from Medieval Academy News (Winter 2003)

On the present vitality and future health of medieval studies
by Richard K. Emmerson

I’ve recently had the pleasure of participating in two meetings considering the vitality of medieval studies and their future, and I’m delighted to report that the news is, on the whole, very good indeed. The State of Medieval Studies conference organized by C. Stephen Jaeger and the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois (2–4 October) was a great success. Speakers from Europe and North America discussed significant projects, areas of study, and trends in various disciplines and in several countries. Clearly medieval studies are noted internationally for excellent scholarship, which is supported by centers, journals, book series, and funding agencies. The presentations will be published in a forthcoming issue of JEGP: Medieval English, Germanic, and Celtic Studies.

This past summer I also participated in a plenary symposium at the Leeds International Medieval Congress that celebrated the tenth anniversaries of both the congress and the Central European University by discussing the question, “Is pan-European medieval studies a chimera or a coming reality?” I don’t know if we really answered the question, but there is no doubt that much exciting work is being done by scholars working both in and on central and eastern Europe. Due to rapidly changing political realities, medieval studies there has a pressing immediacy not often found elsewhere, as János Bak notes later in this newsletter (p. 12).

Both meetings focused on scholarship, but the participants also discussed teaching, and it became very clear to me that medieval studies are healthiest when and where they are best taught. The Medieval Academy is thus committed to fostering excellent teaching. The Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) sponsored at its recent meeting in Toronto a superb session on team-teaching. In 2004 CARA will sponsor sessions at the Seattle Academy meeting on teaching the medieval Middle East and at the Kalamazoo congress on teaching medieval studies in the small college and is planning a future conference entirely devoted to teaching the Middle Ages. The Academy’s Graduate Student Committee is also sponsoring a session at Kalamazoo on pedagogy for graduate students.

How we teach the Middle Ages is critically important because our students are not only the next generation of medievalists, but more importantly the leaders and voters of the future who will determine funding and the role medieval studies will play in education. While continuing to excel in our scholarship, we must always remember that our students are our most important audience.