The Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham University invites proposals for its 45th Annual Conference, Prompting the Past: Archives, AI, and Medieval Studies, to be held at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus in New York City.

This conference unites traditional medievalist Humanities with state-of-the-art computational methods, quantitative and spatial analyses, and applied Artificial Intelligence. The event features a Friday evening event and reception followed on Saturday by an integrated program of research panels and hands-on technical workshops.

We invite papers from a variety of disciplines and approaches, traditional or computational, humanistic or scientific, that address the state of medieval archives in this digital, indeed artificial, age. Possible proposals for papers or panels might include: the limits of digital archives; the pedagogical implications of digital resources; the ethical use of AI in Medieval Studies; new computational or quantitative methods in the Humanities; new insights from spatial, network, or textual analysis; AI hallucinations and medievalism.

Proposal Categories

We invite submissions for individual papers or group panels:

1. Paper Proposals: Individual 20-minute research presentations exploring Digital/Data Humanities methodologies, including but not limited to applications of Artificial Intelligence in Medieval Studies.
2. Panel Proposals: Fully formed sessions (three paper presentations or two papers with a dedicated respondent) focused on a unified theme.

Special Consideration for Work Related to Fordham Digital Projects

Special consideration will be given to proposals that actively engage, build upon, or showcase research derived from Fordham’s digital projects, including:

• Online Medieval Sources Bibliography
• Medieval Londoners Database
• Oxford Outremer Map Project
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook
• Independent Crusaders Project

How to Submit

To submit a proposal, please use the Google Form linked here: https://forms.gle/TYjNNVGATLtWiEHo7

Important Dates & Contacts

• Proposal Submission Deadline: 1 December 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: Mid-January 2027
• Conference Dates: 9–10 April 2027

For inquiries regarding the conference structure or submission process, please contact medievals@fordham.edu
M. Christina Bruno, PhDAssociate DirectorCenter for Medieval StudiesFordham University(t) 718 817 4656(f) 718 817 3987

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Medieval and Renaissance Center | NYU | http://as.nyu.edu/marc.html
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A reminder that the next lecture in the Schoenberg Institute's Fall 2026 Online Lecture Series takes place this Friday. All are welcome to attend!

The Skin Keeps the Score: DNA Analysis of Medieval Manor Court Rolls

Timothy Stinson, North Carolina State University

Friday, October 16, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT

The field of biocodicology, or the study of books and documents through analysis of the biological information stored within them, is still nascent. Yet it is already transforming both what we can learn from manuscripts and the questions we pose of them. This talk reports on the work of an interdisciplinary team at North Carolina State University comprising humanists, geneticists, and bioinformatics specialists. The first part of the talk will cover the development and validation of a new non-destructive sampling technique that employs cytology brushes to collect samples from parchment for genetic analysis. Building on this foundation, we tested close to 100 manuscripts spanning 700 to 1700 CE, the results of which were recently published in Manuscript Studies. The second part of the talk will turn to the next phase of our research: the DNA analysis of medieval manor court rolls held across three partner institutions. These manuscripts are potentially of great value because the skins were sourced from local herds and document events such as livestock epidemics, famines, and agricultural crises that may be genetically detectable in the parchment itself, thus allowing researchers to corroborate genetic evidence from livestock and pathogens with textual records.

More information about the lecture and a link to register are available here

And next up in December....

Using Handwritten Text Recognition for Rich and Abundant Historical Source Collections: The Case of Medieval Italian Financial Records

Laura Morreale, Independent Scholar & 2026-2027 SIMS Visiting Research Fellow

Friday, December 4, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT

On October 2, 1466, Alamanno di Medici bailed out Salvestro da Palazzuolo from jail, where he had been imprisoned by the Otto di Guardia, the policing arm of the Florentine state. Although we do not know what Salvestro did to land himself in jail, his infraction—whatever it may have been—came at the cost of one fiorino largho, a rather hefty sum. Record of his imprisonment, the cost to free him, and an assertion that Salvestro would ultimately pay Alamanno back all appear in the Medici’s household leger, now held at University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center.

This small anecdote and the world of Florentine justice, economy, and social interaction that it evokes fills but four lines of the ledger’s nearly 250 folios, each of which contain up to 50 lines of accounting. The recorded expenditures reveal much more than one story of crime and punishment – here we see the day-to-day realities of child-rearing as the wet-nurse is paid, the math (abacco) teacher compensated, and clothing purchases made for Alamanno’s children. Familiar characters such as Mariotto the miller or Caterina the maid reappear in Alamanno’s payments to them over the years, and Alamanno’s wife Lena stars in her role as an important household actor as she pays the flour tax, purchases flax, or buys firewood.

