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/

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.

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

Follow on social media:

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The 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies will take place Thursday, May 14, through Saturday, May 16, 2026.      

                                                    VIEW THE 2026 MEETING SITE

Registration is open!            

                                                    REGISTER FOR ICMS 2026

TEAMS-Sponsored Sessions at ICMS 2026

Mark your calendars and join us at these sessions at K’zoo this year.

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Session 23, Thursday, May 14, 8:30-10am, Sangren Hall 4715

Ugly Is as Ugly Does: Physiognomy as Signifier in Medieval Literature and Culture

Presider:  Deborah Sinnreich-Levi

· “The Physiognomy of the Demonic: Portraits of Saracens in the Chansons de geste and Le jeu de S. Nicolas,” Joel N. Feimer, Independent Scholar

· “Marked by the Body: Ugliness, Otherness, and the Semiotics of Appearance in Medieval Literature,” Georgina Z. Crespi, Univ. of Reading

· “Monstrous Children in Norwegian Medieval Law Codes,” Torgeir Landro, NLA Høgskolen

· “(Trans)Formative Monstrosity and the "Ugly" Wyrm's Turn: Eleanor Rykener and John Mandeville in Dialogue,” Johanna W. Alden, Boston College

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Session 239, Friday, May 15, 1:30-3pm, Waldo Library 1070 (Multipurpose Room)

Ludic Lessons (A Roundtable)

Presiders:  Clint E. Morrison Jr., Univ. of Texas–Austin & Thomas C. Sawyer, Univ. of Chicago

· Arielle C. McKee, Wake Forest University

· Melissa Ridley Elmes, Lindenwood University.

· Mary A. Valente, Appalachian State University

· Antonia DiNardo, Univ. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

· Tamara J. McCarty, Arkın Yaratıcı Sanatlar ve Tasarım Üniv. Top of Form

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Session 276, Friday, May 15, 3:30-5pm, Waldo Library 3016 (Multipurpose Room)

If We Ever Get out of Here: Teaching Medieval Studies in a Shifting Political Landscape

Presider:  Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist Univ.

Respondent:  Larissa "Kat" Tracy, Univ. of Maryland–Baltimore County

· “Teaching the Conflicts: Medievalists, Public Medievalists, and Medievalism-ists and Their Classrooms,” Richard Utz, Georgia Institute of Technology

· “Leaning in to the DEI Debate: The Responsibility, Power, and Influence of Senior Faculty in Medieval Studies,” Dorsey Armstrong, Arthuriana / Purdue Univ.

· “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes at a State Flagship University,” Julie Human, Univ. of Kentucky

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Session 354, Saturday, May 16, 1:30-3pm, Sangren Hall 1310 / Hybrid

The TEAMS / Bonnie Wheeler Session: Christine de Pizan on the Seductions of Chivalry in the Dit de Poissy and Epistre Othea

Presider:  Deborah Sinnreich-Levi, TEAMS

Christine's choice of a conventional love-debate poem to present original techniques and ideas will be discussed.

· Christine de Pizan's Dit de Poissy: "Un si bel lieu, si bien ordonne": A Medieval Heroine Seduced by Dominican Moral Virtues,” Kandace Brill Lombart, Independent Scholar

· “The Epistre Othea as the Framing Context for Christine de Pizan's Treatment of Chivalry in Her Lyric Poetry,” Earl Jeffrey Richards, Bergische Univ. Wuppertal

· Suzanne Hélène Savoy, Independent Scholar, will read excerpts from her translation of le dit de Poissy and Blumenfeld-Kosinski/Richards' translation of l'epistre Othea to explore Christine's depiction of chevaliers in these two works published in 1400.

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The Body in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Keene State College,Keene, NH, USA

Friday and Saturday April 10-11, 2026

Call for Papers and Sessions

The 46th Medieval and Renaissance Forum will take place in person on Friday, April 10, and Saturday, April 11, 2026, at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. This year's conference considers “the body” in the broadest way possible. As always, we also welcome papers on any and every topic related to the Middle Ages or the Renaissance as well as papers on medievalism. We plan to hold the 46th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum in person with a limited number of virtual presentations.We welcome abstracts (one page or less) from faculty, students, and independent scholars. If you are an undergraduate student, we ask that you obtain a faculty member's approval and sponsorship.

Graduate students are eligible for consideration for the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award upon submission of their essays by March 1, 2026. The winner of the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award will win $100 to be used for registration and/or travel expenses to the 47th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum (travel expenses including but not limited to transportation to and from the conference and accommodations while in Keene). The winner of the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award will be announced at the Medieval Feast on Friday, April 10, 2026.

Please submit abstracts and full contact information on the google form available at:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHh7CZUvViEst4nQryT2e-Pi1V1hhPCF5ciQESAUPzvSg2ww/viewform?usp=publish-editor.

The keynote speaker is Colby Gordon, (Bryn Mawr College), who will speak on "Margaret Cavendish's Trans Kabbalah":  Is gender identity a secularized version of the Christian soul? And if so, where does that leave the body?

This talk considers the religious prehistories of the apparently secular clinical apparatus that, today, manages trans life, linking Margaret Cavendish’s 1666 utopian fiction The Blazing World with the later sexological fascination with the transmigration of souls as an explanation for sexual inversion. Colby Gordon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Literatures in English at Bryn Mawr College. With Simone Chess and Will Fisher, he edited a special issue of The Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies on early modern trans studies, the first published collection to bring the conceptual vocabulary of trans studies into the analysis of gender in early modern literature and culture. In 2022, the Shakespeare Association of America named his essay "A Woman's Prick" the winner of its Innovative Article Award. His first book, Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press (2024). He is currently at work on a second monograph entitled The Trans Debate and the Jewish Question.

Abstract deadline: January 15, 2026

Presenters and early registration: March 15, 2026

See also:  https://shaksper.net/current-postings/35411-cfp-46th-annual-medieval-and-renaissance-forum

As always, we look forward to greeting returning and first-time participants to Keene!