The Medieval Academy Blog

Dear colleagues,

The 2022 Annual Meeting is nearly upon us. The last time any of us were together for an MAA meeting was in Philadelphia in the Spring of 2019, which feels like a lifetime ago. I am thrilled to be heading to Charlottesville next week to see #MAA2022 unfold. I wish we could all be together in person, but I am very pleased that via the hybrid format we can welcome the participation of medievalists worldwide, including those unable to travel for various reasons. As we share our concern over the state of the world and the safety of friends, family, and colleagues in Ukraine, I hope that this meeting will provide an opportunity to consider how we, as humanists, academics, and medievalists, can support the preservation of antiquities and the sharing of knowledge.

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. Please use this link to register:

https://whova.com/portal/registration/maoaa_202203/

Click here for more information and to download the program. I look forward to seeing you there!

– Lisa

98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America
The Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC
23-26 February, 2023

The 98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place at the Grand Hyatt Washington in downtown Washington, DC. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Medieval Academy of America and a consortium of medievalists from DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland.

The conference program will feature sessions highlighting innovative scholarship across the many disciplines contributing to medieval studies. The Program Committee invites proposals for papers on all topics and in all disciplines and periods of medieval studies and medievalism, including on the themes and strands proposed below. Any member of the Medieval Academy may submit a paper proposal; others may submit proposals as well but must become members in order to present papers at the meeting. Special consideration will be given to individuals whose field would not normally involve membership in the Medieval Academy. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions from those working outside of traditional academic positions, including independent scholars, emeritus or adjunct faculty, university administrators, those working in cultural heritage institutions (libraries, archives, museums, scholarly societies, or cultural research centers), editors and publishers, and other fellow medievalists. The Program Committee seeks to construct a program that fully reflects and expands the diversity of the Medieval Academy’s membership with respect to research areas and representation.

Plenary addresses will be delivered by Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor of Medieval Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Anne Dunlop, Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne; and Maureen Miller, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley, and incoming president of the Academy.

Click here for the full call for papers.

The Medieval Academy Book Subvention Program provides grants of up to $2,500 to university or other non-profit scholarly presses to support the publication of first books by Medieval Academy members. Click here for more information.

The Medieval Academy Inclusivity and Diversity Book Subvention Program provides subventions of up to $5,000 to university or other non-profit scholarly presses to support the publication of books concerning the study of inclusivity and diversity in the Middle Ages (broadly conceived) by Medieval Academy members. Click here for more information.

Applications for subventions will be accepted only from the publisher and only for books that have already been approved for publication. Eligible Academy members who wish to have their books considered for a subvention should ask their publishers to apply directly to the Academy, following the guidelines outlined on the relevant webpage. The deadline for proposals is 1 May 2021.

The MAA/CARA Summer Scholarships support graduate students and especially promising undergraduate students participating in summer courses in medieval languages or manuscript studies. Applicants must be members of the Medieval Academy in good standing with at least one year of graduate school remaining and must demonstrate both the importance of the summer course to their program of study and their home institution’s inability to offer analogous coursework. Click here for more information.

As always, the Medieval Academy of America will have a strong presence at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, taking place online from May 9 – 14.

1) The 2022 Medieval Academy Plenary Lecture will be delivered by Geraldine Heng (University of Texas at Austin), “An Ordinary Ship and Its Stories of Early Globalism,” on Tuesday, May 10 at 3:00 PM EDT. The lecture will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Heng. Two associated sessions on The Global Middle Ages will take place on May 11 at 5 PM EDT (Session 189) and 7 PM EDT (Session 205).

2) The MAA Graduate Student Committee is sponsoring a roundtable discussion on “Medieval Studies and the Community: Scholarship and Outreach” on May 11 at 5 PM EDT (Session 184). An informal gathering for graduate students will take place on May 9 at 7 PM EDT.

3) CARA (the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations) is sponsoring two roundtables: “Magistri et Artifices: Defining Excellence in the Medieval Studies Classroom” on May 9 at 3 PM EDT (Session 57) and “Insularity and Regionality in the Global Middle Ages” on May 12 at 3 PM EDT (Session 238).

Click here for more information. We hope to “see” you there!

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.

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.