MAA News – Continuing Blogpost Series: Medievalists Beyond the Tenure Track

Two essays have recently been posted in our continuing series on career paths for medievalists beyond the tenure track, by Jerome Singerman (Senior Editor for Literary criticism and cultural studies, medieval and Renaissance studies, and Jewish studies at the University of Pennsylvania Press) and Susan Kramer (independent scholar and author of the 2015 monograph Sin, Interiority, and Selfhood in the Twelfth-Century West). Read their stories here.

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MAA News – Upcoming Deadlines

Deadline 15 February:
Belle Da Costa Greene Award (deadline 15 February)
The Belle Da Costa Greene Award of $2,000 will be granted annually to a medievalist of color for research and travel. The award may be used to visit archives, attend conferences, or to facilitate writing and research. The award will be granted on the basis of the quality of the proposed project, the applicant’s budgetary needs (as expressed by a submitted budget and in the project narrative), and the estimation of the ways in which the award will facilitate the applicant’s research and contribute to the field. Special consideration will be given to graduate students, emerging junior scholars, adjunct, and unaffiliated scholars. Click here for more information. Click here to make a donation in support of the Greene Award.

Olivia Remie Constable Award (deadline 15 February):
Four Olivia Remie Constable Awards of $1,500 each will be granted to emerging junior faculty, adjunct or unaffiliated scholars (broadly understood: post-doctoral, pre-tenure) for research and travel. Click here for more information.

MAA Dissertation Grants (deadline 15 February):
The nine annual 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. Click here for more information.

Schallek Awards (deadline 15 February):
The five annual Schallek awards support graduate students conducting doctoral research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500). The $2,000 awards help defray research expenses. Click here for more information.

MAA/GSC Grant for Innovation in Community-Building and Professionalization (deadline 15 February):
The MAA/GSC Grant(s) will be awarded to an individual or graduate student group from one or more universities. The purpose of this grant is to stimulate new and innovative efforts that support pre-professionalization, encourage communication and collaboration across diverse groups of graduate students, and build communities amongst graduate student medievalists. Click here for more information.

Applicants for these and other MAA programs must be members in good standing of the Medieval Academy. Please contact the Executive Director for more information about these and other MAA programs.

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MAA News – Call for Papers: MAA@AHA 2022

The Medieval Academy of America invites proposals for sessions at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Historical Association in New Orleans, January 6-9, 2022.

Each year the Medieval Academy co-sponsors sessions at this meeting with the AHA. This year, we aim to sponsor sessions that address an overarching theme of interest both to MAA members and broader audiences: “Medieval Perspectives on Modern Crises.” We envision a wide range of topics that might address this theme, from race and political violence to climate change and pandemic, and everything in between. Given the location of the meeting in New Orleans, we would also be interested in sponsoring sessions focused on this historic city through the lens of medieval studies or medievalism, ritual and performance traditions, and/or the multiple, overlapping colonial legacies that perdure in south Louisiana. We invite all manner of session programming, and strongly encourage MAA members to think beyond traditional paper panels. Roundtables, lightning talks, interviews, field conversations, performances, working sessions, and any other experimental and inclusive forms of knowledge-sharing you might propose will be received with enthusiasm.

We especially encourage session proposals from scholars representing a variety of identity positions and academic ranks and affiliations, including graduate students and independent scholars. We also encourage session proposals from scholars whose work features sources, geographies, and populations that are under-represented in traditional reckonings of “the medieval.”

Click here for more information.

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MAA News – Apply to join the MAA’s Graduate Student Committee!

The Medieval Academy of America is currently accepting self-nominations for vacancies opening up on the Graduate Student Committee (GSC) for the 2021-2023 term. The GSC comprises six members appointed for a two-year term on a rotating basis. There are three openings to be filled. Self-nominations are open to all graduate students, worldwide, who are members of the MAA and have at least two years remaining in their program of study.

The GSC represents and promotes the participation of graduate student medievalists within the MAA and the broader academic community. In addition to fostering international and interdisciplinary exchange, the GSC is dedicated to providing guidance on research, teaching, publishing, professionalization, funding, and employment, as well as offering a forum for the expression of the concerns and interests of our colleagues. Our responsibilities, thus, include organizing pre-professionalizing panels and social events annually at ICMS Kalamazoo, the MAA Annual Meeting, and IMC Leeds. We also run a successful and popular Mentorship Program that pairs graduate students with faculty to discuss any aspect of our profession such as teaching, publishing, finding a successful work/life balance, maneuvering the job market, and more. In addition, we seek to bring together graduate students through virtual communities such as the growing Graduate Student Group on the MAA website, Facebook, Twitter, the med-grad listserv, and a regular newsletter.

GSC members are asked to attend the Committee’s annual business meeting at Kalamazoo (either in person or virtually) for the duration of their term and to communicate regularly with the group via email and virtually. Ideal applicants are expected to work well both independently and as part of a team in a collaborative environment. Previous experience with organizing conference panels and social events, as well as facility with social and digital media are not required, but may be a benefit.

Interested applicants should submit the following by January 15, 2021:

The Self-Nomination Form;
– A brief CV (2 pages maximum) uploaded as part of the Nomination Form;
– A recommendation letter from your faculty advisor, sent to the Executive Director of the Medieval Academy by mail or (preferably) as a PDF attachment (on letterhead with signature), to LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org.

New members will be selected by the MAA’s Committee on Committees (in consultation with the current GSC) and confirmed by the Council of the Medieval Academy at the (virtual) 2021 Annual Meeting hosted by Indiana University, Bloomington, 15-18 April. If you have any questions, please contact us at gsc@themedievalacademy.org.

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MAA News – Good News From Our Members

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

Nicola Camerlenghi (Dartmouth College), The Virtual Basilica of St. Paul in Rome (Preparation for a virtual reality experience of the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome as it appeared in seven historical periods).

Anne D. Hedeman (University of Kansas, Lawrence), Gothic Manuscripts, 1320-1390 (Research and preparation of a co-authored book on medieval illuminated manuscripts from France during the 14th century).

Misty Schieberle (University of Kansas, Lawrence), Patriarchy, Politics, and Christine de Pizan’s Influence on English Literature, 1400-1478 (Research and writing leading to a book on the reception of French author Christine de Pizan’s writing in late medieval English Literature).

Kathryn Smith (New York University), Scripture Transformed in Later Fourteenth-Century England: The Religious, Artistic, and Social Worlds of the Welles-Ros Bible (Research and preparation of a book on the Welles-Ros Bible, an Anglo-Norman illuminated manuscript from the 1360s in England).

Congratulations! If you have good news to share, please write to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis at LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org.

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East of Byzantium Lectures: January 29 & February 2

The Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art at Tufts University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA, are pleased to announce upcoming East of Byzantium lectures:

Friday, January 29, 2021 | 3:00 pm (EST) | Zoom
Sideways-Oriented Images of Manichaean and Armenian Liturgical Books

Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Northern Arizona University

Zsuzsanna Gulácsi explores codicological connections between Manichaean manuscripts and Eastern Christian and Islamic manuscripts from Syro-Mesopotamia and what these similarities suggest about contact between the Manichaean communities in East Central Asia and their Mesopotamian homeland well into the medieval period.

Advance registration required. Registration closes at 10:00 AM (EST) on January 29, 2021. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

Tuesday, February 2, 2021 | 3:00 pm (EST) | Zoom
Back to Byzantium: Translation, Legitimacy, and Worlding on the Byzantine Frontier

Sergio La Porta, California State University, Fresno

Sergio La Porta discusses the translation of the martyrology of St. Step‘anos Ulnec‘i and its place in the larger Mediterranean world.

Advance registration required. Registration closes at 10:00 AM (EST) on February 2, 2021. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

East of Byzantium is a partnership between the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art at Tufts University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA, that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

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ASCSA Harry Bikakis Fellowship

THE HARRY BIKAKIS FELLOWSHIP
Deadline: January 15, 2021

This fellowship was established by the late Lloyd E. Cotsen, former Chair of the Overseers of the Gennadius Library, to honor Harry Bikakis, attorney of the American School, who exhibited much devotion and loyalty to the School during his term from 1979 to 1995.

Eligibility: Graduate students at North American institutions, or Greek graduate students, whose research subject is ancient Greek law and who need to work at ASCSA libraries; or Greek graduate students working on excavations conducted by or affiliated with the ASCSA.

Terms: Stipend of $1,875. School fees are waived. Fellowship does not include travel costs, housing, board, and other living expenses. A final report is due at the end of the award period, and the ASCSA expects that copies of all publications that result from research conducted as a Fellow of the ASCSA be contributed to the relevant library of the School.

Application: Submit an online application, curriculum vitae, and a project proposal. Arrange for two letters of recommendation. For more information about the application, visit the ASCSA web site at: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/apply/fellowships-and-grants/graduate-and-postdoctoral.

Web site: www.ascsa.edu.gr or https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/apply/fellowships-and-grants/graduateand-postdoctoral

E-mail: application@ascsa.org

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, sex, sexual orientation, color, religion, ethnic origin, or disability when considering admission to any form of membership or application for employment.

We invite applications to the following program. The specific implementation of all ASCSA programs will depend on all relevant public health advisories.
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Call for Papers – 41st Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum

The 41st Medieval and Renaissance Forum at Keene State College, Scent and Fragrance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, will take place virtually on Friday, April 16 and Saturday April 17, 2021. We welcome abstracts (one page or less) or panel proposals that discuss smell and fragrance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Papers and sessions, however, need not be confined to this theme but may cover other aspects of medieval and Renaissance life, literature, languages, art, philosophy, theology, history, and music.  

