MAA News – Renew Your Membership to the MAA

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Chris

We invite you to continue your commitment to medieval studies by renewing your membership in the Medieval Academy of America. In addition to a subscription to Speculum – the premier journal of medieval studies – and online access to the entire run of the journal, your membership includes these benefits:

Eligibility for:

  • grants and fellowships to support your research
  • subventions to support your publications
  • travel support to share your scholarship
  • prizes to acknowledge your contributions to our field

Opportunities to:

  • collaborate with others on committees that serve our field
  • nominate yourself and others for leadership posts
  • stand for election to governance
  • participate in our Annual Meeting

Join us in building a more expansive Middle Ages and in creating a more inclusive scholarly community. Your membership dues make efforts and programming in support of these goals possible, while also enabling innovative research in all fields of medieval studies. We value your scholarship and your support; please renew your membership in the Academy for 2023. You can easily renew online here.

Please consider, if your circumstances allow, adding a donation as you renew your membership. We look forward to supporting you and working with you in 2023 and to seeing you at the Annual Meeting in Washington, DC (February 23-26)!

Maureen Miller, President
Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

Posted in MAA Newsletter | Leave a comment

MAA News – Upcoming Deadlines

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Chris

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.

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 2022)

Travel Grants
The Medieval Academy provides travel grants to help Academy members who hold doctorates but are not in full-time faculty positions, or are contingent faculty without access to institutional funding, attend conferences to present their work. (Deadline 1 November 2022 for meetings to be held between 16 February and 31 August 2023)

MAA/CARA Conference Grant
The MAA/CARA Conference Grant for Regional Associations and Programs awards $1,000 to help support a regional or consortial conference taking place in 2023. (Deadline 15 October 2022)

Posted in MAA Newsletter | Leave a comment

MAA News – Call for Nominations: CARA Awards

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Chris

Robert L. Kindrick–CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies

The Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) invites nominations for its annual service prize. The Robert L. Kindrick–CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies recognizes Academy members who have provided leadership in developing, organizing, promoting, and sponsoring medieval studies through their administrative work—work that is critical 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.

The annual deadline for nominations is 15 November; please note that three nominators are required, all of whom should have first-hand knowledge of the nominee’s contributions to Medieval Studies. For more information, please visit the CARA Service Award web page.

CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching

The Medieval Academy’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) invites nominations for its annual teaching prize, which recognizes outstanding pedagogical achievement by Medieval Academy members. This can include:

  • teaching inspiring courses at the undergraduate or graduate levels;
  • creating innovative teaching materials (including textbooks);
  • developing courses and curricula;
  • scholarship of teaching and learning (including presentations at conferences as well as publications)
  • support for K-12 pedagogy and curricula;
  • community-oriented or publicly-directed educational initiatives.

Normally, one prize is given for undergraduate and one prize for graduate teaching, each in the amount of $1000. These will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy.

The annual deadline for nominations is 15 November. For more information, please visit the CARA Teaching Award web page.

Posted in MAA Newsletter | Leave a comment

MAA News – Candidates for 2023 MAA Governance Election

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Chris

To the Members of the Medieval Academy,

Voting in the Medieval Academy governance 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. I am very pleased to announce the names of the Medieval Academy members who have generously agreed to stand for election to office in 2023:

President (uncontested):
Robin Fleming

First Vice-President (uncontested):
Sara Lipton

Second Vice-President (three candidates for one position):
Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study, English/History)
Peggy McCracken (University of Michigan, French and Comparative Literature)
Marina Rustow (Princeton University, History)

Council (eight candidates for four positions):
Roland Betancourt (Univ. of California at Irvine, Art History)
Gerard Chouin (The College of William and Mary, History)
Bonnie Effros (Univ. of British Columbia, History)
Nahyan Fancy (Depauw Univ., History)
Christopher MacEvitt (Dartmouth College, Religion)
Luisa Nardini (Univ. of Texas at Austin, Musicology)
Xiaofei Tian (Harvard Univ., Chinese Literature)
Michelle C. Wang (Georgetown Univ., Art History)

Nominating Committee (four candidates for two positions)
Gregor Kalas (Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, Art History)
Akash Kumar (Univ. of California at Berkeley, Italian Studies)
Michelle M. Sauer (Univ. of North Dakota, English)
Jesús R. Velasco (Yale Univ., Spanish)

Click here for more information about these candidates.

