The Medieval Academy Blog

We are very pleased to announce that the 2025 Inclusivity & Diversity Subvention has been awarded to ARC Humanities Press to support the publication of J. D. Sargan’s forthcoming monograph, Trans Histories of the Medieval Book: An Experiment in Bibliography. Watch for the announcement of an MAA Webinar later this year in which Prof. Sargan (Univ. of Georgia) will discuss his work.

I am very pleased to use this President’s column to report on two new programs begun this summer. Thanks to an initiative by former President Sara Lipton, in June and July the MAA offered a set of intensive summer skills workshops. Funded by a generous anonymous donor (thank you!), the workshops were designed to support graduate students who may not have access to training they need for work on primary sources. Each noncredit course met online for five weeks: Terrence Cullen of Vassar College offered instruction in Old French; Sean Gilsdorf from Harvard taught Latin Paleography and Manuscript Studies; and Diane Warne Anderson of the University of Massachusetts, Boston taught Medieval Latin. We had 77 total applications to the workshops; 49 were accepted and 42 enrolled.

Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. A few noted the need for some fine tuning in our descriptions of prerequisites and course focus, but most recorded enthusiasm for the instructors and the curricula, and several expressed particular gratitude for the accessibility of the workshops on Zoom. The workshops were originally part of the MAA’s 2025 Centennial celebration, but we hope that after review by Council and with the continued support of our donor (thank you again), they will continue in Summer 2026.

This summer also marked the launch of a webinar series funded through an ACLS grant that Lisa Fagin Davis secured for the MAA. Thanks to Lisa’s initiative, our Inclusivity and Diversity Committee is able to host a series of workshops and talks by winners of the grants and prizes awarded by that committee. Stay tuned for announcements of further events in the series.

I end by acknowledging that the new academic year brings personal, professional, and institutional uncertainty for many of us. MAA members have reported hiring freezes, cancellations of academic programs, lost grant funding, reduced or eliminated research funds and the resulting inability to pay for travel to conferences or archives, in addition to escalating and alarming attacks on academic freedom. The conditions in which we do our work are changing quickly, and our ability to preserve the viability of medieval studies – and of the humanities more broadly – may depend on the invention of new modes of collaboration and support. I confess that I don’t know what these would be, though perhaps the programs I described above could be a start. And I would be eager to hear further ideas from you.

As the new editor of Speculum I would like first to thank Kate Jansen and her staff and introduce our new team. Managing Editor Taylor McCall and Associate Editor Carol Anderson have worked with painstaking care to train their successors, and we owe them enormous thanks. Our new Associate Editor, Lily Stewart, earned her Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Northwestern in 2022 and taught for three years as a Visiting Assistant Professor. She has a book manuscript under submission, titled A Sacred Disease: Leprosy, Salvation, and Christian Identity in Medieval Literature. Lily will be handling all book reviews for the journal. Managing Editor Ben Weil, who is in charge of production, will defend his NU dissertation in Art History on November 10: “Representing the City in Fourteenth-Century Italy: Art, Politics, and Civic Identities.” We are all nervously hoping we can keep up the excellent work of Taylor and Carol, and of course, outgoing editor Kate Jansen. I also want to thank interns Yunji Li and Ruby Barenberg for their work on the back matter and Books Received.

Because of a series of article clusters and special issues, among them the exciting “Speculations” to appear in January as we observe our centennial, we have a long backlog at the moment. Articles now being accepted will be published in January or April of 2027. But as the run of special issues comes to an end, we aim to reduce the time from acceptance to publication to no more than a year, and to make editorial decisions in no more than four months. I warmly encourage independent scholars, as well as junior and senior faculty and advanced graduate students, to consider submitting work to Speculum. You’ll find Guidelines for Submissions, as well as our new AI policy and Open Access policy, on the Medieval Academy website.

Along with our traditional fields, we are happy to publish articles on underrepresented areas such as medieval Ireland, Byzantium, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe. And although terms such as “global Middle Ages” need to be used with care, it is also important to cover the manifold connections linking medieval Europe with Africa and Asia. For example, we welcome studies of the Mongol Empire (like the one in the October issue) and research on the Silk Roads as a Eurasian trading and cultural network. Comparative articles, including co-authored pieces, are also welcome. Regardless of topic, of course, all submissions will undergo our rigorous double-blind peer review process. I look forward to working with medievalists of all sorts and conditions in the years to come!

Greetings to all, and to those of you working on campus, welcome back! I hope that everyone was able to take a break and relax a bit this summer, and maybe even get some work done.

In speaking to medievalists at various conferences over the last few months, it has become clear to me that we are all struggling in one way or another. Many MAA members have lost grant funding or other support, whether from the NEH rescission, budget cuts on campus, or other sources. The lawsuit challenging the NEH actions filed by ACLS and our sister learned societies MLA and AHA is moving forward, but it will take time before a resolution is reached (there’s an update here). We’re seeing entire departments slashed or admissions frozen, tenure lines cancelled, institutions of higher education under attack, diversity initiatives shut down, the very history of the United States rewritten before our eyes. This is – to put it mildly – an extremely challenging time for us all.

