The Medieval Academy Blog

We at Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies are ringing in the new year with a new practice: an occasional editor’s column in the Medieval Academy of America newsletter designed to share with members announcements of the new scholarship we are proud to publish in the journal, new policies approved by the Editorial Board, and new initiatives we have recently undertaken.

The January 2023 issue, Speculum 98/1, brings together five substantive Mediterranean-inflected articles from scholars representing diverse disciplines and institutions, and in various stages along diverse career paths, academic and otherwise. The issue leads with Thomas E. A. Dale’s topical “Cultural Encounter, Race, and a Humanist Ideology of Empire in the Art of Trecento Venice,” the presidential address he delivered at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America in 2022. It is followed by a co-authored piece by Susan McDonough and Michelle Armstrong-Partida,“Amigas and their Amichs: Prostitute-Concubines, Strategic Coupling, and Laboring-Class Masculinity in Late Medieval Valencia and the Mediterranean”; Dawn Marie Hayes, “The Case of Geoffrey of Hauteville, Lord of Ragusa: A Story of Leprosy and Legitimacy from Norman Sicily”; Alan Elbaum, “‘The Fire in my Heart and the Pain in my Eyes’: Interdependence and Outburst in the Illness Letters of the Cairo Geniza”; and Hélène Sirantoine, “Cartularization and Genre Boundaries: Reflection on the Nondiplomatic Material of the Toledan Cartularies (End of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Century).” Close readers of the journal will notice that for the past several years, articles are now prefaced by abstracts to make them more discoverable by the search engines we all use to conduct our research and, that as a rule, each issue now contains five articles instead of four, a commitment made on our part to publish as many of our accepted articles as quickly as our contracted page limit per annum allows.

With the new year, I’d also like to bring to your attention our newly revised style sheet for our contributors (here). It includes an important statement, approved by the Editorial Board, on “Terms, Terminology, and Naming.” The statement contains guidance on how to deal with fraught terminology contained in medieval texts and contemporary usage of those terms. We ask that all contributors familiarize themselves with this guidance before submitting work to the journal.

As already noted, our January issue has a Mediterranean theme. More themed issues will follow; indeed, over the course of three years, starting in 2024, every January issue will be shaped and themed in its own way by various guest editors. The January 2024 issue, dedicated to the theme of “Race, Race-thinking, and Identity in the Global Middle Ages,” is designed to interrogate the exciting scholarship on race in “the networked interrelations and interdependences of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe.” It is now well underway and is being edited by the team of F. X. Fauvelle, Nahir Otaño Gracia, and Editorial Board member, Cord J. Whitaker. Next up, the January 2025 issue, honoring the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the Medieval Academy of America, will be edited by Karla Mallette and Roland Betancourt. It seeks to examine how medieval studies has been shaped by its institutions, namely its “departments and disciplines, professional and social organizations.”  And finally, in January 2026, paying tribute to Speculum’s centenary anniversary, the journal will publish an issue entitled “Speculations,” a prospective issue that in 50 short essays will speculate on the future of scholarly work in medieval studies. It will be edited by a collective from the Editorial Board. You can expect to see the CFP for that issue circulated at the annual meeting of the MAA in Washington, DC, next month.

And finally, speaking of the annual meeting, I take great pleasure in welcoming you to DC, my institutional home and the journal’s headquarters.  The conference program, co-organized with great care by my colleague Jennifer Davis and MAA Council member Laura Morreale, reminds us of the value of returning to in-person meetings to share our work. Please do drop by the Speculum table hosted by our publisher, the University of Chicago Press, to meet our staff and to talk with us about publishing in the journal. Or, alternatively, come to the session on “Publishing in Journals” on Thursday, 23 February from 3:30–5:15, where I am participating as a panelist and will be very happy to take your questions. I look forward to seeing you in DC!

Until then, on behalf of the staff of Speculum, let me wish you a very happy 2023!

Katherine L. Jansen

Editor

Happy New Year, dear Academy Members,

It’s already time to make your plans for this year’s Annual Meeting, which not only takes place in our nation’s capital, Washington DC, but also offers members special access to some of the city’s greatest collections and institutions. Conference co-chairs Laura K. Morreale and Jennifer R. Davis, in collaboration with the members of the Annual Meeting Program and Local Arrangements Committees, have organized SEVEN special events. Space is limited, so read on to learn about these exciting opportunities so that you can register early!

