The Medieval Academy Blog

The 102nd Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on the campus of the University of Toronto, 15-17 April, 2027. The meeting is hosted by The Centre for Medieval Studies, in partnership with the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and the Canadian Society of Medievalists. The Annual Meeting will be held at Trinity College and St Michael’s College, two of the federated colleges in the University of Toronto college system. Scholars may wish to extend their visit and take advantage of opportunities for research at the library of the Pontifical Institute, one of the premier research libraries in Medieval Studies. 

The Program Commitee welcomes innovative panels that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries or that use various disciplinary approaches to examine an individual topic. We encourage papers on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe and the networks and exchanges between East and West.

Click here for more information and to submit a proposal. Proposals must be submitted by 1 June 2026.

In the midst of a busy time of year when we are all dealing with threats to humanities funding on the one hand and the pressure to engage with AI on the other, I want to remind you of all the MAA has to offer in open-access non-AI-infiltrated Digital Medieval Studies. You may not realize these resources are available to you!

1) Database of Medieval Digital Resources (MDR): MDR is a curated database of nearly 300 peer-reviewed digital resources for the study of the Middle Ages. Users can browse an alphabetical list or search using controlled-vocabulary subject tags to find vetted online resources of many types, including: imagebanks; bibliographies and reference works; pedagogical tools; editions and translations; music and other multimedia collections; interpretative websites; and new works of digital scholarship. MDR intentionally does not include resources that are paywalled or require password access, although some resources may have restrictive use-licenses. Resources are selected for MDR by subject and digital specialists with reference to both their content and the rigorous Standards for Web Publication developed by the MAA’s Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Committee. Once approved, PIs have the right to include the MAA/MDR Logo on their resource’s homepage, as a way to indicate that the resource has been vetted and approved by the MAA. It is our hope that this imprimateur will help medievalists and others easily find and navigate to open-access, reliable digital resources and help PIs get “credit” for digital work in grant applications, tenure dossiers, and job applications.

After a decade of development and working with different peer-review models, however, it recently became clear to me that the vetting system was breaking down. It was taking much too long for submissions to get through the approval process, frustrating both users and PIs. In response, the MAA Council recently approved several important procedural changes that we hope will expedite the review and approval of submitted resources. While each resource will continue to require two positive reviews in order to be approved, only one of those reviews will be provided by a member of the MDR Committee. The second review will come from an outside subject specialist assigned by the new Manager of the project, MAA staff member Jon Dell Isola, who will also manage the backend of the database. Questions? Email us at MDR@TheMedievalAcademy.org.

Want to submit a digital resource for peer review and potential inclusion in the database? MDR welcomes nominations of resources for inclusion in this growing collection. Please use the Suggest a Resource Form to offer recommendations for inclusion, after first ensuring that the resource is not already part of MDR. Self-nominations are encouraged!

Want to be an MDR Peer Reviewer? In addition to a designated Committee of reviewers, each of whom serves in this capacity for three years, we also welcome volunteers who wish to be assigned resources in their area of expertise to review. Click here to fill out the Volunteer Service Form, and be sure to check the “Medieval Digital Resources Reviewer” box at the bottom of the form (along with any other Committees that appeal to you!). PIs and users will thank you!

2) Library of Digital Latin Texts/ Digital Latin Library: The DLL is a joint project of the Society for Classical Studies, the Medieval Academy of America, and the Renaissance Society of America, hosted by the University of Oklahoma. One benefit to publishing in the LDLT is that editions are published as version-controlled repositories of source files. This means that editions are not tightly bound to interfaces that can and do become obsolete as technology advances. The project prioritizes digital sustainability and open access in preparing and serving critical editions. Authors do not need previous TEI/XML experience to be part of the project; the DLL team is available to assist with encoding! In partnership with DLL, MAA has published three digital editions so far, and several more are under development. Click here for more information.

3) eBooks: Sixty-three volumes in the Medieval Academy Books series are part of the Humanities eBook database. Many more MAA publications are available for download in various digital formats on our website, and of course as an MAA member you have access to the entire digital run of Speculum.

4) Database subscription discounts: MAA members can purchase discounted subscriptions to JSTOR and other bibliographic databases here and here.

