Reports - Report of the Executive Director

The year 2010, which is the main focus of this report, must surely appear in the Academy annals as beyond imagination. The passage of the Arizona immigration law (SB 1070), and also an Arizona law on ethnic studies, created consternation and confusion as the Academy looked ahead to the scheduling of this meeting. The question was whether or not the Academy should hold the meeting as planned or seek other arrangements, if not cancellation. As tension was building throughout the country, the Academy began to receive advice and more from a variety of sources, including individuals who were not members of the Academy but sought to speak as medievalists through the Academy. For the first time ever the officers and Council held a telephone conference, on June 18, which led to a decision to conduct a poll soliciting from the membership its views on the main issue of holding the meeting in Arizona. The new Academy distribution list registered 1,025 opinions out of a total possible of 3,881. The solicitation of members' views in this direct way was also a first. By about a 4.5 percent margin the poll favored a decision to stay in Arizona.

I attach below the Executive Committee's post-poll message to the membership:

3 August 2010

On behalf of the Council, the Executive Committee wishes to thank the many members of the Academy and the medieval community for their active engagement with the question of holding the Academy's Annual Meeting next April in Tempe. As you know, the Council asked the Executive Committee to make a final decision concerning this question on 3 August 2010. We are writing to inform you of our decision, and are also posting this message on the Academy's website.

The results of the advisory poll of the membership held by the Council was divided. The poll was sent to 3881 members, of whom 1025 responded. Of the respondents, 431 voted against holding the meeting in Tempe (42%), 477 (46.5%) voted to hold it as planned, and 110 (10.7%) expressed no opinion. Seven responses [<1%] were invalid. Only 32.7% of the respondents said they were prepared to contribute towards offsetting the cost of canceling the meeting, whereas 65% declared their unwillingness to do so. Of the 477 voting against canceling, 186 included comments; of the 431 voting to cancel, 111 wrote comments; of the 110 expressing no preference, 18 added a message.

In reaching its decision the Executive Committee discussed at great length a wide range of issues, including its fiduciary responsibility for the Academy's endowment, the appropriateness of making collective political statements, the precedents that would be set if the Academy canceled the meeting, the scholarly effects of canceling the annual meeting, the work done by the Arizona programming committee, the difficulty of finding any alternative meeting place, the timing of cancellation, and the possibility of legal challenge to Arizona's legislation (which in fact occurred on 28 July).

After weighing all these issues, the Executive Committee has voted to hold the meeting, as planned, in Tempe. The Committee is working with Robert Bjork and the Program Committee to ensure that the program of the meeting reflects and relates to similar issues at stake in medieval society, including such topics as race, ethnicity, immigration, tolerance, treatment of minority groups, protest against governmental policies judged unjust, and standards of judicial and legislative morality. We are delighted that the Episcopal bishop of Arizona, Kirk Smith, who has been deeply involved in the immigration legislation debate (and whose doctoral dissertation Brian Tierney directed), has agreed to speak to us.

Elizabeth A.R. Brown, President
Alice-Mary Talbot, First Vice-President
Maryanne Kowaleski, Second Vice-President
Constance Berman
Peggy McCracken
Brian Patrick McGuire
Danuta Shanzer

In response to the vexed issues, the Academy, with the active participation and cooperation of the local host, the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS), made adjustments to the planned program to allow for a full discussion of the issues brought up by the Arizona legislation.

Even Academy grant activity lost some of its luster. Members will recall that the NEH (Division of Research Programs) grant for "Retrospective Digital Editions of Print Editions Published by the Medieval Academy of America, 1925-2001" was off to a great start early in 2008-9 as it sought to produce thirty-eight electronic editions published in the Academy's main book series, Medieval Academy Books (MAB). Through June of 2009 the project work moved along swiftly: all thirty-eight titles were properly keyboarded to an accuracy of 99.5 percent. Unfortunately, it has taken some time to arrive at the second stage, which is the "inspection" of the thirty-eight volumes to ensure that they have been rendered properly. This stage focuses on Roman-alphabet books (Phase I or the "Latin phase"), operating at this time on a no-cost extension. The consultants who will contribute at this stage are Constance Brittain Bouchard, Siân Echard, David F. Johnson, Christopher Kleinhenz, Deborah McGrady, Patrick O'Neill, and Eckehard Simon. Jacqueline Brown and Paul E. Szarmach are Project Codirectors, while Patrick Conner is Senior Consultant.

For the MAB project the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gave the Academy a supplemental grant of $28,900 to hire temporary personnel and to anticipate the need to develop non-Roman characters and music notation for the "non-Latin phase" (or Phase II) of the project. Grapevine Publishing Inc. (Madison, Wisconsin) did complete the feasibility study, though it took more time than originally planned, which created various complications. The Academy was able to return unspent funds to the Mellon Foundation. Phase I will be the main work for Grapevine Publishing in the coming months.