At a moment such as this, community is more important than ever. And that is exactly what the Medieval Academy of America offers. Our Centennial conference in March was a wonderful example, as more than 800 of us gathered to share scholarship and experience, engage with the challenges of our field, and celebrate our worldwide community of medievalists. Our graduate student members continue to demonstrate their innovation, resilience, and dedication. Members working beyond the tenure track prove over and over again that it is possible to produce the highest-quality scholarship without a .edu address. The Fellows continue to give back through their support of the Fellows Research Awards and participation in the Fellows Speaker Series. Our senior scholars show their support through donations to the MAA’s various funds and participation in our mentorship programs. Through our Diversity, Digital, and K-12 initiatives, we continue to work to build an MAA and a medieval studies that is expansive and inclusive, one that works to broaden and rethink the received and perceived narratives about our field and its practitioners.

There are other intersecting circles of community that are critical to the Medieval Academy’s work. The administration of Speculum and the MAA’s numerous grants and other programs could not function without our administrative and editorial staff, elected governance, and dozens of volunteer committee members. The Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) provides boots-on-the-ground support to representatives of departments and programs on campuses nationwide. Widening our view, we can also place the MAA within the community of eighty-one learned societies affiliated with the American Council of Learned Societies. The community of ACLS Executive Directors has proven to be an invaluable support system for myself and for all of my fellow Learned Society executives. Last year, I was elected Chair of the Executive Committee of the ACLS Conference of Executive Officers (and as such serve ex officio on the ACLS Board of Directors). It has been an absolute joy and a privilege to work with ACLS President Joy Connolly, the ACLS Board and staff, and my fellow Executive Directors as we navigate these turbulent waters together. The community of ACLS Executive Directors meets semi-annually to discuss current issues, share best-practices, engage in professional development, and trade stories and strategies. We will meet in Seattle at the end of October, and I am currently working with the Executive Committee to formulate the agenda for the two-day conference. Alongside the usual topics of non-profit financial management, development best-practices, and membership-retention strategies, we will be discussing the current state of academia and the humanities in the United States, working together to consider ways we can better advocate for and support our constituents. I will report on the meeting in the November edition of Medieval Academy News.

In the meantime, I encourage you to read not only the columns above written by President Peggy McCracken and our new Editor of Speculum Barbara Newman, but all of the various items in this month’s MAA News. There’s a lot going on, and I hope you will take advantage of the many opportunities offered by the MAA. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime with questions, suggestions, or concerns, and, if MAA membership has value to you, take a moment to support us with a tax-deductible donation. Finally, please encourage your medievalist friends to join us in our work.

I hope to see you at the 2026 Annual Meeting in Western Massachusetts!

– Lisa

Lisa Fagin Davis, Executive Director

LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org

We are very pleased to announce our new partnership with the American Trust for the British Library! MAA grantwinners who need to conduct research at the British Library will now be eligible for an additional $2,500 Fellowship from ATBL to support that research. When you apply for an MAA grant, you may check a box indicating your interest in being considered for this supplementary Fellowship, should your MAA application be funded. We are extremely grateful to the ATBL for supporting our members in such a generous way!

The Medieval Academy of America invites applications for the following grants. Please note that applicants must be members in good standing at the time of application.

Birgit Baldwin Fellowship

The Birgit Baldwin Fellowship in French Medieval History provides a grant of $20,000 to support a graduate student in a North American university who is researching and writing a significant dissertation for the Ph.D. on any subject in French medieval history that can be realized only by sustained research in the archives and libraries of France. The fellowship helps defray research and living expenses for the equivalent of an academic year of study. It may be renewed for a second year upon demonstration of satisfactory progress. Applications must be submitted by 15 November 2025 for funding beginning in September 2026.

Fellows Research Awards

The Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America have donated funds to support two research awards for members of the Medieval Academy who do not have access to research funding. Two Awards of $5,000 will be funded each year to Ph.D. candidates and/or non-tenure-track scholars to support research in medieval studies. The awards will help fund travel and/or access expenses to consult original sources, archives, manuscripts, works of art, or monuments in situ. To apply for a Fellows Research Award, submit the application form and attachment by October 15, 2025.

MAA/CARA Conference Grant

The MAA/CARA Conference Grant will be awarded annually to a regional or consortial Medieval Studies Program or Association to support an annual regional or consortial conference taking place the year after the application is submitted (for example, applications will be accepted in 2025 for conferences taking place in 2026). Awards will be based on proposals adjudicated by the Academy’s CARA Committee. One (1) grant of $1,000 will be awarded each year. (Deadline 15 October 2025)

Schallek Fellowship

Funded by the Richard III Society, American Branch. As of July 2024, the scope and amount of the Schallek program have changed in accordance with the Society’s instructions, as follows: “Applications will be solicited from graduate students whose work, in any relevant discipline, focuses primarily on the late medieval period in England or any of the British Isles, or which involves British connections to the European Continent in the late medieval period. ‘Late Medieval’ will be defined broadly as the period c.1350-1500 or so.” The Schallek Fellowship provides a one-year grant of $40,000 to support Ph.D. dissertation research. (Deadline 15 October 2025 for funding beginning in September 2026)

