Medieval + Monsters Conference

In case you missed it:

2023 MAM Kalamazoo meeting Agenda:

We would like to introduce our 2023 presenters to our association & we are keen to reconnect to our MAM memebers. 

We have some work to do - we need a quorum for making desperately needed changes to our constitution. We want ideas on how best to move forward with a regional organization and insight into the needs and expectations of our members. 

MEETING AGENDA:

1. Approve the minutes from our MAM zoom meeting: MAM members zoom meeting 2-24-23 1.docx. Please see minutes for questions that we are still trying to answer, and hope to think about at this meeting. 
2. Reports from our current treasurer and secretary.
3. Vote to adopt the new Constitution. 
4. Vote for a new Treasurer.  We have had one volunteer, Mark Singer, and Harriet has already volunteered to "train him in" if he is elected. 
5. Do we want to postpone our conference for next year? Our link to MAMA continues to be strong but they have had to postpone until 2024.  What do we want to do?
6. We need to search for a new Secretary, what is the best way to advertise the position? Would any of you be interested in being secretary? 
   1. Duties include preparing minutes of Executive Board meetings and annual membership meetings. These are submitted prior to the following meetings of those bodies for approval there.  The Secretary maintains MAM’s records and posts approved minutes on the webpage. They may also be called on to take notes at informal zoom meetings to share with officers and others present.
7. How to really focus and maximize the potential of this year's sessions both in terms of new members, new contributions to Enarratio, and refocusing on our goals for the next five years. 
   1. How do we want to reach out to our speakers at these sessions and really welcome them as new members?
   2. How do we help bring in new submissions for Enarratio?  Will cosponsoring sessions with other groups and associations (MAMA & MMHC) really help?  Do we want to approach our sessions differently, really ask people to submit their papers right there and then, think of them as drafts that we could work with rather than waiting for them to submit? 
   3. How do we best determine what our goals should be for the next five years and how do we build out a series of assessments along the way to see that what we are trying is working? What are our measures of success? 
8. How best to publicize our upcoming Leeds session?

Revised Constitution for your consideration: 2023 MAM constitution .pdf 

Details about the constitution and the changes: 

The old constitution says it can be amended if approved by 2/3 of the Council and then by a majority of members present at the business meeting and responding by absentee ballot.  In any case we will need a quorum, which is one-third of the membership, to approve the change.  

• The current document is outdated (approved 1977) and disorganized (9 amendments 1978-2011, including restructuring of officers). It specifies a larger governing body than we have been able to maintain in recent years: fewer people are available to fill officer and Council seats. Parts of the document reflect concerns and practices no longer current in academia.

Changes:

• The office of Vice President is eliminated.  This position entailed no specific duties.
• The size of the Council is reduced from nine to six elected members. Length of term is unchanged. The appointed Convener of Conferences, formerly ex officio (non-voting) member would become a voting member. The past MAM conference host, formerly the Vice President, would become an ex officio member.  
• The title "Convener of Conferences" is changed to "Coordinator of Sessions" to more accurately reflect the duties of the office.
• The name of the Council is changed to "Executive Board" to better reflect current usage in designating such bodies.  
• The whole document has been re-written for clarity.

HERE are the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies MAM sessions 2023 - Join Us

Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM) Meeting & Drinks Reception @ Bernhard Center 242 Thursday (5/11) 5:30–6:30 p.m. 

The Medieval Association of the Midwest is pleased to announce five sponsored sessions that cover a breadth of topics (4 in person, 1 virtual) at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 11–May 13, 2023. MAM supports scholars at all stages in their careers and greatly values your contribution. For any questions feel free to reach out to Dr. Stephen Yandell yandell@xavier.edu.  

1. Wanted Dead and Alive: Schrödinger’s Cat and the Middle Ages// Session 61 Bernhard Center 208 @ Thursday (5/11) 1:30pm  & the Second ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ is  Session 111, Thursday, 3:30 pm. Bernhard 208.

These sessions invite contributors to explore ways that conceptions of death and understandings of what it means to live interweave in all aspects of medieval life. Where does one find life and death intersecting in and across medieval fields? What appears simultaneously alive and dead in medieval scholarship today?

This session invites contributors to explore ways that conceptions of death and understandings of what it means to live interweave in all aspects of medieval life. Where does one find life and death intersecting in and across medieval fields? What appears simultaneously alive and dead in medieval scholarship today?

2. Vikings and Medieval Violence in the Modern Mind // Session 322 Bernhard Center 210 Saturday (5/13) @ 10:00am

This session invites scholars to consider the popular depiction of Vikings as simultaneously adventurous and threatening. Papers are encouraged to explore any number of questions: what is the history of the romanticization of Vikings and medieval violence? What differences exist between medieval and modern cultural memories of Vikings and violence? How should medievalists as public intellectuals represent and respond to Vikings and medieval violence?

3. Conspicuous Consumption: Feasting, Fighting, and Tomfoolery (co-sponsored with the Pearl-Poet Society). VIRTUAL session // Friday (5/12) @ 1:30pm 

In this panel papers will consider ways that indulgence and gluttony are portrayed in medieval literary works (in the Pearl-Poet and beyond): how feasting and fighting can indicate the values of a medieval audience, and why authors like the Pearl-Poet condemned such excess, whether in the church or court, in nobility or commoner.

4. Teaching the Medieval in the Midwest // Session 176 Schneider Hall 1135 Friday (5/12) @10:00am

This session seeks papers that explore the particular challenges and opportunities that arise when one teaches medieval topics in Midwestern classrooms. We are particularly interested in contributions from graduate students who have navigated medieval teaching experiences in the Midwest at the university level, including pedagogical practices, course development, and student engagement. The top graduate-paper submission will be awarded mentorship for preparing the piece to be published in the journal Enarratio.

5. Second Helping: Reading between the lines of celebration and heartbreak in Chaucer's feasts //Session 26 Schneider Hall 1245 Thursday (5/11) @10:00 am

This session invites scholars to explore Chaucer's deliberate pairings of feasting and celebration with characters who are exposed at key moments in the Chaucerian corpus. The Prioress's genuine emotion for animals over innocent people says much about the preoccupations of her “kind,” for example. Papers are invited to explore this topic from any number of perspectives. What might Chaucer have intended by exposure of his characters specifically in food settings?

Medieval Association of the Midwest