5) Reviews of Digital Resources in Speculum: Speculum DH Reviews Editor Laura Morreale is now accepting self-nominations to review recent digital projects (ideally from the past 3 years) which address the following themes or methodologies: Medieval women and gender; Medieval law and/or legal cultures; Maps and mapping (projects on other themes and methodologies will be solicited soon!). To qualify for consideration, projects must be fully documented and catalogued in an online repository prior to review. For more information, please see the call for projects on the MAA blog.

6) Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize: Each year, the MAA honors one DH project with the Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize. You can submit a resource for consideration here. Self-nominations are encouraged!

I hope you will take advantage of all of these resources. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out anytime.

– Lisa
Lisa Fagin Davis
Executive Director
LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org

The 102nd Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on the campus of the University of Toronto, 15-17 April, 2027. The meeting is hosted by The Centre for Medieval Studies, in partnership with the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and the Canadian Society of Medievalists. The Annual Meeting will be held at Trinity College and St Michael’s College, two of the federated colleges in the University of Toronto college system. Scholars may wish to extend their visit and take advantage of opportunities for research at the library of the Pontifical Institute, one of the premier research libraries in Medieval Studies. 

The Program Commitee welcomes innovative panels that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries or that use various disciplinary approaches to examine an individual topic. We encourage papers on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe and the networks and exchanges between East and West.

Click here for more information and to submit a proposal. Proposals must be submitted by 1 June 2026.

As ever, the Medieval Academy will have a strong presence at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. We hope you will join us for these sessions and special events:

1) For the first time, the MAA Plenary will take place on Friday evening instead of Friday morning. The lecture will be delivered by Michelle M. Sauer (University of North Dakota), “The Queerness of Solitude”, at 7 PM in Sangren Hall 1910. Two related sessions organized by Prof. Sauer will take place on Saturday at 10:30 AM, “Queerness of Solitude (1): Gender, Queerness, and Enclosure” and Saturday at 1:30 PM, “Queerness of Solitude (2): Sex, Gender, and Space in Mystical Literature,” both in Sangren Hall 1910.

2) The Graduate Student Committee Roundtable will take place on Saturday at 8:30 AM, “Ugly Books: How to Research Damaged or Fragmented Manuscripts,” in Sangren Hall 2710.

3) The MAA Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Committee is co-sponsoring a workshop on Saturday at 1:30 PM, “Digital Pedagogies for a Medieval World: A Workshop on Digital Humanities in the Classroom,” in Waldo Library 3014 (the Multipurpose Room).

4) Finally, we invite you to visit our staffed table in the exhibit hall to introduce yourself, transact any Medieval Academy business you may have, or pick up some chocolate to keep you going during those long afternoon sessions. As in the past, we will be giving away fifty free one-year memberships to new members, so spread the word!

See you at the ‘Zoo!

If you’re going to be at the Leeds International Medieval Congress this year, please join us on Tuesday, 7 July, 19.00-20.00 (Session 901) for the annual Medieval Academy Lecture, to be delivered by Fiona Griffiths (Department of History, Stanford University), “Timing, Temporalities, and the Cleric’s Wife.” Afterwards, join Prof. Griffiths and MAA governance and staff members for the Medieval Academy’s open-bar wine reception.

We hope to see you there!

Have you found yourself unsure about which MAA Grant or Fellowship is the right fit for you and your work? Thanks to MAA Special Projects Assistant Jon Dell Isola, you need wonder no more. Jon has recently written Guidelines for Applicants, and these have now been posted to our website: one for students, and one for everyone else. He will be presenting the student guidelines at an upcoming webinar sponsored by the MAA Graduate Student Committee; click here for more information and to register. We hope that this presentation and these documents will help members make decisions about which MAA grantmaking program they should look to for support.

As the MAA enters its second century, we continue to revisit all of our various programs and policies in order to ensure that we are serving our constituents and the field as best we can. The Ad Hoc Committee on Grants & Fellowships was convened in the fall of 2025 to review all of our grantmaking programs and recommend possible changes to eligibility, grant amounts, and adjudication procedures. The Committee members are: Joseph Ackley (Wesleyan Univ.), Richard Barton (Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro), Cristina Maria Cervone (Univ. of Memphis), Sarah Davis-Secord (Univ. of New Mexico), and Craig Nakashian (Texas A&M Univ. – Texarkana). Their work is nearly complete and any changes approved by Council will be announced and implemented in the fall.

