The Medieval Academy Blog

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

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)

The Medieval Academy of America invites submissions for the following prizes to be awarded at the 2023 MAA Annual Meeting. Submission instructions vary, but all dossiers must complete by 15 October 2022. The Medieval Academy warmly encourages the nomination of publications written by scholars working beyond the tenure track as well as those written by faculty.

PLEASE NOTE: because of the ongoing MAA office closure, PDF review copies of nominated books may be submitted instead of hardcopies (PDFs should be emailed to the Executive Director). In addition, the residency restrictions limiting eligibility for some book prizes to residents of North America have been lifted.

NEW: Monica H. Green Prize
Awarded to an exceptional project that demonstrates the value of medieval studies in our present day.

NEW: Jerome Singerman Prize
Awarded to a meritorious second monograph in the field of medieval studies.

Haskins Medal
Awarded to a distinguished monograph in the field of medieval studies.

Digital Humanities Prize
Awarded to an outstanding digital research project or resource in the field of medieval studies.

Karen Gould Prize
Awarded to a monograph of outstanding quality in medieval art history.

John Nicholas Brown Prize
Awarded to a first monograph of outstanding quality in the field of medieval studies.

Article Prize in Critical Race Studies
Awarded annually to an article in the field of medieval studies that explores questions of race and the medieval world, and which is judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality.

The following MAA members have been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities:

Lynn Ramey (Vanderbilt University): “Brendan’s Voyage: An Immersive Environment for Medieval Language and Culture” (creating a virtual immersive environment to provide training to students in medieval languages and cultures)

Atria Larson (Saint Louis University): “Gallery of Glosses” (prototyping and testing of a web platform for sharing digitized medieval manuscripts that allows users to identify and transcribe the annotations and marginalia)

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