MAA members are cordially invited to the world premiere of playwright Allyson Currin‘s Rejoicing in Broken Pieces at the Callan Theater of The Catholic University of America the evening of Thursday 23 February. Specially commissioned by CUA in honor of the Academy’s Annual Meeting, this dramatic presentation explores female medieval monastic culture through the lives and words of St. Brigid of Kildare, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, St. Hildegard of Bingen, Marie de France, Christina of Markyate, St. Brigid of Sweden, St. Catherine of Siena, Margery Kempe, and the anonymous Woman with Lapis Lazuli Teeth. The award-winning playwright, Allyson Currin, with over a dozen productions to her credit, is also an accomplished performer and teacher in the Washington arts scene. The day after the premier, she and director Eleanor Holdridge will also participate in a conference roundtable —along with CUA professors Lilla Kopár, Jennifer Paxton, and Michael Witczak—on “Staging and Teaching Medieval Women.” All the participants contributed to a fall undergraduate seminar at CUA that engaged 12 students in learning about dramaturgy, research, and the Middle Ages. Click here to purchase tickets for Thursday’s performance.

It is also still possible to secure a spot to participate in the day-long pre-conference Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) on Wednesday February 22. This jointly-sponsored in-person series of workshops in digital scholarly methods for medieval studies will take place on the NYU DC campus (1307 L St NW). Space is still available in two: “Comics and Medieval Manuscripts: The Alchemy of Word and Image” and “Using IIIF Images and Tools.”

Thursday morning, before the conference officially opens at 1:30 pm, members can choose any of three guided excursions to Washington DC collections. One is to the Dumbarton Oaks Museum with its renowned holdings in Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art. Curators will not only guide participants through the galleries, but also facilitate artifact handling in the Byzantine coins and seals room as well as the museum storage facility. Another excursion is to the National Gallery of Art to view and discuss medieval manuscript leaves from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection. This extraordinary collection is particularly strong in late medieval woodcut prints, devotional incunabula, and manuscript illuminations. Still another opportunity is a curator-guided visit to the Textile Museum at George Washington University. With particular strength in rugs and textiles from the Islamic world, Asia, and Africa, the museum also holds one of the world’s most significant textile study collections of nearly 4,000 fragments from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa dating from antiquity to the present.

During the annual meeting there are also two special sessions at Washington collections. Friday morning from 8:30-10:00 am, the Library of Congress will host a session on Fragmentology (chaired by our own Lisa Fagin Davis and organized by the LC’s Rare Book Librarian Marianna Stell and the Center for the Advance Study in the Visual Arts Research Associate Matthew J. Westerby). On Friday afternoon from 14:15-16:00, the National Gallery of Art will host a session on Curating Global Medieval Art: Questioning Paradigms and Perspectives. Panelists include curators from the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, the Walters Gallery collections in ancient art of the Americas, and the Baltimore Museum of Art’s African and Oceanic Art collections. Click here to register for this limited-attendance session.

And don’t miss the Annual Meeting’s closing reception at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Its director, the eminent scholar of Islamic history and culture Chase F. Robinson, is generously hosting the closing reception in its extraordinary galleries. I, and the Annual Meeting’s co-chairs, are deeply grateful to him for welcoming Academy members to this treasure trove of Asian art.

Finally, it is worth noting that admission to over a dozen Smithsonian Museums is FREE. Timed Entry Passes are required only for the African American History and Culture Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and the National Zoo. If you can come a day early or stay Sunday, you can take advantage of the Grand Hyatt conference rate and enjoy your tax dollars at work!

Wishing all of you an auspicious start to 2023,

Maureen C. Miller, President of the Medieval Academy of America

Join us in Washington DC for the 98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America. Discounted registration ends on 1 February, so register now!

The Members of the MAA 2023 Organizing Committee, including independent scholars and medievalists from over a dozen area institutions, are pleased to open registration for the 98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America on February 23-26, 2023 in Washington, DC. The meeting will take place at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington with special sessions at the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, The Catholic University of America, and the National Museum of Asian Art. The program draws upon the many resources in the capital region for the study of the Middle Ages in an international context, and features plenaries by Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Verena Krebs, Anne Dunlop, and MAA president Maureen C. Miller. Highlights of the meeting include a curatorial round-table on Global Medieval Art at the National Gallery of Art, the World Premiere of Rejoicing in Broken Pieces, a play about female monastic culture with playwright Allyson Currin in attendance, and a closing reception at the National Museum of Asian Art with curators on site to introduce conference attendees to the collection.

Pre-conference events include two workshops at the Textile Museum’s Avenir Center in Ashburn, Virginia, and a day-long Digital Medieval Studies Institute hosted by NYU’s DC campus (with spots still open in some sessions; more information and application portal here). Additionally, curators at Dumbarton Oaks, the National Gallery of Art, and the Textile Museum will welcome medievalists during three separate pre-conference excursions organized in anticipation of the gathering in Washington, DC.

Attendees must be fully vaccinated (or have a verified medical exemption) and must agree to abide by the Medieval Academy of America’s Professional Behavior Policy. Due to prohibitive financial and logistical constraints, this meeting will be entirely and exclusively in-person. We hope to offer a hybrid format in 2024.