The richness of these historical sources is hard to overstate, yet the many household ledgers that survive from the late Middle Ages remain largely untapped, in part because the manuscripts can be difficult to decipher and the writing lacks a narrative structure. However, historians are now reaching for new computer-based tools, including handwritten text recognition (HTR) programs, to transcribe these documents for easier access and analysis. Following a month-long fellowship at SIMS working with these materials, Laura Morreale will describe how to train HTR models to read difficult sources like the Italian financial records and will outline the costs, potential benefits, and risks of undertaking computer-based transcription for historical research.

More information about the lecture and a link to register are available here

To follow the Schoenberg Institute's other programs, sign up for the newsletter here.

By Jennifer Fauci, Updated August 31, 2026 6:21 pm

When you make a career out of studying history, you often become part of it yourself. Such was the case for lifelong historian and Stony Brook University professor Joel Rosenthal, who made an indelible mark as a scholar of women’s studies and English social history.

The Port Jefferson resident died of heart failure on Aug. 20 at the age of 91.

Rosenthal became a professor at Stony Brook University in 1964, and was a leading force in the founding of the women’s studies program in 1973. He was a three-time chair of the history department, the founding chair of the interdisciplinary program in the social sciences and chair of the faculty senate. Rosenthal was also a fellow of both the Medieval Academy of America and the Royal Historical Society of the United Kingdom.

"He loved to talk about history to anyone. He had a photographic memory and was excellent at memorizing dates and facts and analyzing bits and pieces of information," said Rosenthal’s wife, Naomi Rosenthal, of Port Jefferson. "He was a man of contradictions, and he was interested in everything, and opinionated."

Joel Rosenthal was born in Chicago on Oct. 17, 1934. Although his family moved to Cleveland in 1947, he returned to Chicago for his college education. He received his bachelor’s degree (1954), master’s degree (1958), and doctorate (1963) from the University of Chicago. With a passion for history — specifically Medieval history; Britain; social and family history — he became a much loved and respected professor at Stony Brook. He also spent his academic tenure publishing 24 books and more than 100 articles.

Joel and Naomi had met when he was a graduate student and she was an undergrad. It wasn’t until 1961 when they formally met at a friend’s wedding in London that they started dating. The couple married in 1962 and had three children: Jessica Benson, of London; Joshua Rosenthal, of Connecticut; and Matthew Rosenthal, of Barre, Vermont.

"He was unpredictable — consistency wasn’t his strong suit," Benson said of her father. "He wasn’t a big believer in rules and was eccentric in a way, but he was very doting and entertaining."

Brooke Larson, a fellow historian and colleague of Joel Rosenthal’s at Stony Brook, recalled him as someone who "always made time to mentor his younger colleagues."

"Over the decades, he helped shape the spirit and curriculum of the history department as well as wider university policies," said Larson, of Huntington. "Joel's wonderful spirit of collegiality, his irreverent wit and his sage guidance will be sorely missed by colleagues, students and friends at Stony Brook and beyond."

Stony Brook history professor Sara Lipton said Rosenthal was "incredibly modest and unpretentious."

"He wore his erudition very lightly and never tooted his own horn," said Lipton, of Manhattan. "I think it was also because he did so much department and university service and cared so much about teaching that it was hard to imagine him being a great medievalist as well."

A longtime resident of Port Jefferson, Rosenthal championed community issues such as fair housing and labor issues, and served as a trustee of the public library board. He enjoyed bird watching, hiking, traveling, and cheering on his favorite teams: the Chicago Cubs and White Sox. He was "an Arsenal supporter with a soft spot for Tottenham," his daughter said.

Naomi Rosenthal said her husband would have wanted a legacy inspiring people to be politically active. "He would want people to question things, and to think about the importance of history," she said.

In addition to his wife and children, survivors include five grandchildren. A memorial service will take place on Nov. 16 at Stony Brook University. Contributions can be made to the Chairs Fund of the history department at Stony Brook or to the Institute of Historical Research in London in Rosenthal’s name.

