MAA News – Good News From Our Members

The Medieval Academy congratulates two members who have each been awarded a Dan David Prize: Verena Krebs, a cultural historian focused on medieval Ethiopia and European-African relations in Western Christendom; and Kristina Richardson, a historian of the medieval Islamic world, focused on nonelite groups such as Roma printers. Each Dan David Prize of $300,000 “recognizes outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history. Congratulations!

If you have Good News to share, please send it to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis.

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MAA News – Jerome E. Singerman Prize

The Medieval Academy of America is delighted to announce the establishment of an annual book prize to honor Jerome E. Singerman, Senior Humanities Editor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Press, and his lifelong commitment to building and sustaining our discipline. The MAA’s Jerome E. Singerman Prize will be awarded annually for a meritorious second book in any area of medieval studies, broadly conceived. A call for submissions will be posted in the fall of 2022, and the inaugural Singerman Prize will be presented at the 2023 MAA Annual Meeting.

Jerry acquired books and established series for UPP in a variety of fields, including medieval, early modern and eighteenth-century studies, early American studies, and Jewish studies. In recent years, his efforts in advancing methodologies such as ecocriticism and critical race studies, particularly in support of early career scholars, have especially benefited the profession.

The Singerman Prize is supported by the Jerome E. Singerman Fund. Donations may be made here:

https://www.medievalacademy.org/donations/fund.asp?id=21648

Checks from individual donors or donor-advised funds are also welcome and should be payable to the Medieval Academy of America, with “Singerman Fund” noted on the memo line. Remit to:

Singerman Fund
Medieval Academy of America
6 Beacon St., Suite 500
Boston, MA 02108

The Singerman Fund has been established by a group of generous donors under the leadership of Cristina Maria Cervone, Ruth Mazo Karras, Barbara Newman, and Nicholas Watson. We are extremely grateful for their support.

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Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (POLY)

Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities (POLY), a Project of the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), is offering  five scholarships to Ukrainian historians who are forced to leave their country.  Scholarships consist of 3000 € per month each and are initially limited to four months.  They address post-doctoral scholars in medieval and early modern history with a focus on religious plurality. Click here for more information:
https://www.geschichte.uni-frankfurt.de/92594738/Polycentricity_and_Plurality_of_Premodern_Christianities__POLY

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Last chance to register for MAA 2022!

Register now for MAA 2022!

If you haven’t registered to attend MAA 2022 online, it’s not too late! Registration to attend the 2022 MAA meeting virtually will close
at 9 am on Monday, March 7, 2022.

If you would like to participate, please register at: https://whova.com/portal/webapp/maoaa_202203/

More information here: https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/2022AnnualMeeting

Join us for what promises to be an extraordinary meeting!

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Call for Book Reviews – Comitatus 53

Comitatus
A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Call for Book Reviews

The books listed in this PDF on our website are available for review in Comitatus 53 (2022), the graduate student journal published by the UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies. If you would like to write a review for Comitatus 53, email Allison McCann (allisonmccann@humnet.ucla.edu) with your top choice and an alternate. Please also include your university affiliation and a brief explanation of your research interests and the qualifications that make you an ideal reviewer for your requested title. Priority is given to reviewers who are currently enrolled in a graduate program.

All book review requests must be received by March 1, 2022, at which time the editor will select reviews for inclusion in this year’s volume. We typically receive more requests than we can publish. Please note that some books may only be available for review in a digital format.

Final book reviews will be due June 1, 2022, and should be between 800 and 1500 words in length. Further information on formatting will be shared with reviewers once final selections are made.

http://cmrs.ucla.edu/publications/journals/comitatus/

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Data Rescue for Ukraine – Sat. March 5th

Dear digital humanists,

My colleagues Anna E. Kijas and Francesca Giannetti (Digital Humanities Interest Group, Music Library Association) and Andy Janco (Digital Humanities Interest Group of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies) are organizing a rapid-response Digital Humanities intervention to secure Ukrainian cultural heritage materials during this war.

They are requesting volunteers to participate in data rescue session on Saturday, March 5th, time to be determined. No programming experience is necessary and you do not have to speak Russian or Ukrainian to participate. Please forward to anyone who may be interested.

You can register for the event here.

Best regards,
Matt
Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities
School of Information Studies
Assistant Professor of American Studies (by courtesy)
School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Purdue University

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Protesting the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The Medieval Academy of America strongly condemns the government of Russia for invading the sovereign state of Ukraine. We protest the already significant loss of human lives, and the ongoing bombing of Ukraine’s historic cities, including the capital at Kyiv (Kiev). We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and particularly the community of medievalist scholars, those who protect Ukraine’s historic patrimony, and the families and friends of MAA members. This tragic disruption of the lives of the people of Ukraine touches many of us personally. Within our circle, a sister-in-law is visiting relatives in central Ukraine; a friend in Odessa reported yesterday that invading Russian forces had landed from the sea; one of our MAA members living with his family in L’viv has reported being awakened by explosions two days in a row. We echo his sentiments “Praying and hoping for real peace to come.”

As medievalists we recognize the importance of Ukraine as cradle of the Early Rus, and Kyiv, the capital of Vladimir I (r. 980-1015) who converted to Byzantine Christianity after his emissaries to Constantinople reported the inspiring architecture and liturgy of Hagia Sophia. At the same time, we insist that this historical legacy does not justify Vladimir Putin’s claim that this territory belongs to Russia. Ukraine has its own complicated history and cultural makeup, which includes Scythian nomads who originated in Iran, Vladimir’s (transliteration of the Scandinavian name, Valdemar) Norse ancestors who were known by the name “Rus,” Tatars and Zaporozhian Cossacks, Jewish and Armenian communities, Lithuanians and Poles, whose legacy is reflected in the cultural expression of Ukraine’s later medieval cities. Only in the late seventeenth century were central and eastern Ukraine forcefully brought into the Russian Empire, while western Ukraine remained part of the Hapsburg Empire until 1918. In the interwar period, an independent Ukrainian Republic endured until 1922.