For registration, hotel block information, and the full program, please visit the conference website (and check back often for updates).

To the members of the Medieval Academy of America:

I am very pleased to announce the results of the 2023 governance election:

President: Robin Fleming (Boston College, History)
1st Vice-President: Sara Lipton (Stony Brook Univ., History)
2nd Vice-President: Peggy McCracken (Univ. of Michigan, French and Comparative Literature)

Council:
Roland Betancourt (Univ. of California, Irvine, Art History)
Bonnie Effros (Univ. of British Columbia, History)
Luisa Nardini (Univ. of Texas at Austin, Musicology)
Michelle C. Wang (Georgetown Univ., Art History)

Nominating Committee:
Chair (appointed by MAA President): Jessica Brantley (Yale Univ., English)
Elected members:
Akash Kumar (Univ. of California, Berkeley, Italian Studies)
Michelle M. Sauer (Univ. of North Dakota, English)

My thanks to all who voted and to all who stood for election, and my congratulations to all who were elected.

Lisa Fagin Davis

Executive Director, Medieval Academy of America

The Medieval Academy of America invites applications for the following grants. Please note that applicants must be members in good standing as of September 15 in order to be eligible for Medieval Academy awards.

Belle Da Costa Greene Award
The Belle Da Costa Greene Award of $2,000 will be granted annually to a medievalist of color for research and travel. The award may be used to visit archives, attend conferences, or to facilitate writing and research. The award will be granted on the basis of the quality of the proposed project, the applicant’s budgetary needs (as expressed by a submitted budget and in the project narrative), and the estimation of the ways in which the award will facilitate the applicant’s research and contribute to the field. Special consideration will be given to graduate students, emerging junior scholars, adjunct, and unaffiliated scholars. Click here for more information. Click here to make a donation in support of the Greene Award. (Deadline 15 February 2023)

Olivia Remie Constable Award
Four Olivia Remie Constable Awards of $1,500 each will be granted to emerging junior faculty, adjunct or unaffiliated scholars (broadly understood: post-doctoral, pre-tenure) for research and travel. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2023)

MAA Dissertation Grants:
The nine annual Medieval Academy Dissertation Grants support advanced graduate students who are writing Ph.D. dissertations on medieval topics. The $2,000 grants help defray research expenses. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2023)

Schallek Awards
The five annual Schallek awards support graduate students conducting doctoral research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500). The $2,000 awards help defray research expenses. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2023)

MAA/GSC Grant for Innovation in Community-Building and Professionalization
The MAA/GSC Grant(s) will be awarded to an individual or graduate student group from one or more universities. The purpose of this grant is to stimulate new and innovative efforts that support pre-professionalization, encourage communication and collaboration across diverse groups of graduate students, and build communities amongst graduate student medievalists. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2023)

Applicants for these and other MAA programs must be members in good standing of the Medieval Academy. Please contact the Executive Director for more information about these and other MAA programs.

The Medieval Academy of America invites proposals for sessions at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Historical Association in San Francisco, January 4-7, 2024. Each year the Medieval Academy co-sponsors sessions at the AHA’s annual meeting. This year, we aim to sponsor sessions that address an overarching theme of interest both to MAA members and broader audiences:

“Representing Medieval Voices: Current Approaches and Methodologies”. Click here for more information and to submit a proposal.

We are very pleased to announce that the 2023-2024 Schallek Fellowship has been awarded to Amy Juarez (Univ. of California, Riverside) to support her dissertation research. In her words:

“My dissertation, entitled ‘The Poetics of Embodied Architecture in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,’ takes as its central concern how Vitruvian craft undergirds late-medieval and early modern conceptions of embodiment, and how writers from these periods use these ideologies in and through their own literary discourses. My project argues that the ‘Vitruvian Man’ is the basis for more complex and nuanced depictions of the body-as-building dynamic than previously understood in late-medieval and early modern cultures from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. Accordingly, this dissertation explores four modes of Vitruvian technology in literary texts, tying theories of architectural embodiment to ekphrastic encounters, to microarchitectural experiences, to humoral diagnoses, and to a miniaturized version of the ‘Vitruvian Man’ himself. Literary representations of these four processes make visible a deep interest in Vitruvius’s ancient philosophies in the medieval and early modern periods; at the same time they simultaneously complicate Vitruvian notions of architecture as an embodied form of expression. As my project will show, Vitruvian craft, or techne, is more than mere metaphor in medieval and early modern poetry; in fact, the Vitruvian Virtues are evoked as real architectural tropes in rhetorical practices from these periods.”

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). The Fellowship is adjudicated by the MAA’s Schallek Committee and is jointly sponsored by the Medieval Academy and The Richard III Society-American Branch, made possible by a gift to the Richard III Society from William B. and Maryloo Spooner Schallek.