We have reached that time of the year when it becomes necessary to open the floor for nominations to the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies Executive Committee. The Board meets roughly three or four times per year via Google Hangouts, and provides review for submissions to the ASIMS journal, Eolas, as needed throughout the publishing year and according to each member’s specialty or field representation. Members may also be asked to adjudicate submissions to the annual Barry Award and Adams Award competitions each spring. The duties are therefore not generally onerous and offer a great way to contribute to the overall success and welfare of our professional organization. Officers do need to possess a doctorate in their field and be members of ASIMS at the time their terms begin. 

The offices listed below will become vacant effective in May at the International Congress on Medieval Studies; all terms are two years except Vice President, as noted: 

Executive offices that will be vacant in May:

(1) Vice President (elected)

Becoming VP is a commitment for a total of four years: two years as VP followed by automatic accession to the office of President for two years. The duties of the VP are not extensive and primarily concern the running of ASIMS’ annual awards competitions and the society’s elections.

(2) Secretary (appointed)

Discipline and Regional Representative offices that will be vacant in May:

(1) Archaeology Representative (elected)

(2) Art History Representative (elected)

(3) Literature Representative (elected)

(4) Philology Representative (elected)

(5) Theology Representative (elected)

(6) Ireland Regional Representative (appointed) 

The Ireland Representative acts as an ombudsperson and local representative for ASIMS in Ireland; the Ireland Rep therefore needs to physically reside in, or have recently resided in, Ireland itself. 

If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else, please provide the relevant individual’s name and email address to me, Máire Johnson, at mjohns38@emporia.edu, by Monday, March 4th; feel free to contact me also if you have any questions. NOTE: Anyone who is nominated by another will be contacted to confirm their willingness to stand for election. 

We will announce the opening of elections at the end of February or beginning of March; votes will be collected via the ASIMS website and results announced by the end of March. Thank you in advance for your willingness to contribute to the ongoing success of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies!

Disert is a ritual pilgrim landscape in Co. Donegal that includes a series of early ecclesiastical enclosures, penitential cairns, a holy well dedicated to St Colmcille (also known as St Columba), a post-medieval altar and a cillín (children’s graveyard). It may date to as early as the sixth century AD when it was reputedly founded by St Colmcille or may even extend back into prehistory. Disert is still important today for religious devotion and for pilgrims seeking miraculous cures for medical conditions.

This spectacular area lies at the foothills of the Bluestack Mountains, some 10km from Donegal Town and the Wild Atlantic Way. Rural sites such as this are poorly understood and the excavation will offer the opportunity to examine the role of Disert in both early and more recent Irish Christianity.

2019 will be the first year of excavation so the focus will be on understanding the dating and origin of the site as well as the nature of features previously identified by fieldwalking, drone survey and geophysics. Students will be working closely with members of the local community and with Irish students to begin to unpick this fascinating story. They will gain experience of excavating, recording and surveying sites and in the evenings will be introduced to Irish culture, society and hospitality.

No previous experience is necessary and the program is open to all undergraduate and graduate students. Attending students will be awarded 8 semester credit units (equivalent to 12 quarter credit units) through our academic partner, Connecticut College. Connecticut College is a private, highly ranked liberal arts institution with a deep commitment to undergraduate education.

All of the relevant information and online application forms can be found here: https://ifrglobal.org/program/ireland-disert/

Feel free to download and post the flyer as well!

ASIMS is pleased to announce that the 2018 winner of the Terry Barry Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Irish Medieval Studies is Laura McCloskey for her paper “Exploring meditatio and memoria in Ireland through the Book of Durrow: manuscript illumination as the intersection of theological and artistic traditions.” She presented it at the 2017 American Society for Irish Medieval Studies conference at Glenstal Abbey in Ireland.

Laura E. McCloskey is a PhD candidate in art history at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and the recipient of an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship. Laura holds a B.A. in Art History from George Mason University, a M.A. in Irish Studies from Catholic University, and a M.Ed. in Multilingual and Multicultural Education also from George Mason University. She has been a lecturer of history and art history at George Mason University since 2008, specializing in Irish history from pre-Christian to contemporary periods, Celtic art and mythology, and medieval Scotland. She has presented at numerous international conferences on early medieval Irish manuscript traditions.

Working under the supervision of Dr. Laura Cleaver, her dissertation title is “Cross-Cultural Connections between Insular Manuscript Illumination and the Mediterranean World.” Laura’s research unites the Mediterranean world from the late antique period through the early middle ages as evidenced in Irish manuscript illumination, focusing specifically on two of the best known early Insular manuscript exemplars: the seventh-century Book of Durrow and eighth-century Book of Kells. Using archaeological and literary evidence, she explores the trade relationship between Ireland and Byzantium, uniting early Christendom into a coherent artistic whole facilitated by motifs spread via the missionary work and legacy of Saint Columba.

ASIMS is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2018 Four Courts Press Michael Adams Prize for best article or essay in Irish medieval studies is Dr Rachel Scott, for her book chapter ‘Socioeconomic change in early medieval Ireland: agricultural innovation, population growth, and human health,’ published in European Archaeology as Anthropology: Essays in Memory of Bernard Wailes (ed. Pam J. Crabtree and Peter Bogucki, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2017).

Dr Scott is an assistant professor of anthropology at DePaul University. She is a bioarchaeologist as well, and her work—focused particularly in early Christian and late medieval Ireland—straddles the intersections between skeletal and other archaeological data, history, and anthropology to explore questions concerning identity and the place of disease in human history and culture. Dr Scott is the director of a project on leper hospitals in late medieval Ireland and serves as bioarchaeologist for the Irish Archaeology Field School’s excavations at the Black Friary in Trim, Co. Meath.