In 2025, academia in general faced dramatic, profound changes to what was once normal. Grants, international students, DEI—gone. 2026 began with other assaults: demands for names of Jews and campus activists; lowered student-loan caps; shrinking enrollments; further assaults on tenure and academic freedom; accreditation and endowment rules shifting; medieval imagery supporting racism and totalitarianism spreading; and GenAI everywhere. Faculty across disciplines will share how teaching medieval studies/medievalism has changed and/or how their departments and administrations have responded to these challenges—realizing that by May 2027, the world will have changed in ways we can't yet imagine.  What experiences and insights can you share?

• Forbidden Teaching Meg Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State Univ.

Increasingly, universities and states have been impinging upon academic freedom by forbidding the inclusion of specific subjects, deemed "controversial," in syllabi and courses. These restrictions directly affect the teaching of medieval topics, as any consideration of the Middle Ages must account for differences in attitudes and beliefs around religion, gender, sexuality, and race. This panel invites papers from scholars willing to discuss the ways in which their own teaching, or teaching at their institutions, has been impacted by these restrictions. Possible topics include aspects of institutional or political pressure, adjustments made to teaching, and potential modes of resistance.

Co-sponsor the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship

• In Honor of Gale Sigal (1): Lyrics Mary Kate Hurley, Ohio Univ., Arielle C. McKee, Wake Forest Univ.

In this panel honoring Dr. Gale Sigal, we seek papers that address some aspect of her research in female voice and lyric poetry, including but not limited to multilingual lyric, troubadour and trobairitz poetry, pastourelles and the pastourelle tradition, etc. We are particularly interested in papers that offer reassessments of earlier scholarship, genre distinctions, and comparative studies, inspired by Dr. Sigal’s groundbreaking Erotic Dawn-Songs of the Middle Ages: Voicing the Lyric Lady.

• In Honor of Gale Sigal (2): Medieval Studies Teaching and Programming (A Roundtable) Zach Hines, Ohio State Univ., Mary Kate Hurley, Ohio Univ.

In this roundtable honoring Dr. Gale Sigal, we invite participants to share their experiences teaching medieval topics and developing medieval programming on campuses small and large. Inspired by Dr. Sigal’s leadership of TEAMS (including The Once and Future Classroom) and the “Medieval and Early Modern Studies” program at Wake Forest, as well as her long-time support for WFU undergraduates studying at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, participants might reflect on: the challenges of establishing medieval studies programs; developing innovative pedagogy and curricula, study abroad programming, and community outreach; or the role of publishing in medieval studies pedagogy.

• Playful Pedagogies Clint E. Morrison, Jr., Univ. of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Arielle C. McKee, Wake Forest Univ.

Games offer a unique opportunity for cultural analysis of historical and topical content in popular media. The ludic experience relies upon local interaction between human agents. Yet educators frequently comment that the use of games in classrooms poses significant risks, in terms of time spent and objectives achieved. We invite papers that share approaches that have worked – and not worked – in view of future lesson designs for High School and University instruction. This panel seeks to bridge the pragmatic pedagogical use of games with cultural game theory.

• Scholarship at Teaching Institutions (A Roundtable) Meg Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State Univ.

PhDs, by definition, are awarded by research universities, and yet most academic jobs are at institutions where the primary focus is teaching. This roundtable addresses strategies for pursuing research at smaller, under-resourced, and teaching-oriented institutions, where time and money for scholarly endeavors are scarce. Participants will discuss their own experiences, lessons, and strategies for conducting research at teaching-oriented institutions, with the goal of helping scholars pursue meaningful research alongside heavy teaching loads.

Co-sponsor the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship

• Teaching Saints Across Time Meg Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State Univ.

While many of us research saints in their medieval contexts, we teach about them in the 21st century. This panel solicits considerations of how we, as teachers, connect medieval saints with modern audiences, i.e. our students. Topics might include comparative devotional practices across time; medieval and modern material culture of saints (e.g. churches, icons, manuscripts); 21st century hagiographic texts and media; and/or classroom exercises that connect modern students with medieval saints. Papers that provide concrete examples of pedagogical practice are encouraged.

Co-sponsor The Hagiography Society

• Teaching with TEAMS: A Collaborative Conversation Thomas A. Goodmann, Univ. of Miami

This roundtable invites short presentations on how and why to teach sources from any of the nine TEAMS Classroom Texts series published by Medieval Institute Publications for the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies. Editors of volumes (who are of course also instructors) as well as any and all colleagues who make use of TEAMS sources are welcome to share their insights regarding the intriguing aspects of a given source, as well as their approaches to engaging students. A primary objective is to prompt an exchange among panelists and attendees that will explore possibilities across sources and disciplines in medieval studies.