Travel Grants

The Medieval Academy provides a limited number of travel grants to help Academy members who hold PhDs but have no access to institutional travel funding, attend conferences to present their work. Exceptions to the PhD requirement may be made for unaffiliated or contingent scholars who are active in Medieval Studies (Deadline 1 November 2025 for meetings to be held between 16 February and 31 August 2026)

We are thrilled to announce the establishment of a new book prize this year, for a meritorious monograph in Byzantine Studies, broadly defined. For example, the prize might be offered to studies that substantially engage with the Eastern Roman Empire and/or its successor states from the fourth through the fifteenth centuries (in any subfield); or studies of peoples and states with close connections to Byzantium, such as Coptic Egypt, the Syriac world, Armenia, and Georgia. Books must be monographs written in English and authors must be members of the MAA. The Prize of $1,000 will be awarded at the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America. For the first five years, the Prize will be a pilot program with the possibility of extension, funded by a consortium of five Byzantine Studies organizations: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University; the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture; the Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University; the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University; and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University. The MAA is extremely grateful to these organizations for supporting the Prize. For more information or to submit a monograph for consideration, see the Call for Submissions below or click here.

Through its Publication Prize program, the Medieval Academy of America aims to accomplish three goals:

1) Honoring and promoting outstanding scholarship produced by medievalists;

2) Supporting authors in any medieval field and at all career levels by raising the visibility of their scholarship;

3) Acknowledging the work of publishers of all kinds.

Award-winning publications scholarship should function as a model of current best practices in Medieval Studies and as a model for the future of the field. Although the various Prizes have specific eligibility criteria, general procedures and requirements are as follows:

1) In contrast to past years, authors of submitted books need not be members of the Medieval Academy of America.

2) All prize winners will receive a complimentary one-year MAA membership in addition to the prize.

3) All publishers are eligible, whether non-profit or for-profit.

4) Nominations may be submitted by authors or by publishers, but all submissions must use the central Publications Prize Portal. Please note that incomplete or late submissions will not be considered.

5) Ordinarily a nomination should go forward in a single category for a given year. Authors and publishers should contact the Executive Director LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org for queries about exceptions to this policy.

6) Monographs that have previously been awarded an MAA Publication Prize are not eligible for other MAA Publication Prizes except for the Haskins Medal.

7) Submissions may be by hardcopy and/or eBook.

8) All submissions and supporting documents must be received by 15 October.

9) Prizes will be announced in February and awarded during the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America.

10) Authors need not be residents of North America, but all submissions must be written in English.

Monograph Prizes:

John Nicholas Brown Prize: Best First Monograph

Byzantine Studies Prize: Best Monograph in Byzantine Studies

Karen Gould Prize: Best Medieval Art History Monograph

Haskins Medal: Best Monograph in Medieval Studies

Jerome Singerman Prize: Best Second Monograph

Article Prizes:

Article Prize in Critical Race Studies: Best Article in the field of Medieval Critical Race Studies

Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize: Best Early-Career Article

Other Formats:

Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize: Best DH Project

Monica Green Prize: For an exceptional project (for example, a publication, exhibit, performance, or DH project) that shows the importance of studying the medieval past to understand the present.

The Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Centers and Regional Organizations (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.

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 help organize the CARA plenary at the annual Medieval Academy meeting and various CARA zoom sessions throughout the academic year.

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. We are particularly interested in nominees who are familiar with medieval studies programs and curricula in Texas and the southwest United States. 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, center or 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 2025 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 the Annual Meeting in March 2026. Please send nominations, as well as any questions or requests for further information, to the CARA Chair, Lauren Mancia (laurenmancia@brooklyn.cuny.edu).

The Fellows’ Executive Committee and the leadership of CARA sponsor the Medieval Academy Fellows Speaker Series, in which certain volunteers among the Fellows have made themselves available to give subsidized and/or free talks and lectures at various venues around North America, either “in person” or on Zoom. Twenty-six Fellows have volunteered thus far and have proposed a variety of potential talks for both general and specialized audiences. It is an exciting list, and a fitting way to support the Humanities in these challenging times. This series is aimed primarily at venues where scholarly talks from medievalists are not an everyday occurrence.

The volunteer speakers and potential talks are posted here on the MAA website in a spreadsheet where there is additional information about funding options, travel geography, medium (in person or virtual or both), and targeted audience for the specific talk, as well as email contacts for the speakers. Note that no talks require honoraria, so all zoom talks are free; the only cost to the host institution is the cost of travel and lodging for in-person visits. We invite medievalists interested in hosting a talk at their institution to examine the list of topics and speakers and directly email the speaker whose talk is of interest to make arrangements for a visit (virtual or in-person). The host institution and the speaker can work out the details about funding for travel/travel details/etc.–note that the MAA and CARA do not have any additional funding other than what the fellow is generously providing. Institutions should feel free to contact Lauren Mancia (laurenmancia@brooklyn.cuny.edu) with any additional questions.