ASIMS has joined the list of academic societies opposing the US proposal to tax tution waivers. The official statement is available here and below.

Statement Opposing US Proposal to Tax Tuition Waivers

November 28, 2017

We, the undersigned organizations, stand together in opposition to the proposal to tax graduate school tuition waivers as income, a provision included in the tax reform bill recently passed by the US House of Representatives.

As reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education,

Nationwide, about 55 percent of all graduate students had adjusted gross incomes of $20,000 or less… and nearly 87 percent reported incomes of $50,000 or less. At the same time, master’s degree students received tuition waivers averaging nearly $11,000, and doctoral students got waivers averaging more than $13,600.

Subjecting tuition waivers to income tax would dramatically increase the tax burden of hundreds of thousands of students. This would put graduate education out of reach for many, and would have the greatest impact on those groups already underrepresented in higher education.

The provision would also likely force graduate schools to reduce the number of students they admit, so that they can compensate for increased tax liability with increased financial assistance to students in their programs. Reducing the number of students in graduate schools would have devastating effects across higher education and beyond—there would be fewer instructors to teach undergraduates and fewer researchers to pursue new breakthroughs that transform every aspect of American society.

We call on Members of Congress to reject this proposal and stand up for the future of American higher education. We further urge the members of our organizations to contact their Members of Congress and encourage them to act to ensure tuition waivers remain tax-free.

African Studies Association
American Academy of Religion
American Anthropological Association
American Association of Geographers
American Comparative Literature Association
American Folklore Society
American Historical Association
American Musicological Society
American Philosophical Association
American Political Science Association
American Society for Environmental History
American Society of Irish Medieval Studies
American Sociological Association
American Studies Association
Association for Asian Studies
Association for Jewish Studies
Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies
Association for the Study of Literature & Environment
Association of College & Research Libraries
College Art Association
International Center of Medieval Art
Latin American Studies Association
Material Collective
Medieval Academy of America
MEARCSTAPA
Modern Language Association
National Communication Association
National Council of Teachers of English
National Council on Public History
North American Conference of British Studies
Oral History Association
Organization of American Historians
Rhetoric Society of America
Shakespeare Association of America
Society for American Music
Society for Cinema & Media Studies
Society for Classical Studies
Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship
Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study
Society of Architectural Historians
Society of Biblical Literature
Tales after Tolkien Society
World History Association

The Medieval Academy of America has composed a letter speaking out against the recent racist violence in Charlottesville and white supremacists’ misappropriation of what they take to be medieval symbols and terminology in support of their hateful rhetoric.

By vote of the Executive Board on 24-Aug-2017, ASIMS is proud to add our signature to this letter:

Medievalists Respond to Charlottesville

In light of the recent events in the United States, most recently the racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, the undersigned community of medievalists condemns the appropriation of any item or idea or material in the service of white supremacy. In addition, we condemn the abuse of colleagues, particularly colleagues of color, who have spoken publicly against this misuse of history.

As scholars of the medieval world we are disturbed by the use of a nostalgic but inaccurate myth of the Middle Ages by racist movements in the United States. By using imagined medieval symbols, or names drawn from medieval terminology, they create a fantasy of a pure, white Europe that bears no relationship to reality. This fantasy not only hurts people in the present, it also distorts the past. Medieval Europe was diverse religiously, culturally, and ethnically, and medieval Europe was not the entire medieval world. Scholars disagree about the motivations of the Crusades—or, indeed, whether the idea of “crusade” is a medieval one or came later—but it is clear that racial purity was not primary among them.

Contemporary white nationalists are not the first Americans to have turned nostalgic views of the medieval period to racist purposes. It is, in fact, deeply ironic that the Klan’s ideas of medieval knighthood were used to harass immigrants who practiced the forms of Christianity most directly connected with the medieval church. Institutions of scholarship must acknowledge their own participation in the creation of interpretations of the Middle Ages (and other periods) that served these narratives. Where we do find bigotry, intolerance, hate, and fear of “the other” in the past—and the Middle Ages certainly had their share—we must recognize it for what it is and read it in its context, rather than replicating it.

The medieval Christian culture of Europe is indeed a worthy object of study, in fact a necessary one. Medieval Studies must be broader than just Europe and just Christianity, however, because to limit our object of study in such a way gives an arbitrary and false picture of the past. We see a medieval world that was as varied as the modern one. It included horrific violence, some of it committed in the name of religion; it included feats of bravery, justice, harmony, and love, some of them also in the name of religion. It included movement of people, goods, and ideas over long distances and across geographical, linguistic, and religious boundaries. There is much to be learned from studying the period, whether we choose to focus on one community and text or on wider interactions. What we will not find is the origin of a pure and supreme white race.

Every generation of scholars creates its own interpretations of the past. Such interpretations must be judged by how well they explain the writings, art, and artifacts that have come down to us. As a field we are dedicated to scholarly inquiry. As the new semester approaches at many institutions, we invite those of you who have the opportunity to join us. Take a class or attend a public lecture on medieval history, literature, art, music. Learn about this vibrant and varied world, instead of simply being appalled by some racist caricature of it. See for yourself what lessons it holds for the modern world.

The Medieval Academy of America
The Gender and Medieval Studies Group
The International Arthurian Society-North American Branch
The International Piers Plowman Society
The International Society of Anglo-Saxonists
The International Society for the Study of Medievalism
The New Chaucer Society
The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship
American Society for Irish Medieval Studies