Annual Meeting 2007 Report

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, 2007

The Medieval Academy of America held its eighty-second annual meeting in Toronto on 12-14 April 2007. The Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, was the host for the meeting.

Meeting of the Corporation

The annual meeting of the Corporation was held on Friday, 13 April, at 1:30 P.M. Roberta Frank, President, presided. The minutes of the eighty-first annual meeting were approved. Reports were delivered by the Executive Director, the Editor of Speculum, and the Delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. The report of the Treasurer was read by Paul E. Szarmach in the absence of Barbara A. Shailor.

The Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize was awarded to Anne Latowsky for her essay "Foreign Embassies and Roman Universality in Einhard's Life of Charlemagne," which appeared in Florilegium 22 (2005), 25-57.

The John Nicholas Brown Prize was awarded to Stephen E. Lahey for his book Philosophy and Politics in the Thought of John Wyclif, published by Cambridge University Press in 2003.

The Haskins Medal was awarded to Thomas F. Madden for his book entitled Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2003.

The Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies was awarded to Gregory G. Guzman of Bradley University.

The CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies was awarded to János Bak of the Central European University.

The 2007 slate chosen by mail ballot was presented to the assembled members. All present, without dissent, voted to accept the slate and elect the following: President (2007-8): Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago; First Vice-President (2007-8): Patrick J. Geary, University of California, Los Angeles; Second Vice-President (2007-8): Herbert L. Kessler, Johns Hopkins University. Councillors (2007-10): Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia University; Paul Edward Dutton, Simon Fraser University; David Klausner, University of Toronto; and Elizabeth Sears, University of Michigan. Nominating Committee (2007-9): Michael Kulikowski, University of Tennessee; and Anders Winroth, Yale University.

Session sponsored by the Fellows

The session sponsored by the Fellows was held on Saturday, 14 April, at 2 P.M. Richard W. Pfaff, President of the Fellows, presided. In the 2007 election Robert Chazan, Fredric L. Cheyette, Peter Fergusson, Howard Kaminsky, Joel T. Rosenthal, and Richard W. Unger were elected Fellows; Caroline M. Barron, Miri Rubin, and František Šmahel were elected Corresponding Fellows. Professors Chazan, Cheyette, Rosenthal, Rubin, and Unger were present for formal induction, as was Danielle Jacquart, elected a Corresponding Fellow in 2006. Citations were read by Barbara Newman, Orator of the Fellows. The session concluded with an address by Susan Rankin, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, "De commoda vel componenda modulatione: The Idea of Musical Composition in the Early Middle Ages."

Plenary lectures

Richard Firth Green, Ohio State University, delivered an address entitled "Christ, the Changeling"; the session, in honor of John F. Leyerle, was chaired by David Klausner, University of Toronto. David Ganz, King's College London, delivered an address entitled "Copying the Classics in the Carolingian Age"; the session was chaired by Paul Edward Dutton, Simon Fraser University. Roberta Frank, Yale University, delivered the presidential address, "A Scandal in Toronto," on Friday afternoon; the session was chaired by Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago.

CARA session

David Klausner, University of Toronto, chaired the session sponsored by the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) on Saturday morning. Participants in the roundtable discussion "When Were the Middle Ages?" were Walter Goffart, Yale University; Michael Kulikowski, University of Tennessee; John Monfasani, Renaissance Society of America; and Linda Ehrsam Voigts, University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Concurrent sessions

