The Medieval Academy Blog

Back row, left to right: Dr. Daniel Davies, Ashley Barros, Adan Ramirez-Figueroa, Brianna Skye Oliver, Emma Maggie Solberg, Dr. Hussein Fancy
Middle row, left to right: Lauren Cole, Antony Henk, Kristen M. Raffa, Gabriella Chitwood
Front row, left to right: Dr. Nahir I. Otaño Gracia, Erin Kurian, Amy Juarez, Aparajita Das

Congratulations to the organizers of the Academy’s inaugural Summer Research Program and to all its participants!

This initiative was the work of many minds, hearts, and hands. As a member of Council in 2020, Hussein Fancy (Yale University) first raised the idea of a summer research experience for student medievalists from diverse backgrounds after he participated in a highly successful diversity mentoring program at the University of Michigan.  Andrea Achi (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Nahir Otaño Gracia (University of New Mexico), and Jonathan Correa-Reyes (Pennsylvania State University) collaborated with Hussein and me to propose the establishment of an MAA Mentoring Programs Committee. Approved by Council in 2021 and formed the next year under leadership of chair Afrodesia McCannon (New York University), this dynamic new committee began work on several projects, the most ambitious being the Summer Research Program.

The program aims broadly to mentor for the future of medieval studies by fostering a diverse new generation of medievalists. This summer’s pilot was devoted to early graduate students and designed to provide a springboard for the kind of sustained mentorship that would assist its participants not only in completing their doctoral work but also in using their expertise in medieval studies to pursue a wide array of careers. Out of a robust pool of applicants, the committee selected fifteen students from communities and backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented or marginalized within medieval studies. They came from all over North America —from Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma to Oregon, Iowa, Illinois, and North Carolina—as well as from Delhi, India and Tbilisi, Georgia. Their interests ranged across the many disciplines of medieval studies—English, Art History, Romance Languages, History of Science, Religious Studies, Philology, History—and beyond Europe to Georgian sculpture, selfhood in Mughal India, and Persian inscriptions.

With the support of Teo Ruiz (UCLA), who came on as the new chair of the Committee in March, and important contributions from Committee members Sierra Lomuto (Rowan University) and Jenny Tan (University of Pennsylvania Press), Committee, members Liz Hardman (Bronx Community College, CUNY) and Ana C. Núñez (Stanford University) oversaw the six-week summer program of workshops, panels, and presentations that commenced on July 1.  While most of the sessions were on Zoom, an in-person gathering at Yale University on August 17-19 brought participants together for a culminating series of presentations and sessions. The students were divided into three cohorts, based on their stage of graduate work, and each cohort focused on a research product: a conference paper, a grant proposal, or a dissertation prospectus. In several sessions over the six weeks, the two mentors guiding each workshop worked intensively with their cohort members. Courtney C. Barajas, a specialist in Old English and a DEI advocate, teamed up with Maggie Solberg, who teaches British medieval literature, to mentor the dissertation prospectus cohort; medieval historian and research development strategist Jennifer Speed and historian of late antique Italy Nicole Lopez-Jantzen mentored the grant writing cohort; and Daniel Davies, who works on late medieval literary and historical texts, joined activist professor of the global north Atlantic Nahir Otaño Gracia to mentor the conference paper cohort.

Additionally, to broaden the participants’ career horizons, the program included three panels featuring medievalists working in varied settings: editing and publishing (Erik Beranek, Translator and Assistant Editor, Sociology and Paperbacks, Princeton University Press; Jonathan Farr, freelance academic editor), digital humanities (James B. Harr III, Assistant Professor of Literature and Languages, Christian Brothers University ), libraries and museums (Christopher Fletcher, assistant director, Center for Renaissance Studies, Newberry Library; Amey A. Hutchins, Manuscripts Cataloging Librarian, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Libraries; Tory Schendel-Vyvoda, Curator, Evansville African American Museum; Art Collections Researcher, University of Southern Indiana; Visiting Faculty, Harlaxton College curator of art at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science); development (Sarah Celentano, Major and Planned Gifts Officer, Brooklyn College Foundation, and as of October 3, Senior Director of Individual Giving, Municipal Art Society of New York), instructional design (Christopher Beck, Senior Instructional Design Manager, Course Production, Purdue University) and education (Elizabeth Keohane-Burbridge, Assistant Professor, Department of Early Childhood through Secondary Education, University of West Georgia).