The Academy's federal grant activity, including the successful Dante Seminar in 2009, is the subject of an NEH audit. In its notice of the audit the NEH wrote, "The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-Office of Inspector General will be performing a desk review audit of the two current awards (FS-50176-08 & RQ-50325-08) made by NEH to the Medieval Academy of America. This review is not a result of fraud hotline call, etc; rather, our office has elected to sample a number of awards, made over the past couple of years, to newer grantees. As part of this audit, we will be focusing on several key areas. . . ." Our own enquiry into the context of such audits confirmed the broad description offered by the NEH. The NEH received the full cooperation of staff, the Director, and the Treasurer. It would seem that the evidence-gathering phase of the audit is over. Since late January there has been no activity. Interestingly, the audit has an apparently far reach: from general payroll practices to institutional self-description. One may note here the auditor's interest in the February 2010 resignations from the Finance Committee.

One online research activity coming in part from the Academy is the digital resource "eTK," created by Linda Ehrsam Voigts and Patricia Deery Kurtz: "eTK" is based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (1963), and "eVK2," which is an expanded and revised version of Voigts and Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference (2000). These works have joined MAB Online through a link between the Academy and the programs hosted at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. There have been 5,592 searches in the period April 2009-February 2011. Our thanks to Professors Voigts and Kurtz and to their associate James Grant for giving the Academy an opportunity to develop a research function off its website.

At long last the Academy has begun receiving membership dues online. On January 28, 2011, new members could choose online payment as an option. Soon members who are renewing now-effectively late renewals, for the time to renew for 2011 was the fall of 2010-will be sent notice, likely in mid-May, that online renewals will be an option. I am grateful to the staff, particularly Sheryl Mullane-Corvi and Christopher Cole, for their due diligence in working with Interactive Media Consulting, LLC (Saratoga Springs, New York) to create for the Academy an online system meeting the Academy's needs.

Members.
The number of Medieval Academy members in good standing as of 31 December 2010 was 3,844, a net loss of 289 (cf. 4,133 in 2009, 4,223 in 2008, 4,218 in 2007, 4,172 in 2006) and down from 4,486 in 2005 before the last dues increase came into effect.

Finances.
The Treasurer's report will more appropriately address the major issues facing the Academy. The Treasurer and the reconstituted Finance Committee have worked with me and my office to develop the operating budget and to evaluate endowment investment strategies as well as development plans. The budget has not shown a surplus since 2002, the last year we benefited from the high endowment value that fell when the technology bubble burst. The continued association with Credit Suisse, and particularly the assistance of Gerry McGinley, has been central to the Academy's financial life.

The contract with Cambridge University Press, about which more in the Editor's Report, will have a positive effect on Academy finances. In the budget year 2010 CUP gave advance payments to the Academy. The Academy fiscal year is the calendar year, while CUP has a fiscal year ending April 30. The timing differential makes certain transactions easy.

Fellowships, Grants, and Prizes.
The Academy works with the Richard III Society and its Schallek endowment to offer one fellowship at $30,000 and five doctoral awards at $2,000 each. The 2011 Schallek Fellowship has been awarded to Marisa Libbon, University of California, Berkeley, "Cultural Nostalgia and the Production of Collective Identity in Medieval England." The 2011 Schallek Awards have been given to Nicole Burt, University of Alberta, "Reconstruction of Diet and Growth in Juveniles for Medieval York Using a New Method of Dentine Stable Isotope Analysis"; Betsy Chunko, University of Virginia, "The Worcester School of English Woodcarving and the Peasant Subject, ca. 1340-1500"; Kristen Geaman, University of Southern California, "Power in the Uterus: Negotiating Royal Infertility in England, 1328-1471"; Carissa Harris, Northwestern University, "Pear-Trees, Podynges, and Pintels: The Poetics of Obscenity in Late Medieval British Manuscripts"; and Sarah Kernan, Ohio State University, who is studying the authorship and production of cookery texts in England and France, 1300-1600.

The Baldwin Fellowship will be open to applications in the coming fall.

The Committee for Professional Development gave out travel awards (November cycle) to Deborah Ann Hayden, Eileen Kearney, and Marcia Kupfer.

Office and Staff Report.
Once again, I thank Mary-Jo Arn, Book Review Manager and Editor of Medieval Academy News; Jacqueline Brown, Associate Director and Associate Editor of Speculum; Christopher Cole, Office Assistant and Webmaster; Lisa Fagin Davis, Assistant for Special Projects; and Sheryl Mullane-Corvi, Assistant to the Executive Director, for their generous support.

Future Annual Meetings.
St. Louis is the venue for March 22-24 (revised date), 2012, where Thomas Madden is the contact. Information on the 2012 meeting is available off the Academy website. The Marco Institute at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will host the 2013 meeting, April 4-6. The 2014 meeting of the Academy should, as past practice would have it, rotate out to the West and the Medieval Association of the Pacific; negotiation continues. The 2015 meeting will take place at the University of Notre Dame, March 26-28. Olivia Remie Constable is the contact person.