The Enclosure Group is a collective of artists and scholars interested in the history of medieval women’s religious communities and their afterlives in art, literature, and intellectual history; the iconography of enclosure; and medieval women.

The group was founded in 2020 by Stacie Vos and now has an assistant director, Madeline Fox, whose work explores enclosure in medieval devotional allegory.  Here are her website and Instagram (@enclosedwithin).

1) Prizes: The Lone Medievalist solicits submissions for three prizes in the categories of Teaching, Scholarly Outreach, and Scholarship. Each prize will be separately judged by a panel, and each winning submission will receive an award of $100. Submissions will be accepted until August 15, 2026, with prizes announced by September 15 (hopefully in time for your CV updates before job markets, reappointments, tenure portfolios, etc.). One submission per prize per person or group. All submissions may be submitted via Google form: https://forms.gle/jg3CUZfzk1WKHh4XA

2) Prize Judging Committee: Are you interested in helping give awards to your fellow Lone Medievalists? Are you looking for service work to a national organization (for portfolios, promotion, tenure, etc.)? Then we're looking for you! Apply by July 15, 2026: https://forms.gle/pHLAimciLforz75g7
(Note: we received the feedback that LM's might want/need national service opportunities - so we're trying to help with that!)

Accessible version here: https://lonemedievalist.hcommons.org/prizes/

3) ICMS Sessions: CfP

Lone Medievalists and Activism (A Roundtable)  

Modality: HybridSponsor: Lone Medievalist

Organizer: Kisha G. Tracy

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Lone Medievalists wear many hats; in past panels, we have explored many of these roles. In this roundtable, we will explore the role of Lone Medievalists in activism, working for causes or topics about which they have a passion, and how that activism intersects with our roles as medievalists, scholars, and teachers. This work may manifest in various ways - participation in scholarly organizations that focus on specific issues, dedication to teaching underrepresented topics, application of medieval expertise in non-academic spaces, etc. Participants will discuss their approaches, difficulties, questions, and particularly their successes.

Medievalism Outside Academe (A Roundtable)

Modality: Hybrid

Sponsor: Lone Medievalist and Tales After Tolkien

Organizer: Rachel Sikorski

Most faculty are contingent. The numbers of contingent faculty are dwarfed by those who, after spending years adjuncting, sought other careers yet still feel called to intellectual life. More yet did not pursue lives in academe but still have insights into the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist, as well as how they function. The proposed session looks to present perspectives on the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist from outside traditional academic structures, calling back to Richard Utz’s ICMS 2015 plenary lecture: medievalist work began as an amateur endeavor. Bringing in nonprofessional, underrepresented, outside perspectives remains worth doing.

To submit a proposal: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Index/SponsorList~Lone%20Medievalist

Due: September 15, 2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Dk5KiUruj/

Thursday, 1:30-3:00 p.m., Session 91, Sangren Hall 4725

Exceptional Exceptions: Nonconformity in Courtly Literature

Presider and Organizer: Tamara Bentley Caudill, Jacksonville Univ.

• Nonconforming Amazon Queens in Courtly Literature, Suzanne C. Hagedorn, College of William & Mary
• Illusory Power: Chivalry and Gender Expectations in Partonopeus de Blois, Nicole J. McGee, West Texas A&M Univ.
• Imagining Otherworlds: The Art of Queer Failure in Marie de France’s Lanval, Charlie Serigne, Univ. of Notre Dame
• Out of Bounds: Nonconformity in Raoul de Houdenc, Kristin Burr, St. Joseph’s Univ.

Thursday, 3:30-5:00 p.m., Session 129, Sangren Hall 4725

Honoring Christopher Callahan (A Roundtable)

• Presider and Organizer:  Susanne Hafner, Fordham Univ.
• A roundtable discussion with F. Regina Psaki, Univ. of Oregon; Caroline A. Jewers, Univ. of Kansas; Daniel O’Sullivan, Univ. of Mississippi; Kathy M. Krause, Univ. of Missouri–Kansas City; Julien R. Stout, Princeton Univ.; Tamara Bentley Caudill, Jacksonville Univ. Respondent:  Christopher J. Callahan, Illinois Wesleyan Univ.
• Some presenters will be joining via Zoom (https://uky.zoom.us/my/julie.human), so if you are unable to attend in person but would like to try to listen in, you're welcome to use the link as well.

