The Medieval Academy Blog

The four provinces of the empire paying homage to Emperor Otto. From the Gospel Book of Otto III, probably Reichenau c.998. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CLM 4453, fol. 23v.

CARA, the MAA’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations, recognizes distinction among medievalists with two awards annually. The first is the Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies. This award of $1000 is presented at the Annual Meeting to a Medieval Academy member who has 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.

The second is the CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies, which recognizes a Medieval Academy member and outstanding teacher who has contributed to the profession by inspiring students at the undergraduate or graduate level or by creating innovative and influential textbooks or other materials for teaching medieval subjects. This award of $1000 is also presented at the Annual Meeting.

Deadlines for nominations are 15 November. These awards, as well as the CARA scholarships, are paid for through the dues of CARA members.

The Medieval Academy seeks contributions to fund a Dissertation Grant in memory of John Boswell. Boswell, the medieval historian who taught at Yale University from 1975 until his death in 1994 at age 47, was a pioneer in two fields that have developed significantly over the past two decades: the study of Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations, especially in the Iberian peninsula, and GLBT studies. His scholarly legacy is found not only in his four monographs but in the many students, both undergraduate and graduate, who followed him into the profession.

A Medieval Academy Dissertation Grant — a $2000 award that helps defray the research expenses of advanced graduate students — is thus a particularly appropriate memorial. Thanks to the generosity of a group of his students, colleagues, and friends, substantial funding has already been raised toward an endowment of $40,000 that will enable the Academy to offer this award every year. Academy members are invited to join this effort by making a contribution online or mailing contributions payable to the Medieval Academy to:

The Boswell Fund
Medieval Academy of America
104 Mount Auburn St., 5th Floor
Cambridge, MA 01238

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

The 2012 CARA Annual Meeting took place at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, 4-6 October. The committee meeting was coordinated by Chair James Murray (Western Michigan University). Committee members present included Robert E. Bjork (Arizona State University), Richard Firth Green (Ohio State University) and Lilla Kopar (Catholic University of America); Director of Conference Programs, Thomas Goodmann (University of Miami), and Ex Officio, Non-Voting Members, Eileen Gardiner and Ronald Musto, Executive Directors of the MAA.

The CARA meeting added ten additional representatives: Maureen Boulton (University of Notre Dame), Massimo Ciavolella (UCLA), Lois Huneycutt (University of Missouri), Maryanne Kowaleski (Fordham University), Felice Lifschitz (University of Alberta), Michael Ryan (University of New Mexico) and Nancy Van Deusen (Claremont Graduate School), along with institutional hosts Frank Klaasen and Sarah Powrie from the University of Saskatchewan. The discussion centered on projects and problems at medieval centers and associations, as well as CARA’s support of graduate students through its various summer scholarships.

The Saturday morning program included a visit to Wanuskewin Heritage Park, a national historic site of the Northern Plains Indians located north of Saskatoon. The afternoon program, the centerpiece of the conference, was “Conversations through Time: The Cree Wanderer” with a trilingual reading of the Old English poem Swa cwæð eardstapa in Cree, Old English, and modern English, followed by a round table discussing the process of translation into Cree and the ways in which this process informs the text.

Our thanks to the local arrangements committee for a well-run and productive meeting.

Next year’s CARA Annual Meeting is scheduled to take place in Chicago at the Newberry Library from October 4-6.  CARA is planning its 2014 annual meeting in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy at UCLA (10-13) April.

Chaundler Manuscript, Oxford c.1461-65. Oxford, New College MS 288, second frontispiece.

The 2013 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place April 4-6 and will be hosted by the University of Tennessee, the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. It will be held in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, in the heart of the Tennessee Valley and at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The meeting will feature nearly sixty sessions from a wide range of disciplines and methodologies based around the theme of regions and regional identity.

Plenary speakers will include Christopher de Hamel (Donnelley Fellow Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), Jan Ziolkowski (Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University and Director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), and Maryanne Kowaleski (Joseph Fitzpatrick S.J. Distinguished Professor and Director of Medieval Studies at Fordham University).