Concurrent sessions were held on Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Saturday. The Thursday afternoon sessions were as follows: Rethinking the Canonical Texts and Topographies of Medieval Art, 1: Foundational Authors and Texts (Jill Caskey, University of Toronto, chair): Elizabeth Sears, University of Michigan; Charles McClendon, Brandeis University; and Herbert L. Kessler, Johns Hopkins University; The Viking Diaspora, 1 (George Clark, Queen's University, chair): Shaun F. D. Hughes, Purdue University; Robin Waugh, Wilfrid Laurier University; and John D. Niles, University of Wisconsin; Book Production (James Weldon, Wilfrid Laurier University, chair): Blair Sullivan, University of California, Los Angeles; Roseanne Gasse, Brandon University; and Mary Dove, University of Sussex; The Urban Economy, 1 (John Munro, University of Toronto, chair): James Murray, University of Cincinnati; John Oldland, Bishop's University; and Susan Mosher Stuard, Haverford College; Narrative Space in Courtly Romance (Markus Stock, University of Toronto, chair): Irit Kleiman, Boston University; Hans-Jochen Schiewer, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg; and Arthur Groos, Cornell University; The Literature of Medieval France (John Haines, University of Toronto, chair): Dorothea Kullmann, University of Toronto; and Donna Bussell, University of Illinois, Springfield; Refiguring the Fall: "Genesis B" for the Twenty-First Century (Patricia Dailey, Columbia University, chair): Kathleen Davis, Princeton University; Catherine Karkov, University of Leeds; Stacy Klein, Rutgers University; Haruko Momma, New York University; and Paul Remley, University of Washington; and Environmental Relations: Medieval Societies Interacting with Nature, 1: Human Uses and the Landscapes of Medieval France (Richard C. Hoffmann, York University, chair): Isabelle Catteddu, University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Institut national de recherches archéologiques preventives; Ellen Arnold, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; and Constance Berman, University of Iowa.

The Friday morning sessions were as follows: Rethinking the Canonical Texts and Topographies of Medieval Art, 2: Foundational Texts and the Borders of Medieval Art (Adam S. Cohen, University of Toronto, chair): Nancy L. Wicker, University of Mississippi; and Katrin Kogman-Appel, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Gender and Religious Reform (Jennifer A. Harris, University of Toronto, chair): Conrad Leyser, University of Manchester; Fiona Griffiths, New York University; and Megan McLaughlin, University of Illinois; Written on the Body of the Codex: The Integrity of the Manuscript as Textual Matrix, in Honor of Leonard Boyle (Andrew Taylor, University of Ottawa, chair): Wesley Stevens, University of Winnipeg; Debra Lacoste, University of Western Ontario; and Daniel Williman, Binghamton University; The Viking Diaspora, 2 (Ian McDougall, University of Toronto, chair): Russell Poole, University of Western Ontario; James Graham-Campbell, University College, London; and John McKinnell, Durham University; Medicine and Physiology (Ruth Harvey, University of Toronto, chair): Faith Wallis, McGill University; and Danielle Jacquart, École pratique des hautes études, Paris; Ethics and Alterity (Sarah Kay, Princeton University, chair): Simon Gaunt, King's College London; Noah Guynn, University of California, Davis; and Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz (Professor Kinoshita was unable to attend; her paper was read by Suzanne Akbari, University of Toronto); Aspects of Liturgy (Sarah Keefer, Trent University, chair): Luisa Nardini, University of Texas; and Jamie Younkin, University of Toronto; Latinity and Gender (David Townsend, University of Toronto, chair): Matthew Hussey, Simon Fraser University; Tina Chronopoulos, University of London; and Marjorie Curry Woods, University of Texas; and On the Shoulders of Giants: Classical Texts in the Middle Ages (Greti Dinkova-Bruun, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, chair): Anna Bücheler, University of Toronto; Eric Lawee, York University; and David Porreca, University of Waterloo.

The Friday afternoon sessions were as follows: Rethinking the Canonical Texts and Topographies of Medieval Art, 3: Expanding the Borders of Medieval Art (Linda Safran, University of Toronto, chair): Christina Maranci, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and Jenny Purtle, University of Toronto; Middle English Texts and Contexts (Mark Amodio, Vassar College, chair): Randy Schiff, State University of New York, Buffalo; David Coley, University of Maryland; and Siobhain Calkin, Carleton University; The Twelfth-Century Ethiopian Zagwe King and Church-Builder Yemrehannä Krestos (Getatchew Haile, Saint John's University, chair): Gianfranco Fiaccadori, University of Milan; Michael Gervers, University of Toronto; and Ewa Balicka-Witakowska, Uppsala University; Parliaments and Texts (Clementine Oliver, California State University, Northridge, chair): Brantley L. Bryant, Columbia University; Matthew Giancarlo, Yale University; and W. Mark Ormrod, University of York; Figuring Medieval "Figura" (Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, New York University, chair): Charles Barber, University of Notre Dame; Emily Steiner, University of Pennsylvania; and Nancy van Deusen, Claremont Graduate University; with Constance Bouchard, University of Akron, as respondent; Preparing to Teach: Tips for Creating a Syllabus and Choosing Resource Materials (Lisa Chen, University of Toronto, chair): Lori Woods, University of Toronto, as presenter of the workshop; England and Italy in the Fourteenth Century (William Robbins, University of Toronto, chair): William Caferro, Vanderbilt University; Nancy Warren, Florida State University; Allen Shoaf, University of Florida; and John Plummer, Vanderbilt University; and "Exaudi me, domine Deus": Importuning God in the Middle Ages (Anne Savage, McMaster University, chair): Joseph Dyer, University of Massachusetts, Boston; and Kristen Allen, University of Toronto.

