We are pleased to announce several new initiatives approved by the Council of the Medieval Academy of America at its recent meeting in Toronto:
1) The Karen Gould Prize in Art History: The Gould Prize will be awarded annually for a book or monograph in medieval art history judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality. Books published in 2015 will be eligible for submission in the fall of 2017, with the inaugural Prize to be awarded at the 2018 Annual Meeting. The Prize will be adjudicated by the Gould Prize Committee, currently being assembled. The Gould Prize was endowed by Prof. Gould’s husband, Lewis Gould. More information here: https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/page/GouldPrize
2) MAA/CARA Conference Grant for Regional Associations and Programs: The $1,000 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. The first round of applications will be accepted in the fall of 2017 for meetings taking place in 2018. More information here: http://www.medievalacademy.org/page/MAA CARA Grant
3) Digital Initiatives: For several years, the MAA Digital Initiatives Advisory Board has advised the Council and the Academy staff on digital initiatives and policies. Because digital humanities now permeates all aspects of our programming, the Council moved at its recent meeting to replace the Advisory Board with three permanent bodies, each of which will have specific mandates in different areas. We are extremely grateful to the members of DIAB for their counsel and hard work over the last several years that has been instrumental in bringing us to this juncture. The new initiatives are as follows:
a) New Speculum Review Editor: Speculum editor Sarah Spence has appointed a Speculum Review Editor responsible for digital humanities and multimedia studies, a new position that will facilitate the regular review of digital resources in future issues of Speculum. In addition to informing Speculum‘s readers about new developments in digital humanities, it is hoped that these reviews will help developers of medieval digital projects receive due credit for their work in promotion and tenure dossiers. Peter Stokes (King’s College London) has agreed to serve in this new position.
b) The Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize Committee: This new Committee, currently being assembled, will adjudicate the annual DHMS Prize and will function in accordance with our other prize committees (three members serving in rotation with the senior member serving as Chair).
c) The Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Committee: This new Committee, currently being assembled, will be responsible for: soliciting resources for the soon-to-be-launched Database of Medieval Digital Resources; conducting an annual audit of resources in the Database to ensure their continued viability; and regularly updating the MAA’s best-practices guidelines for digital resources (to be posted online soon).
It is our hope that these initiatives will help us increase support of our members by expanding recognition of published work, providing additional support to programs and associations, and acknowledging the many ways medievalists develop and use digital methodologies and tools.