Writing Like Monks and Nuns: a Writing Community by the Graduate Student Committee

Tuesday, May 5th, 3pm EDT

“He who does not know how to write does not think that it is a labor. Three fingers write, the whole body labors. Whoever has read this book, pray for me”. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 9561, fol. 81v.)

Does this scribal plea—found by Thijs Porck (Universiteit Leiden)—resonate with your writing practice? Crying out in pain from an eighth century copy of Gregory’s Pastoral Care this scribe asks for an intercession familiar to dissertation writers, “pray for me”. Clacking away, hunched over a computer screen we toil physically as well.

Toil alone no longer! The Graduate Student Committee of the MAA invites you to our writing community pilot, Writing Like Monks and Nuns.

Informed by research on the benefits of writing groups for early career researchers and inspired by medieval writing practices, we aim to create a space of accountability, community, and fun.

Each 75-minute writing session begins with a medieval writing warm-up, followed by dedicated writing time and a short debrief. Attendees will be entered in a drawing to win a free year of MAA membership.

Questions can be directed to organizers Camila Roxana Marcone (camila.marcone@yale.edu) and Summer Block Lizer (summer.lizer@cgu.edu)

Dates and times
May 5 – 3pm EST
May 19 – 3pm EST
June 9 – 3pm EST
June 23 – 3pm EST

Register here to receive the zoom link.

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MAA Funding for Graduate Students
Moderated by Rebekkah Hart
Wednesday, May 6th, 3pm EDT

We welcome all graduate student medievalists to a webinar on May 6th at 3pm EDT about grant opportunities through the Medieval Academy. MAA Special Projects Assistant Jon Dell Isola will provide an overview of the various grant opportunities and tips for applying to grants.

Presenter:
Jon Dell Isola, Medieval Academy of America
Click here to register!

We are very pleased to announce the 2026 Dissertation Grant awardees:

Veronica A. Arntz (Marquette University), “Between Creativity and Uniformity: The Liturgical Life of Marienberg bei Helmstedt in its Visual, Material, and Spatial Context, 1176-1570” (Hope Emily Allen Dissertation Grant);

Paul Rembert Aste (Brown University), “Constructions of Alterity in the Early Medieval Province of Narbonne: Rhetoric, Narrative, and Resistance in the Shadow of the Pyrenees” (Helen Maud Cam Dissertation Grant);

Imen Boussayoud (Brown University), “Descent of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in the Canary Islands and Madeira (1370-1600 CE)” (John Boswell Dissertation Grant);

Miguel Fernandes (University of Chicago), “Grasping Number: Embodied numeracy and visualization in the long middle ages” (Étienne Gilson Dissertation Grant);

Nathan Paul Greenhaw (State University of New York at Stony Brook), “Imperial Entanglements: Religion, Culture, and the Borderland Politics of the Norman-Byzantine Rivalry in the Medieval Mediterranean” (Frederic C. Lane Dissertation Grant);

Timothy Hampshire (Harvard University), “The Vatican Virgil and its Public” (E. K. Rand Dissertation Grant);

Flannery E. McIntyre (University of California, Berkeley), “Music and the Materiality of Knowledge in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages” (Robert and Janet Lumiansky Dissertation Grant);

Charlie Steinman (Columbia University), “Embodiment of Jurisdiction: Petty Officialdom and Enforcement in the Lower Rhône Valley, c. 1200-1350” (Charles T. Wood Dissertation Grant);

Margaret H. Wilson (The Ohio State University), “Making and Breaking Enclosure: The Movement of Art Through Late Medieval Convents” (Grace Frank Dissertation Grant).

Medieval Academy dissertation grants support advanced graduate students who are writing Ph.D. dissertations on medieval topics. The $2,000 grants help defray research expenses such as the cost of travel to research collections and the cost of photographs, photocopies, microfilms, and other research materials.