The election will be conducted in accordance with our By-Laws. The Nominating Committee is charged with nominating eight candidates for the four positions on the Council, balancing racial, gender, geographic, professional, and specialization diversity while also considering the same facets of the incumbents. There are four candidates for two openings on the Nominating Committee, tasked with proposing candidates for the annual Council and Officers’ election. As is our practice, the President and 1st Vice-President run unopposed;the position of 2nd Vice-President is contested among three candidates.

Additional 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 21 September, the closing date for nomination by petition has been set at 11:59 PM, 12 October 2022. Additional information about the governance of the Academy can be found on our FAQ page:

http://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/page/FAQ

In addition to biographical information, each candidate has submitted 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. These statements are online here:

https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/2023Ballot

As you consider these candidates, you may wish to take into account the demographics and specializations of the incumbents.

My thanks to the Nominating Committee for their careful and thoughtful work in establishing the slate of Council candidates. My thanks as well to President Maureen Miller for proposing the slate of Nominating Committee candidates.

Electronic balloting will open on 20 October. If you would prefer to receive a paper ballot and have not received one in the past, please contact me.

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

Posted in MAA Newsletter | Leave a comment

MAA News – Call for Nominations – CARA Executive Committee

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Chris

The Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) invites nominations to fill an upcoming vacancy on its Executive Committee. With a special focus upon teaching at all levels, CARA strives to assist institutions and individual medievalists in meeting the challenges that face medieval studies in the classroom, the library, and other institutional settings locally and nationally. It also supports those who work to develop special projects and programs of instruction, local and regional networks of medievalists, and centers of research and institutions in medieval studies, working in collaboration with the Academy’s K-12 Committee as well as organizations such as TEAMS (the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies).

Members of the Executive Committee serve four-year terms; in addition to working with the CARA Chair on programming, outreach, and curricular initiatives, each member serves on two of CARA’s four subcommittees responsible for the CARA Teaching Award, the CARA Robert Kendrick Service Prize, the CARA Regional Conference Grant, and the MAA-CARA Graduate Student Summer Scholarships. Members of the CARA Executive Committee also are eligible to serve as CARA’s Director of Conference Programs, responsible for organizing CARA sessions at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies as well as the CARA plenary at the annual Medieval Academy meeting and the annual CARA meeting.

Service on the CARA Executive Committee is open to all members in good standing of the Medieval Academy of America, who may nominate themselves or be nominated by another individual. Nominations should include the following:

  1. Name of nominee;
  2. Nominee’s institutional or professional affiliation (including that of independent scholar);
  3. A brief (c. 250-word) statement indicating the nominee’s qualifications for Executive Committee service, including their contributions to the areas of teaching, program administration, and/or professional collaboration and development in the field of Medieval Studies.

In accordance with CARA’s Policies and Procedures, nominations will be accepted until 1 November 2022 and reviewed thereafter by the CARA Executive Committee, which will forward its recommended candidate for approval by the Medieval Academy’s Council. The term of service for new members will begin at the conclusion of CARA’s annual meeting in February 2023. Please send nominations, as well as any questions or requests for further information, to the CARA Chair, Sean Gilsdorf (gilsdorf@fas.harvard.edu).

Posted in MAA Newsletter | Leave a comment

MAA News – Good News From Our Members

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Chris

Racha Kirakosian (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg) is one of the winners of the Falling Walls Summit in the category Social Science and Humanities: https://falling-walls.com/discover/videos/winner-2022-racha-kirakosian/

Congratulations! If you have good news to share, please contact Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis.