The culminating days at Yale allowed all the participants to give presentations on their work and to complete two additional intensive workshops on cover letters and CVs (led by Holly Flora, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Tulane University, and MIT Associate Dean Kim Benard).

Adan Ramirez-Figueroa

Informal comments thus far indicate that the program’s emphasis on mentoring over an extended period of time—rather than in ephemeral, single events—and small cohorts yielded significant gains. These design features also afforded opportunities for participants to build lateral relations of mentoring and a network of support in addition to valuable vertical ties with professionals. Participants as well as panelists also valued the honoraria the MAA provided. This unique investment in setting a course for change allowed mentees to devote concerted time to the program and conveyed the Academy’s respect for the upcoming generation of scholars.

Not only the students, however, gained from the program! The organizers, mentors, and panelists remarked that the experience was not only “very worthwhile” but also meaningful and fulfilling. If you would like to get involved, look for the next MAA calls for mentors or reach out to any member of the Mentoring Program Committee and/or to coordinators Mary M. Alcaro and Maggie Heeschan of the Graduate Student Committee mentoring program.

With gratitude especially to organizers Afrodesia McCannon, Liz Hardman, and Ana C. Núñez, I close with congratulations and thanks to the fifteen wonderful scholars who participated:

Muntazir Ali (Department of Persion, University of Delhi)
Ashley Barros (Department of English, Texas A&M University)
Gabriela Chitwood (Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Oregon)
Lauren Cole (Department of History, Northwestern University)
Aparajita Das (Department of History, University of California, Berkeley)
Maroun El Houkayem (Graduate Program in Religion, Duke University)
Antony Henk (Master of Arts, English Philology, University of Göttingen)
Amy D. Juarez (English Department, University of California, Riverside)
Erin Danielle Kurian (Department of History, University of Waterloo)
Jane Noble Maschue (Department of History, Catholic University of America)
Brianna Skye Oliver (Department of English, University of Arkansas)
Kristin Raffa (Program in the History of Science, University of Oklahoma)
Adan Ramirez-Figueroa (Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University)
Kristine Sabashvili (Department of Art History, Tbilisi State Academy of Art)
Thelma Trujillo (Department of English, University of Iowa)

Maureen C. Miller (mcmiller@berkeley.edu), President of the Medieval Academy of America

To all Members of the Medieval Academy of America:

All members of the Medieval Academy of America are hereby invited to submit nominations for the election of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Academy for 2023. You need not be a Fellow to nominate a Fellow or Corresponding Fellow, and all members are warmly encouraged do so, for this is one important way in which the Academy recognizes and honors its most outstanding scholars. Nominations from Corresponding Fellows who reside in countries outside of North America, who need not be members of the Academy, are equally welcome.

Currently, there are 122 Active Fellows and 67 Corresponding Fellows. According to the Strategic Plan recently approved by the Fellows, the number of total Fellows and Corresponding Fellows is to be increased each year as follows:

“The number of voting Fellows [will] be increased from 125 to 150 and the number of Corresponding Fellows [will] be increased from 75 to 100 over a period of 9 years, with 3 additional Fellows and 3 additional Corresponding Fellows to be elected per year over the first 8 years and an additional Fellow and Corresponding Fellow in the ninth year.”

In accordance with this new policy, there will be a maximum of 131 Fellows and 81 Corresponding Fellows in 2023. The number of openings in the current cycle, then, is 9 Fellows and 14 Corresponding Fellows.