Our colleague Richard Utz (GaTech) is preparing a talk for this spring's ICMS/K'zoo -- a scant month from now. He would be grateful if you took this very short survey, the data from which will form the basis of his remarks.  Please note: the survey is completely anonymous. In his own words, "The survey is completely anonymized internally as well as by using the link-share function (which automatically anonymizes).   [Richard] will be much obliged for your support to help [him] create a presentation based on this instrument and collegial expertise."

The full title of his presentation is:  “Teaching the Conflicts: Medievalists, Public Medievalists, and Medievalism-ists and Their Classrooms.”

The survey is located here:  https://gatech.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5d6zsKmx33l0TLE.

Please address any questions to:  Richard Utz directly.

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) is pleased to announce that the call for applications for its 2026-2027 Visiting Research Fellowship program is now open. Guided by the vision of its founders, Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, SIMS aims to bring manuscript culture, modern technology, and people together to provide access to and understanding of our shared intellectual heritage. Part of the Penn Libraries, SIMS oversees an extensive collection of premodern manuscripts from around the world, with a special focus on the history of philosophy and science, and creates open-access digital content to support the study of its collections.

SIMS-Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures Collaborative Fellowship

In addition to our usual Visiting Research Fellowships (see below for details), we are delighted to announce a new collaborative fellowship opportunity with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg. The SIMS-CSMC Fellowship will allow the recipient to take advantage of the expertise and manuscript resources at Penn Libraries and CSMC’s expertise in the Humanities, material analysis and/or Computer Science for manuscript research. The one-month SIMS fellowship comes with a stipend of $5000 and must take place before the CSMC fellowship. The SIMS fellowship can be scheduled anytime from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. The CSMC fellowship offers a monthly stipend of between $2590–$4463 (depending on the number of years after the PhD) plus Hamburg-return travel costs for one to three months and can be scheduled any time from January 1, 2027, to December 31, 2027.

For more information about the SIMS-CSMC Collaborative Fellowship and to apply, visit this website. Applications are due Friday, May 1, 2026.

Visiting Research Fellowships

The Visiting Research Fellowship program offers $5000 to spend 1 month (minimum of 4 work weeks) at SIMS between July 1, 2026, and June 30, 2027. Up to 3 fellowships will be awarded. SIMS continues partnering with the American Trust for the British Library (ATBL) to offer SIMS Visiting Research Fellows the opportunity to apply to the ATBL for a further $2,500 to support research on the same project at the British Library. The ATBL fellowship will be awarded in the following year. If a SIMS fellowship is awarded, then the ATBL will reach out to the applicant and request that they apply.

For more information about the Visiting Research Fellowships and to apply, visit this website. Applications are due Friday, May 1, 2026

But there's always something going on at TEAMS.

• If you haven't yet made your plans to go to Kzoo for ICMS, it's not too late.
• If you haven't submitted an article, a lesson plan, or other pedagogical materials to The Once and Future Classroom, here's your chance.
• If you want to learn about TEAMS publications, or submit a proposal to one of the series, scroll further down on the same page.
• If you would like TEAMS to sponsor a session you are chairing, contact Deborah Sinnreich-Levi.
• If you haven't asked all your medieval friends to join TEAMS, it's never too late.

• And just for fun, if you've always wondered about those fighting snails...

The Accessible Medievalist is Prof. Kisha G. Tracy (Fitchburg S.U.), who tells stories about medieval people with disabilities and makes the Middle Ages accessible to everyone. In addition to regular podcast episodes, the Accessible Medievalist project will feature publicly accessible resources on the Medieval Heritages of the Marginalized and on Why Study the Middle Ages?, including presentations, radio show episodes, articles, and more.

Medieval Heritages of the Marginalized was given the 2024 Disability History Association Research for Justice and Equity Award. It will host open access, self-paced workshops for those interested in learning more about different subjects. The first one, Disability and Accessibility, is already live. It includes a section on Teaching Medieval Disability with resources and assignment ideas. Two more workshops – on Gender and Sexuality and Diversity and (Dis)Connection – will be debuted in the next few weeks. There will eventually also be resources for K-16 teachers.

Podcast Episodes:

Welcome to the Accessible Medievalist!

Down Syndrome and Researching Disability

MedievalSoMuchMore BINGO

Medieval Heritages of the Marginalized:  Gender and Sexuality Workshop

The Man with the Knife-Hand Prosthetic

St. Bartholomew's Disability Miracles

Medieval Heritages of the Marginalized Diversity and (Dis)Connection Workshop

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