Posted in MAA Newsletter | Leave a comment

Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Chris

Assistant Professor in Art History, Rice University

The Department of Art History at Rice University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the history of medieval art and/or architecture, broadly defined. We are interested in scholars working on art from roughly 400-1400, without restriction to culture or region. Successful candidates will have a record of publication and service commensurate with their career stage and be alert to diverse methodological approaches to the study of art and/or architecture from this period.

Scholars working within transcultural frameworks are particularly encouraged to apply, as are those whose work might intersect with that being done in interdisciplinary programs and centers at Rice, including (but not limited to) those in Medical Humanities, Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Environmental Studies, African and African American Studies, and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

The department offers programs of study leading to both the BA and PhD degrees. The new hire will teach four courses each academic year, covering a range of topics from area surveys to graduate-level courses on specialized subjects of their choice. The hire will also supervise undergraduate independent studies and honors theses, and mentor doctoral students.

Rice University is a highly selective private research university located in Houston, Texas, the nation’s fourth largest city. It is located in the heart of Houston’s dynamic museum district, where nearby museums including the Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston offer ample opportunities for collaboration. Rice offers undergraduate and graduate degrees across eight schools and has a student body of approximately 4,000 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students. It consistently ranks among the top 20 national universities and the top 10 in undergraduate teaching (US News & World Report); its endowment ranks among the top 20 of US universities.  

A PhD in Art History or related field is required by the position’s start on July 1, 2023. To apply, please submit a letter of interest, CV, three letters of reference, and two samples of scholarly work online via Interfolio. For fullest consideration, application materials should be submitted by November 15, 2022, via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/112101.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Rice University Standard of Civility Serves as a representative of the University, displaying courtesy, tact, consideration and discretion in all interactions with other members of the Rice community and with the public.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment

Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Chris

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s fellowship program aims to facilitate research in Yale’s special collections by the broadest possible group of researchers. We welcome applications from scholars and graduate students utilizing traditional methods of archival and bibliographic research as well as from individuals who wish to pursue creative, interdisciplinary, and non-traditional approaches to conducting research in the collections.

Fellowships will be awarded in the amount of $5,000 per month for up to four months depending on the research needs of the project. An additional modest travel budget may be awarded if the project would benefit from research at another repository with vital complementary materials; this research would take place directly following the fellowship period at Yale.

Fellowship application deadlines and requirements can be found on our website. If you have any further questions, please contact Allison Van Rhee at allison.vanrhee@yale.edu.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment

Ethno-Religious Interaction in Premodern Iberia: Mechanisms and Trajectories

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Chris

Ethno-Religious Interaction in Premodern Iberia: Mechanisms and Trajectories
A conference organized by Professor Thomas Barton (History, University of San Diego)

Friday, October 14 – Saturday, October 15, 2022
UCLA Royce Hall 314 and Online

When Mark Meyerson published his two monographs reconstructing the long history of the Jewish community of the Valencian town of Morvedre in 2004, he presented a dramatically new vision of Jewish-Christian relations over the course of the high and late Middle Ages. With this work, Meyerson joined a chorus of other revisionists, notably David Nirenberg with his now classic Communities of Violence, to challenge the traditional lachrymose vision of Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, which had long envisioned an unrelenting decline of tolerance punctuated by episodes of popular violence and forced conversion culminating in the elimination of multi-confessionalism through forced conversion or expulsion. Among other adjustments, this revisionist work questioned whether there was a clear, universal trajectory of escalating violence encouraged by growing systemic discourse of intolerance, what R.I. Moore once termed the “rise of a persecuting society.” Instead, they have promoted a more complex, localized model of coexistence that is deeply perceptive of the individuated circumstances of distinct communities and the workings of “co-production” among these “neighboring faiths.” Scholars have since labored diligently to explore the long-developed rhythms of interaction within diverse, face-to-face microcosms. Reconstructing the workings of such smaller-scale settings, which were defined by distinct legal, jurisdictional economic, cultural, and demographic trends, permits us to reevaluate the extent to which individual communities were active participants in or passive victims of emergent intolerant discourses and waves of cataclysmic, conversionary violence that swept across the land.