New procedures for nomination dossiers have been instituted as a result of the reforms adopted by the Fellows in 2021. The instructions are detailed at
https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Election_Procedure

In brief, here are the rules for the dossier:

1) up to three signed letters of nomination, each of which may be up to two pages in length (although a nomination can still go forward without prejudice with a single letter);
2) a curriculum vitae of NO MORE than four pages;
3) a URL directing voters to an expanded online CV, if possible (this URL should be included in the body of the first nominating letter)

These components must be combined into a single PDF and submitted by email to the Executive Director (LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org). Incomplete or improperly constituted dossiers will not be accepted.

All Fellows (except for Corresponding Fellows) must be members of the Medieval Academy who reside in North America at the time of election. They should be medievalists who have contributed to our knowledge of the Middle Ages with a substantial body of scholarship, distinguished in both quality and quantity. In most fields the contribution will entail several well-received books, though in some areas the standard may be important digital work or a sheaf of influential articles. Major prizes, editorships, and professional leadership in societies including (but not limited to) the MAA may also be taken into account. Election to the Fellows recognizes a lifetime of academic achievement. Candidates, therefore, will ordinarily be full professors, though senior curators and distinguished independent and non-tenure-track scholars may also merit election. Nominations of associate professors are normally considered premature.

In nominating candidates, please consider diversity in discipline, ethnicity, gender, regions of the country, and types of institution. Please also bear in mind that Medieval Studies is not limited to Western Europe or to the second half of our period.

In order to present a balanced slate, additional nominations may be made by the Fellows Nominating Committee, the members of which are listed on the Officers page.

To sum up: Please follow instructions for nominations as found on the MAA website; nominations that are incorrectly prepared will not be considered.

Instructions for nominations are available here:
https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Election_Procedure

Please refer to the lists of current Fellows before proposing a nomination:

Current Fellows:
https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Fellows_List
Current Corresponding Fellows:
https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/page/CorrFellows

Nominations for the 2023 elections must be received by 1 October 2022. Unsuccessful nominations from previous years may be resubmitted. Please contact the Executive Director for further information about this process.

Finally, please keep nominations confidential. Although nominators are to sign their names to the letters, all involved should try not to let nominees learn about their nomination.

We look forward to a diverse and exciting set of nominations.

– Richard Emmerson, President of the Fellows

Medieval Academy of America Graduate Student Committee 
Digital Humanities Showcase
Call for Submissions
Due Monday, October 3, 2022

Come celebrate with us! The GSC is seeking presenters for its first-ever Digital Humanities Showcase, scheduled to take place over Zoom on December 1, 2022. We invite scholars in any field or discipline of global medieval studies who use innovative technologies in their study or teaching of the Middle Ages to share their work with a broad audience of medievalists. This virtual gathering will serve as a forum for scholars, both emerging and established, to gather and learn about, as well as celebrate, their achievements and work in the digital humanities, broadly conceived. Above all, the GSC’s Digital Humanities Showcase is meant to be fun and exciting, giving participants and presenters alike the chance to share ideas and connect. Presentations should be no more than ten minutes in length and explain the impact of the applied technologies on medieval studies. The content of the presentations should be accessible to scholars from all disciplines while also maintaining a high quality of research. If possible, we encourage presenters to include a demonstration of their technology, methodology, or approach.

Applications should include a 2-page CV as well as a brief abstract of no more than 200 words. Submissions should be sent to Reed O’Mara at rao44@case.edu and gsc@themedievalacademy.org by October 3, 2022. Selected speakers will be notified by mid-October.

Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

• Digital modeling of religious and secular spaces
• Virtual reconstructions of manuscripts
• New innovations in mapping
• Immersive technologies such as mixed- or virtual-reality headsets
• Sensory recreations—spaces, sounds, textures, tastes, etc.
• Classroom or research applications for technology
• X-ray, imaging, and other scientific analyses to research palimpsests, artworks, and manuscripts
• Examinations of medieval technologies through modern reconstructions and analyses