digital Resources Committee: Esther Liberman Cuenca (Univ. of Houston – Victoria), Margaret Smith (Southern Ilinois Univ. Edwardsville)
Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Committee: Matt Westerby (National Gallery of Art)
Graduate Student Committee: Chair: Loren Lee (Univ. of Virginia), Mathilde Monpetit (New York Univ.), Camila Marcone (Yale Univ.), Rebekkah Hart (Case Western Reserve Univ.)
Inclusivity & Diversity Committee: Don Wyatt (Middlbury College)
K-12 Committee: Erica Buchberger (Univ. of Texas – Rio Grande Valley), second vacancy TBD
Mentoring Programs Committee: Lynn Shutters (Colorado State Univ.), Giulia Accornero (Yale Univ.), Joaneath Ann Spicer (Walters Art Museum)
Publications Advisory Board: Xiaofei Tian (Harvard Univ.)

Publication Prizes:
John Nicholas Brown Prize Committee: Sarah Davis-Secord (Univ. of New Mexico) (2027), Peter Larson (Univ. College Florida) (2028) [n.b. because the intended rising Chair of the Committee was obliged to recuse herself from service for 2025, two new members were brought onto the Committee, one of whom will serve an extra year]
Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize Committee: Roberta Frank (Yale Univ.)
Karen Gould Prize Committee: Nino Zchomelidse (Johns Hopkins Univ.)
Monica H. Green Prize Committee: Lucy Barnhouse (Arkansas State Univ.)
Haskins Medal Committee: Ardis Butterfield (Yale Univ.)
Jerome E. Singerman Prize Committee: Linda Safran (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies/Univ. of Toronto)

I look forward to working with these new volunteers and the continuing committee members (all of whom are listed on the MAA website: About -> Committees). I am so grateful to all of our volunteers for their service to the Academy and to our field. We could not do our work without you!

– Lisa

Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

p.s. if you are interested in being considered for committee service next year, please fill out this form (if you have filled it out in the past, please do so again so that we are certain to have your up-to-date preferences in hand).

If you’re going to be at the Leeds International Medieval Congress this year, please join us on Tuesday, 2 July, 19.00-20.00 (Session 901) for the annual Medieval Academy Lecture, to be delivered by Monica Green: “Crisis Under a Microscope – the Black Death, Multidisciplinarity, and the Global Middle Ages.” Afterwards, join Prof. Green and MAA governance and staff members for the Medieval Academy’s open-bar wine reception.

The Medieval Academy’s Graduate Student Committee roundtable will take place Monday, 1 July, 19:00-20:00 (Session 411): “Community in Times of Crisis: Graduate Students in Medieval Studies and the Role of Service.” Participants include Lydia Shahan (Harvard University), Will Beattie (University of Notre Dame), and Emily Sun (Harvard University).

We hope to see you there!