The goal of this conference is to bring together a diverse group of scholars to evaluate the state of research regarding the evolving inter-relationships of Christians, Jews, and Muslims within premodern Iberia and explore the lasting influence of this paradigm shift. The intended emphasis is on the intersection of quotidian mechanisms and longer-term (statutory, theological, sociological) trajectories. By what means did ethno-religious groups coexist in either Christian or Muslim-ruled contexts, what factors caused those sustaining systems to break down, and how did subsequent generations process the history of pluralism? The conference thus addresses questions of diversity, inclusion, and exclusion that were central to the premodern Mediterranean as they are to our world today.

Participants will also reflect on the methodologies integral to their research on these topics and consider how we might enhance the sophistication of our work in the future. What opportunities or challenges are afforded by different genres of evidence (e.g., treatises, polemical literature, ecclesiastical regulations, secular legal sources, prescriptive vs. descriptive diplomatics)? How do we integrate materials from different types of institutional archives (notarial, municipal, baronial, royal, ecclesiastical) that transmit such distinct perspectives on the mechanisms and trajectories of coexistence and have survived to such varying degrees? What roles can Arabic and Hebrew sources, for example, play in reconstructing these patterns and experiences? What sorts of broader spatial frameworks do we need to adopt in order to capture the fully complexity of these interfaith mechanisms and trajectories? How did networks between neighboring Christian and non-Christian-ruled territories condition patterns of coexistence, for example? And to what extent does our work remain informed by anachronistic, often “nationalist” paradigms? How might we address and correct for these ingrained patterns of study?

The complete schedule and full details are available at the conference website: https://cmrs.ucla.edu/conference/ethno-religious-interaction-in-premodern-iberia/

Posted in Conferences | Leave a comment

Call for Nominations – CARA Executive Committee

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Chris

The Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) invites nominations to fill an upcoming vacancy on its Executive Committee. With a special focus upon teaching at all levels, CARA strives to assist institutions and individual medievalists in meeting the challenges that face medieval studies in the classroom, the library, and other institutional settings locally and nationally. It also supports those who work to develop special projects and programs of instruction, local and regional networks of medievalists, and centers of research and institutions in medieval studies, working in collaboration with the Academy’s K-12 Committee as well as organizations such as TEAMS (the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies).

Members of the Executive Committee serve four-year terms; in addition to working with the CARA Chair on programming, outreach, and curricular initiatives, each member serves on two of CARA’s four subcommittees responsible for the CARA Teaching Award, the CARA Robert Kendrick Service Prize, the CARA Regional Conference Grant, and the MAA-CARA Graduate Student Summer Scholarships. Members of the CARA Executive Committee also are eligible to serve as CARA’s Director of Conference Programs, responsible for organizing CARA sessions at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies as well as the CARA plenary at the annual Medieval Academy meeting and the annual CARA meeting.

Service on the CARA Executive Committee is open to all members in good standing of the Medieval Academy of America, who may nominate themselves or be nominated by another individual. Nominations should include the following:

  1. Name of nominee;
  2. Nominee’s institutional or professional affiliation (including that of independent scholar);
  3. A brief (c. 250-word) statement indicating the nominee’s qualifications for Executive Committee service, including their contributions to the areas of teaching, program administration, and/or professional collaboration and development in the field of Medieval Studies.

In accordance with CARA’s Policies and Procedures, nominations will be accepted until 1 November 2022 and reviewed thereafter by the CARA Executive Committee, which will forward its recommended candidate for approval by the Medieval Academy’s Council. The term of service for new members will begin at the conclusion of CARA’s annual meeting in February 2023. Please send nominations, as well as any questions or requests for further information, to the CARA Chair, Sean Gilsdorf (gilsdorf@fas.harvard.edu).

Posted in CARA | Leave a comment