The Medieval Academy of America, one of the largest associations in the field of medieval studies, has started its annual meeting. Taking place in Charlottesville, Virginia, it is using a hybrid format with the conference being both in-person and online.
The 97th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America is taking take place from March 10th to 12th, and is being hosted by the University of Virginia. Because of concerns over COVID-19, the number of in-person participants was limited, and all events will be streamed online.
The meeting began with a plenary lecture delivered by Roland Betancourt of the University of California, Irvine, on the topic of “The Allure of Secrecy and the Challenge of History: Crafting the Middle Ages in an Era of Conspiracy and Radicalization,” which examined how conspiracy theories impact the study and learning about the medieval period, noting how these ideas are playing a role in current-day events, including the invasion of Ukraine.
Over sixty sessions are taking place, involving hundreds of scholars. Topics range from medicine to literature, religion, environmental studies, and medievalism. The meeting ends with another plenary lecture, “Charlottesville and the Liberalism of Medieval Studies,” by Seeta Chaganti of the University of California, Davis. Click here to download the meeting program.
A series of awards will also be given out during the meeting for highly regarded books and articles. The 2022 Haskins Medal for the book of the year goes to Marina Rustow for her book The Lost Archive: Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue.
Other winners include
- Joan Holladay, Genealogy and the Politics of Representation in the High and Late Middle Ages (Karen Gould Prize in Art History)
- Elias Muhanna, The World in a Book: Al-Nuwayri and the Islamic Encyclopedic Tradition (John Nicholas Brown Prize)
- Nahir Otaño Gracia, “Towards a decentered Global North Atlantic: Blackness in Saga af Tristram ok Ísodd,” Literature Compass. 2019. (Article Prize in Critical Race Studies)
- Brenna Duperron, “Ghostly Consciousness in The Book of Margery Kempe,” English Language Notes 58 (2020), 121-135; and Patrick Meehan, “Recontextualizing Indigenous Knowledge on the Prussian-Lithuanian Frontier, ca. 1380-1410,” The Medieval Globe (2020), 93-119 (Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize)
- The Documentary Archaeology of Late Medieval Europe (DALME). Principal Investigators: Daniel Lord Smail, Gabe Pizzorno, and Laura K. Morreale (Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize)
Lisa Fagin Davis, the Director of the Medieval Academy of America, says, “I am absolutely thrilled by the expansive nature of 2022 slate of MAA prize-winners. These scholars and their work exemplify the Global and diverse future of Medieval Studies, and I am so pleased that the Medieval Academy of America is honoring their important scholarship.”
Click here to learn more about the Medieval Academy of America
Top Image: The lawn, rotunda, University of Virginia. Photo by Rex Hammock / Flickr