The Medieval Academy Blog

The Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) invites nominations to fill an upcoming vacancy on its Executive Committee. With a special focus upon teaching at all levels, CARA strives to assist institutions and individual medievalists in meeting the challenges that face medieval studies in the classroom, the library, and other institutional settings locally and nationally. It also supports those who work to develop special projects and programs of instruction, local and regional networks of medievalists, and centers of research and institutions in medieval studies, working in collaboration with the Academy’s K-12 Committee as well as organizations such as TEAMS (the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies).

Members of the Executive Committee serve four-year terms; in addition to working with the CARA Chair on programming, outreach, and curricular initiatives, each member serves on two of CARA’s four subcommittees responsible for the CARA Teaching Award, the CARA Robert Kendrick Service Prize, the CARA Regional Conference Grant, and the MAA-CARA Graduate Student Summer Scholarships. Members of the CARA Executive Committee also are eligible to serve as CARA’s Director of Conference Programs, responsible for organizing CARA sessions at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies as well as the CARA plenary at the annual Medieval Academy meeting and the annual CARA meeting.

Service on the CARA Executive Committee is open to all members in good standing of the Medieval Academy of America, who may nominate themselves or be nominated by another individual. Nominations should include the following:

1. Name of nominee;
2. Nominee’s institutional or professional affiliation (including that of independent scholar);
3. A brief (c. 250-word) statement indicating the nominee’s qualifications for Executive Committee service, including their contributions to the areas of teaching, center or program administration, and/or professional collaboration and development in the field of Medieval Studies.

In accordance with CARA’s Policies and Procedures, nominations will be accepted until 1 November 2023 and reviewed thereafter by the CARA Executive Committee, which will forward its recommended candidate for approval by the Medieval Academy’s Council. The term of service for new members will begin at the conclusion of CARA’s annual meeting at the University of Notre Dame in March 2024. Please send nominations, as well as any questions or requests for further information, to the CARA Chair, Sean Gilsdorf (gilsdorf@fas.harvard.edu).

Friday, November 17 at 12pm EST

Stacey Murrell, Ph.D. Candidate

Brown University

“Birthing Dynasties: Concubinage, Status, and Race in the Western Islamicate World, c.700-1000 CE.”

This chapter examines the racialization of enslaved women and its impact on mother-child relations in the medieval Islamicate Mediterranean in two distinct ways. First, I argue that the racialization of enslaved women turned on the axes of their status, gender, and somatic difference and stratified the numerous women responsible for social procreation but excluded from social membership into a hierarchy that was central to the consolidation of ‘Arab’ identity. I use the case study of al-Andalus between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries to highlight how this racialization was adapted and reinscribed according to local circumstances and dynastic needs for political legitimacy. Second, I call attention to the gendered relationships between enslaved mothers and free sons and between enslaved mothers and (free) daughters, particularly in terms of identity formation and expression. While sons regularly omitted or fabricated their maternal lineage to secure political positions, daughters were more closely bound to their mothers and better positioned to carry forth their legacy in ways tangible and intangible. Although my focus is largely on enslaved women who ended up in the harems of rulers, racialization applied just as much to the mothers of emirs as to the larger population of enslaved women whose lives were spent in domestic households. In order to grapple with the anonymity and violence of enslavement and its archive, at times I mark the absence of the numerous majority of enslaved women, while at others I imagine their figures onto the page.

Responder: Dr. Rachel Schine, University of Maryland, College Park

Register and view the schedule of speakers at https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/raceandgenderglobalmiddleages/

(You only need to register once to get added to the email list and to have access to the Zoom link.)

After two successful seasons, The Multicultural Middle Ages (MMA) will return for its third season in 2024. Sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America, MMA is an anthology-style podcast attuned with the global turn in Medieval Studies. This podcast series is a platform from which to continue ongoing conversations and generate new and exciting avenues of inquiry related to the Middle Ages that emphasize its diversity. We welcome thoughtful reflections on culturally responsible approaches to the study of the Middle Ages and content aimed at strengthening connections between experts and the wider public. This is a space from which to speak to fellow medievalists and, more importantly, the wider public in order to better inform our audience about the multicultural reality of the premodern era and the fact that the study of the medieval period extends beyond Western Europe.

We invite proposals from individuals and collaborators of all ranks and disciplines for single podcast episodes on innovative, thoughtful, and culturally responsible approaches to the Middle Ages aimed at fellow medievalists and the wider public. We welcome submissions by graduate students.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Innovative methodological/disciplinary approaches to the Middle Ages
• The future of Medieval Studies
• Research on the multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic Middle Ages
• Discussions of recent scholarship
• Archival discoveries
• Academic activism and responses to misappropriations of the Middle Ages
• Pedagogical approaches
• Medievalism(s)
• Approaches to curating exhibitions of the Middle Ages

Possible formats may include narrative expositions, interviews, textual analysis, visual analysis, oral performances, and panel discussions. Further information is available upon request.

No previous experience with podcasting is required. The Graduate Student Committee of the MAA has hosted several podcasting workshops, which are now available on the MAA YouTube channel. An MMA team member will gladly support you through the episode development process or take care of the entire technical setup and post-production. If you would like our technical assistance to realize your episode, such as facilitating an interview, helping record the episode, or taking care of the audio editing, kindly make a note of it in your proposal.

Your application should include a brief description (500 words) of your proposed episode, noting the following:

• The chosen topic and its relevance;
• the plan for adapting the topic to a podcast medium (we encourage 40-50 min. episodes, but also welcome proposals for shorter or longer episodes);
• the episode format (interview, narrative, etc.) along with an overview of its structure and a description of the support you’ll need from the MMA production team.

This information is not binding but will help the committee assess better the potential of the proposed project. Please include the name and a CV for each author. Submit your proposals via email to mmapodcast1@gmail.com and to Jonathan Correa (jonatcr@clemson.edu) by November 17, 2023.

The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast Series Production Team
Will Beattie | wbeattie@nd.edu
Jonathan Correa-Reyes | jonatcr@clemson.edu
Reed O’Mara | rao44@case.edu
Logan Quigley | quigleylogan@gmail.com

At its 14th Triennial Congress held in Munich in September 2023, the Association internationale d’études occitanes (AIEO) elected Wendy Pfeffer a membre honoraire, recognizing her work to advance Occitan studies in North America and her work on behalf of the AIEO. Prof. Pfeffer thanks the Medieval Academy again for granting her travel funding which allowed her to attend the Congress.

If you have good news to share, please send it to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis.