The Medieval Academy at 100
The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America
Harvard University, Cambridge MA
20-22 March 2025
Call for Papers
The Centennial Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hosted by Harvard University, Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Fitchburg State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stonehill College, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. While the conference will take place in person, the plenary lectures and some other events also will be live streamed. Plenary addresses will be delivered by Kristina Richardson (Professor of History and Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Virginia), Sara Lipton (Incoming President of the Medieval Academy of America and Professor of History, Stony Brook University), and Wendy Belcher (Professor of Comparative Literature and African American Studies, Princeton University). The Annual Meeting will be followed by the Sunday annual meeting of the Medieval Academy's Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA).
Conference Location: The conference sessions, receptions, and pre-conference programs will take place at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Harvard campus is accessible by taxi and public transit from Boston's Logan Airport as well as from the South and Back Bay Amtrak stations. In addition to Harvard's own museums and libraries, visitors can take advantage of greater Boston's rich dining, entertainment, and cultural resources, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Boston Public Library, all easily reached by the MBTA subway from Harvard Square.
Proposals: The Program Committee invites proposals for papers and panels on any topic from scholars studying the medieval world in all its variety, in all disciplines, regions, and periods of Medieval Studies. Panels usually consist of three 25-minute papers, and proposals should be geared to that length. Panel organizers, however, may wish to propose different formats for their panels, and the Program Committee may choose a different format for some panels after the proposals have been reviewed. Any member of the Medieval Academy may submit a paper or panel proposal. Others may submit proposals as well, but they must become members in order to present at the meeting. Exceptions may be given to individuals whose specialty would not normally involve membership in the Medieval Academy. Please contact MAA Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis (lfd@themedievalacademy.org) with any questions about this policy.
We are particularly interested in papers and panels that cross traditional disciplinary and geographical boundaries, or that use various approaches to examine a given topic. Our goal is to create a rich and diverse program that embodies the conference theme "The Medieval Academy at 100,” placing detailed, methodologically rigorous scholarship on the Middle Ages into conversation with broader reflections on the histories and possible futures of Medieval Studies itself. We encourage those proposing papers and panels to engage with one or more of the threads below.
Threads: The Program Committee has created six threads for the Centennial Meeting, meant to promote critical engagement between scholars working on all aspects of the medieval world, as well as on more modern appraisals and interpretations of that world. These are:
1. Who? Subjects of Medieval Studies. Possible topics might include: identities (race, ethnicity, gender, religion); animals and the non-human; abilities and disabilities; and communities in theory and practice.
2. What? Definitions, Reevaluations, and Transformations. Possible topics might include: canons and canonicity; orthodoxies and heterodoxies; laws and norms; science and scientia; disciplines of/and Medieval Studies; and making the "Middle Ages", 1925-2025.
3. When? Beginnings, Endings, and Possible Futures. Possible topics might include: remembering and forgetting; periodizations and paradigms; environmental, evolutionary, and geological perspectives on the medieval; and the future(s) of Medieval Studies, 2025-2125.
4. Where? Space, Place, and Geographies. Possible topics might include: people, things, and ideas on the move; frontiers and boundaries; opportunities and challenges of the “global turn”; landscapes, wilderness, and lived environments; and preservation and effacement of the medieval.
5. Why? Reverence, Recycling, and Rejection of the Middle Ages. Possible topics might include: medievalisms and popular cultures of the medieval; aesthetics of the medieval; politics and the medieval, then and now; and what the Middle Ages might do for us today.
6. How? Frameworks for Research, Teaching, and Public Engagement. Possible topics might include: translation in theory and practice; digital medieval studies; the science of the medieval past; the Middle Ages in the contemporary classroom; and curating and exhibiting the medieval.