This year’s keynote speaker is Deirdre Larkin, Managing Horticulturist at The Cloisters Museum and Gardens from 2007 to 2013,who will speak on “Every Fragrant Herb: The Medieval Garden and the Gardens of The Cloisters.” Deirdre Larkin is a horticulturist and historian of plants and gardens. She holds an MA in the history of religions from Princeton University and received her horticultural training at the New York Botanical Garden. She was associated with the Gardens of The Cloisters for more than twenty years and was responsible for all aspects of their development, design, and interpretation. Ms. Larkin was the originator of and principal contributor to the Medieval Garden Enclosed blog, published on the MMA website from 2008 through 2013. Ms. Larkin lectures frequently for museums, historical societies, and horticultural organizations. In 2017, she was a Mellon Visiting Scholar at the Humanities Institute of the New York Botanical Garden, where she researched the fortunes and reputations of medieval European plants now naturalized in North America. Her gardens in upstate New York serve as a laboratory for further investigations in the field.  

Students, faculty, and independent scholars are welcome. Please indicate your status (undergraduate, graduate, or faculty), affiliation (if relevant), and full contact information (including email address) on your proposal. Graduate students will be eligible for consideration for the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award. More information about this new award will be available soon. We welcome undergraduate sessions but ask that students obtain a faculty member’s approval and sponsorship.   

Please submit abstracts and full contact information on the google form available at https://forms.gle/CHdqrEK8pVps7Wa89Abstract deadline: January 15, 2021; presenters and early registration: March 15, 2021 

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ASCSA Wiener Lab Programmatic Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship 2021-24

MALCOLM H. WIENER LABORATORY FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE PROGRAMMATIC POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP 2021-2024
Deadline: January 15, 2021

Purpose: For scholars associated with an ASCSA directed or affiliated project to conduct question-driven research at the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Priority will be given to projects that address substantive problems through the application of interdisciplinary methods in the archaeological sciences, especially those projects directed toward human skeletal studies, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, geoarchaeology, or material sciences, or a combination of these disciplinary approaches.

Qualifications: A specific candidate for the fellowship must be named in the application, the principal investigator, who has received their PhD and has a demonstrable record of research and publication directly relevant to the project. A project proposal is welcomed from anyone affiliated with any ASCSA archaeological project. This includes the two ASCSA directed archaeological projects at Ancient Corinth and the Athenian Agora, and any of the excavations or survey projects approved by the ASCSA Excavation and Survey Committee and awarded a permit by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport. Both current and former permit holders are eligible to apply.

Term: Three (3) years with the next term beginning early September 2021. It is expected that the applicant will maintain a physical presence at the Wiener Laboratory during the academic year (September to June 1).

Compensation: Stipend of $35,000 for 12 months, for a total of 36 months. School fees included.

Application: Link to Programmatic Post-doctoral Fellowship application instructions at: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/research/wiener-laboratory/fellowships-and-research-associateappointments/programmatic-post-doctoral-fellowship

1. Cover sheet naming the project, the principal investigators, and the designated fellow, a short description of the project, and a brief summary of the designated fellow’s research qualifications
2. Project Description (may not exceed 5 pages, double-spaced and Times Roman 12 pt) including a) Objectives and expected Significance, b) Background and relation to present state of knowledge, c) Research description, d) Qualifications of the fellow to conduct the research, e) Timeframe
3. Results of prior Wiener Laboratory Research
4-6. References cited; Facilities, equipment, and other resources; Permits
7. Curriculum vitae of the project PIs and the designated fellow following requested format
8. Three (3) letters of reference from scholars in the field
9. Expected contributions to and impact on the Wiener Laboratory and the ASCSA community
For information contact Dr. Panagiotis Karkanas (Director) at TKarkanas@ascsa.edu.gr

Web site: http://www.ascsa.edu.gr

E-mail: application@ascsa.org

The award will be announced by March 15

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, sex, sexual orientation, color, religion, ethnic origin, or disability when considering admission to any form of membership or application for employment.

We invite applications to the following program. The specific implementation of all ASCSA programs will depend on all relevant public health advisories.

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2021 Governance Election Results

To the members of the Medieval Academy of America:

I am very pleased to announce the results of the 2021 governance election, which closed at 11:59 PM on Jan. 2:

President: Thomas A. Dale (Art History, Univ. of Wisconsin)
1st Vice-President: Maureen Miller (History, Univ. of California, Berkeley)
2nd Vice-President: Robin Fleming (History, Boston College)

Council:
Elisheva Baumgarten (History and Jewish History, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem)
Marina S. Brownlee (Spanish and Comparative Literature, Princeton Univ.)
Celia Chazelle (History, College of New Jersey)
William S. Monroe (Curator of Medieval Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Brown Univ.)

Nominating Committee:
Daisy Delogu (French, Univ. of Chicago)
Carol Symes (History, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

482 ballots were cast electronically and 8 were submitted by mail. This represents voter turnout of about 14%.

My thanks to all who voted and to all who stood for election, and my congratulations to all who were elected.

Lisa Fagin Davis
Executive Director, Medieval Academy of America

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