The legacy of the Early Rus survives in significant medieval monuments, including the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Kyiv, with mosaics dating to the eleventh century, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves, f. 1051), and the later medieval cityscapes of Chernivtsi and L’viv, all UNESCO World Heritage sites. We strongly condemn ongoing military actions that will inevitably claim innocent lives and result in the irretrievable loss of historical patrimony. We urge the resumption of diplomatic efforts to restore peace to Ukraine as soon as possible.

Thomas Dale, President
Maureen Miller, First Vice-President
Robin Fleming, Second Vice-President

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Jobs For Medievalists

TITLE:                      Public Humanities Fellow

DEPARTMENT:      Center for Renaissance Studies

SUMMARY: The Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies seeks an early career scholar in Premodern Critical Race Studies to serve as a Public Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow for one year (with the possibility of renewal for a second year pending grant funding) to support Seeing Race Before Race, a multi-year project including an exhibition, public and scholarly programming, a publication, and digital initiatives. Reporting to the Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies, the Fellow will begin in Fall 2022, one year before the exhibition launches in Fall 2023.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Ensures that all exhibition assets align with prevailing methods of premodern critical race studies.
  • Assists in creating and editing exhibition texts;
  • Acts as the internal and external communications lead for the project;
  • Manages exhibition programming work;
  • Develops digital resources;
  • Liaises with departments across the Newberry;
  • All other duties as assigned to meet departmental and organizational goals.

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • PhD in a humanities field related to global studies ca.1100-1800, with expertise in premodern critical race studies preferred (the incumbent’s degree must have been completed within the past five years);
  • Preference may be given to candidates whose scholarly work or career has been focused on public history, museums, libraries, and archives

SCHEDULE: This is a full-time, nonexempt position, working 35 hours per week, with normal hours generally from 9:00 AM-5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. The incumbent will be required to work in person.

BENEFITS: The Newberry offers a comprehensive benefits package including a variety of health, dental, and vision insurances; generous paid time off (vacation time, sick leave, personal days, and paid holidays); a 403(B) retirement plan with an employer match; employer-provided basic life insurance; and much more.

TO APPLY: Interested candidates should email a cover letter, CV, and the names and contact info of three references in a single PDF document to jobs@newberry.org. Please include “FirstName LastName – Seeing Race Fellow” in the email’s subject line. The PDF document should be titled in the format of lastname_firstname.pdf. Applications sent without a cover letter and CV will not be considered. Please, no phone calls.

For more information about this project, please email renaissance@newberry.org.

The Newberry’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential to our mission: providing free and open access to a collection spanning more than six centuries; building and sustaining communities of learning, advancing and disseminating knowledge; and acquiring and preserving materials that represent a range of perspectives and experiences—including those that historically have been underappreciated, marginalized, or silenced. As a civic institution that values the free exchange of ideas, it is the Newberry’s duty to ensure that attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion informs all that we do, internally and externally. This is an urgent priority for the staff and board of trustees as we shape our institution and outreach.

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Call for Papers – (Re-)Conceptualizing Medieval and Early Modern Central Europe

CFP for MEMGS Seminar: (Re-)Conceptualizing Medieval and Early Modern Central Europe

Convenors: CJ (Claire Taylor) Jones (University of Notre Dame, German) and Frances Kneupper (University of Mississippi, History)

This seminar focuses on the diversity of the periods before 1800, of the communities of Central Europe (both German-speaking and non-German-speaking), and of German speakers outside of Europe. Participants are invited to reflect on the variety of ways in which our disciplines or modern terminology construct our object of study, sometimes in ways incommensurate with the world of the past. When is “German” not a useful concept and how do we redefine our area to better reflect historical circumstances? How have premodernists in various disciplines been redefining what has value as an object of study? How do interactions between different disciplines lead to new ways of interpreting sources? How do premodern sources challenge our assumptions about concepts such as “nation,” “language,” “literature,” “authorship,” a “work,” and “art”? How do we engage the multiple overlaps and borders between various conceptions of Central Europe? How can new approaches to premodern Central Europe transform the way we teach in high schools and colleges?GSA Seminars meet for all three days of the conference during the first or second morning slot to foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual exchange, and intensified networking. They are led by two to four conveners and consist of 10 to 20 participants, at least some of whom should be graduate students. In order to reach the goal of extended discussion, seminar organizers and participants are required to participate in all three installments of the seminar.To apply for a seminar, access the portal through the conference website. Applications ask for a title and abstract describing the nature of your contribution to the seminar, as well as a short biography. The application portal will open at the end of February. Applicants must be members of the GSA for 2022; you can join or renew your membership through the GSA website: https://www.thegsa.org/.

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18th Annual Marco Symposium

Religious Communities Across Space and Time in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East

18th Annual Marco Symposium
March 4 – 5, 2022
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

This year’s sympoisum brings together scholars of the medieval and early modern world to examine how religious communities conceptualized and imagined themselves. The symposium will feature specialists whose geographic interests include Africa, the Middle East and Europe. “Community” will be interpreted broadly to include not only world systems such as oikumene, ummah or ecclesia, but also local communities, such as individual mosques, monasteries, or synagogues.

Papers will investigate how interactions between religious communities shaped their identities and experiences. The symposium will explore the diversity and complexity of pre-modern notions of religious communities across a wide range of geographic, confessional and temporal boundaries.

For more information, including the agenda, please visit marco.utk.edu/symposium.

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