This year’s CARA session will be chaired by Patrick J. Geary (Professor of Western Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) and will focus on the topic, “A New Age of Exploration: Scholars and Digitized Manuscripts.” Participants will include Claudia Fabian (Head of Manuscripts and Rare Books Department at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), Charlotte Denoël (Curator of medieval manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France), Fr. Columba Stewart (Executive Director of the Hill Museum and Monastic Library) and William Stoneman (Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library at Harvard University).

All sessions, lectures, meetings and the reception and banquet on Friday evening will be held at the Hilton Knoxville. The opening reception will be held at the Knoxville Museum of Art, a five-minute walk from the Hilton. The closing reception will be held at the Sunsphere, which was designed for the 1982 World’s Fair and offers striking views of the city and its surroundings. It too is a short walk from the hotel.

Participants can also register for optional tours that offer further regional enrichment. In addition to local excursions Thursday morning, a trip is planned for Sunday morning to the acclaimed Museum of Appalachia, with its original pioneer and early twentieth-century barns, cabins, and thousands of hand-made artifacts. More information will soon be available at the dedicated online registration page.

Accommodations are available at the Hilton (http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/tennessee/hilton-knoxville-KNXKHHF/index.html) as well as at the nearby Holiday Inn-World’s Fair Park (http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/knoxville/tysec/hoteldetail), both newly renovated full-service hotels. Both hotels are within easy walking distance of the gracious fountains and lawns of the World’s Fair Park as well as the cafes, bars, restaurants and art galleries that fill Knoxville’s downtown area, historic Market Square, and the Old City. Hotel reservations can now be made via the following customized group reservation links: the Hilton Knoxville (http://goo.gl/VOFVK); the Holiday Inn-World’s Fair Park (http://goo.gl/WGhPs).

Conference visitors may also wish to extend their visit to East Tennessee to experience the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (the most visited national park in America), the spectacular scenery of the Cumberland Gap, or the family-friendly attractions in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Knoxville itself will be celebrating its annual Dogwood Arts Festival, when the area is in full bloom; and musicians, artists, and craftspeople at local fairs and festivals will be sharing the culture typical of this region.

The Marco Institute will provide a complimentary shuttle service at regular intervals on Thursday and again on Friday morning from the nearby McGhee Tyson airport to the Hilton and Holiday Inn Hotels.

Complete registration information as well as table reservation forms for publishers are forthcoming and will be accessible beginning January via the Marco Institute’s website at http://web.utk.edu/~marco under “2013 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America” and at http://www.medievalacademy.org/.

Book exhibitors should call or email the Institute directly with any questions in advance of the registration period.

To advertise in the print program, please email info@themedievalacademy.org.

For additional details, please contact us either per phone at 865.974.1859 or email marco@utk.edu.  We look forward to welcoming our colleagues to the Medieval Academy meeting in Knoxville in April!

Detail of Illustration from Guillaume Tardif, Venerie et la Chasse, fol. 7r. France, between 1399 and 1499. Glasgow University Library, MS Hunter 269 (U.5.9).

One of the major features of the new MAA website is its Members section, which now provides a robust, up-to-date membership directory. This MAA Members Directory is available to all members of the Medieval Academy, but you need to be logged in to access the directory. The directory is expanded over the former print version, which provided only contact information. Now members can add information to their professional profiles about their work and publications and upload a copy of their CVs. A photo can be added as well.

Members can also provide information about their disciplines, fields and specialties and indicate their willingness to review books and article submissions for Speculum. You can also search the online directory for other members in their fields or geographical regions or by any number of other criteria.

To access the directory, go to any page on the MAA website, sign in to the site, then pull down the Members tab and select Members Directory. There you will find both basic and advanced options for searching the directory.

We encourage members to sign in and update their own profiles to make this a valuable resource for the entire community of medievalists.