The Medieval Academy at International Congresses.
The Medieval Academy sponsors an annual plenary lecture at Kalamazoo and at Leeds. On May 13 Annemarie Weyl Carr will offer a plenary lecture entitled "Outremer: Byzantine Art in a World of Multiple Christianities" at the Forty-Sixth International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. The Academy's Kalamazoo Program Committee, chaired by Richard Kieckhefer, sponsors session 334, "Cultures in Contact," with papers by Sharon A. Kinoshita, S. Adam Hindon, Vanessa Crosby, and Matthew Canepa.

The Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) and the Graduate Student Committee are also on the Kalamazoo program. CARA sessions are 442, "'How Green Is My Apple?' Online Sources, E-Readers, and the Medieval Studies Classroom (A Workshop)," and 458, "Is Publishing Perishing? The State of Print in the Online Age (A Roundtable)." Thomas Goodmann coordinates Kalamazoo programs for CARA. As in the past, CARA will host a luncheon for its members. The Graduate Student Committee offers a roundtable entitled "Women in the Academy: The Past, Present, and Future of Female Scholars in Medieval Studies," session 143, and a cash bar on Thursday evening.

At the International Medieval Congress in Leeds Margot Fassler will deliver the Academy's eleventh Leeds plenary lecture on July 12, "Volmar, Hildegard, and a History for the Rupertsberg."

Book Publication Programs.
The Medieval Academy's Publications Advisory Board recommended funding for three books through the Academy's Book Subvention Program: Leslie Lockett, Anglo-Saxon Psychologies in the Vernacular and Latin Traditions (University of Toronto Press); Aden Kumler, Translating Truth: Ambitious Images and Religious Knowledge in Late Medieval France and England (Yale University Press); and Tara Williams, Inventing Womanhood: Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing (Ohio State University Press).

For their service to the Academy evaluating subvention applications and book proposals, I thank the members of the Publications Advisory Board: Michael Kulikowski (chair), Piotr Górecki, Warren Brown, Wendy Pfeffer, and Therese Martin. Professors Górecki and Martin rotate off. Paul M. Cobb and Adam Kosto have been appointed to three-year terms (2011-14).

Fellows and Corresponding Fellows.
Five Fellows (Rita Copeland, Richard K. Emmerson, Monica Green, María Rosa Menocal, and John H. Munro) and two Corresponding Fellows (John Lowden and Brian Patrick McGuire) were elected in the 2011 election to join the ranks of those honored by the Academy for their distinguished contributions to medieval studies. The total complement of Fellows stands at 121, Corresponding Fellows at 66, and Emeriti/ae Fellows at 9.

Any three members of the Academy may nominate candidates for election. Nominations at large are supplemented by the Fellows Nominating Committee. This year's committee numbered E. Ann Matter (chair), Danuta Shanzer, and Daniel Lord Smail.

Executive Committee Meeting.
The Executive Committee met at the Medieval Academy office in Cambridge on November 6, 2010. A report on this annual meeting was circulated to all members of the Council. The committee discussed the 2011 provisional budget, the Arizona meeting, and the financial state of the Academy.

Appointments.
Recommendations for appointments to Academy committees and to some other positions, such as Treasurer and ACLS Delegate, are to be made by the Committee on Committees, composed of second-year Council members and chaired by the Executive Director. I have worked with the members of the committee, but this year, as in the past, I have also consulted with chairs, incumbent and outgoing. In addition to appointments mentioned elsewhere in this report Council has approved the following recommendations: Committee on Electronic Resources (2011-14), Lisa Bitel and John Carlson; Electronic Editions Advisory Board (2011-14), Larry Swain and Alison Beach; AHA Program Committee (2011-14), Daniel Hobbins and Shona Wray Kelly; Committee for Professional Development (2011-14), Karen Mathews; and Kalamazoo Program Committee (2011-14), Samantha Kelly and Diane Reilly.

Appointments to the Graduate Student Committee are made by the Executive Director after a self-nomination process. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Sebastian J. Langdell, Elizaveta Strakhov, and Ethan Zadoff to two-year terms on the committee (2011-13).

Appointments of members of the Speculum Editorial Board and of Book Review Editors are made by Council on the nomination of the Editor of Speculum. Council has approved the following appointments: Editorial Board (2011-15), Frederick M. Biggs, Cynthia J. Brown, John J. Contreni, and Wendy Scase; Book Review Editors (2011-14), Steven Botterill, Susan Boynton, Colum Hourihane, Stephen E. Lahey (reappointment to a second term), and Joseph Falaky Nagy (reappointment to a second term).

Special Thanks.
I would like to acknowledge with thanks the service of newly elected Councillor Cary Nederman at the installation of R. Bowen Loftin as the twenty-fourth president of Texas A&M University (September 24, 2010) and the service of former president Patrick J. Geary in representing the Academy at the inauguration of Chrysostomos L. Nikias as the eleventh president of the University of Southern California (October 15, 2010).

[A personnel matter has been redacted for reasons of confidentiality.]

Respectfully submitted,
PAUL E. SZARMACH, Executive Director