The Saturday morning sessions were as follows: Politics and Government in Medieval Empire (Paul Freedman, Yale University, chair): Eric J. Goldberg, Williams College; Jonathan Lyon, University of Chicago; and Lisa Wolverton, University of Oregon; The Urban Economy, 2 (Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham University, chair): Adam J. Davis, Denison University; John McEwan, University of London; and Stuart Jenks, University of Erlangen; Environmental Relations: Medieval Societies Interacting with Nature, 2: Diverse Regional and Disciplinary Perspectives (Richard W. Unger, University of British Columbia, chair): Brian A. Catlos, University of California, Santa Cruz; Petra J. E. M. van Dam, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam; and Jeremy Withers, Ohio State University; Transmission of Knowledge through Nonwritten Sources in the Religious Orders (Isabelle Cochelin, University of Toronto, chair): Glenn W. Olsen, University of Utah; Angela Glover, University of Toronto; and Andrew Jotischky, Lancaster University; Authority and Dissent in Anglo-Saxon England (Pauline Thompson, University of Toronto, chair): Todd Preston, Lycoming College; Andrew Scheil, University of Minnesota; and Damian Fleming, John Carroll University; Holiness, Christian and Non-Christian (Walid Saleh, University of Toronto, chair): Maria Subtelny, University of Toronto; and Samantha Kahn Herrick, Syracuse University; and Late Middle English Literature (Alexandra Gillespie, University of Toronto, chair): Michael Johnston, Ohio State University; Andreea D. Boboc, University of the Pacific; and Alex Mueller, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

The Saturday afternoon sessions were as follows: Silent Witnesses: Medieval Culture and the Written Record (Paul Edward Dutton, Simon Fraser University, chair): Philip Slavin, University of Toronto; and Erik Kwakkel, University of Victoria; Exploring the Boundaries of Narrative Space (Markus Stock, University of Toronto, chair): Amelia Borrego, University of California, Berkeley; Kristin E. Juel, St. Michael's College, Vermont; and Lisa Weston, California State University, Fresno; Between England and France (Donna Bussell, University of Illinois, Springfield, chair): Claude Evans, University of Toronto; Thomas O'Donnell, University of California, Los Angeles; and R. F. Yeager, University of West Florida; Cross-Religious Philosophical Discourse (Deborah L. Black, University of Toronto, chair): Marcia Colish, Yale University; Richard Taylor, Marquette University; and Jennifer Hart Weed, Tyndale University College; Recognizing Rome in Anglo-Saxon England (Antonette diPaolo Healey, University of Toronto, chair): David Johnson, Florida State University; Joanna Story, University of Leicester; and Elaine Treharne, Florida State University; Meditation (Ann M. Hutchison, Glendon College, York University, chair): Marlene Hennessey, Hunter College, City University of New York; Alexandra Barratt, University of Waikato; and Martha Driver, Pace University; Constructing Meaning from the Primary Sources (Robert Stein, State University of New York, Purchase, chair): Madeline Caviness, Tufts University; Derek Neal, Nipissing University; and Peter Burkholder, Fairleigh Dickinson University; Allegory and Imaginative Theology in Late-Medieval Europe (Mishtooni Bose, Christ Church, Oxford, chair): Suzanne Akbari, University of Toronto; Alastair Minnis, Ohio State University; and Fiona Somerset, Duke University; and Don't Mind the Gap: Anglo-Saxon and Middle English (Anne Savage, McMaster University, chair): Scott DeGregorio, University of Michigan, Dearborn; Anna Grotans, Ohio State University; and Haruko Momma, New York University.

Special events

Receptions were held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with the banquet on Friday evening.