Submissions: Individuals may either propose individual papers or a full panel of papers and speakers, using the links provided below. Paper proposals should include the individual's name, professional affiliation (including independent scholar), contact information, paper title, and a brief (c. 150-word) abstract. Session proposals should include the name and contact information for the session organizer, the session title, a c. 500-word abstract, and information for each of the session participants (including proposed chairs and respondents). Those submitting paper and session proposals also will be asked to indicate the thread(s) with which their contributions might best be associated. All submissions are due by Monday, 3 June 2024. If you have any questions, please direct them to the Program Committee chairs at MAA2025@themedievalacademy.org.
Individual paper proposalsPanel proposalsSelection Process: The Program Committee will assess paper and panel proposals via blind review during the summer of 2024, evaluating their quality, significance, and relevance to the conference themes. Those proposing papers and sessions will be informed of the Committee's decision by 15 September 2024, with the final program announced in late 2024. Please note that all Annual Meeting participants will be required to agree to abide by the
MAA's Professional Behavior Policy, which can be found here.
The Medieval Academy offers several travel bursaries and awards in conjunction with the Annual Meeting:
1) Student Bursaries: Graduate students who are members of the Medieval Academy of America and who have had their papers accepted for presentation at the 2025 meeting are eligible to apply for a Medieval Academy Annual Meeting Bursary of up to $500. The bursaries will be awarded to graduate students for papers judged meritorious by the local Program Committee, and one applicant will be awarded the prize for Best Student Paper. The application includes a biographical form and the completed paper. The deadline for applications is 31 December 2024.
Click here to apply.
2) Medieval Academy of America Travel Grants: The Medieval Academy provides a limited number of travel grants to help Academy members who hold doctorates but are not in full-time faculty positions, or are contingent scholars without access to institutional funding, attend conferences (including the Annual Meeting) to present their work. Awards to support travel in North America are $500; for overseas travel the awards are $750. These awards are adjudicated by the Academy's Committee for Professional Development, and the deadline for applications to travel to the Annual Meeting is 1 November 2024.
Click here to apply.
3) Inclusivity and Diversity Travel Grant: The Academy will present the annual Inclusivity and Diversity Travel Grant of $500 to one Annual Meeting participant presenting an accepted proposal on the study of inclusivity and diversity in the Middle Ages, broadly conceived. This Grant will be adjudicated by the Academy's Inclusivity and Diversity Committee, and preference will be given to student, junior, adjunct, or unaffiliated scholars. The deadline for applications is 31 December 2024.
Click here to apply.
Some additional travel funding may be available for those whose papers are accepted by the Program Committee, and who lack other sources of research funding. Priority will be given to part-time and contingent faculty, independent scholars, and graduate students whose institutions do not provide conference support. If you or members of your proposed session would like to be considered for travel funding, please check the appropriate box(es) in the submission portal.
Program Committee Members
Sean Gilsdorf, Medieval Studies, Harvard University (co-chair)
Eileen Sweeney, Philosophy, Boston College (co-chair)
Arthur Bahr, Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Suzanne Preston Blier, History of Art & Architecture/African & African American Studies, Harvard University
Alexander Brey, Art History, Wellesley College
Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja, Romance Languages & Literatures, Harvard University
Jonathan Decter, Near Eastern & Judaic Studies, Brandeis University
Luis Girón Negrón, Comparative Literature/Romance Languages & Literatures, Harvard University
Eric Goldberg, History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School
Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Harvard Law School
Deeana Klepper, Religion, Boston University
Peter Mahoney, Spanish, Stonehill College
Christina Maranci, Near Eastern Languages & Literatures/History of Art & Architecture, Harvard University
Alexander Riehle, Classics, Harvard University
Daniel Lord Smail, History, Harvard University
Riccardo Strobino, Classics, Tufts University
Alice Sullivan, History of Art & Architecture, Tufts University
Xiaofei Tian, East Asian Languages & Civilizations, Harvard University
Kisha Tracy, English, Fitchburg State University
Julia Verkholantsev, Russian & East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania (ex officio)
Nicholas Watson, English, Harvard University
Eric Weiskott, English, Boston College
Anna Wilson, English, Harvard University
Ling Zhang, History, Boston College
