AHA Session 20
Medieval Academy of America 1
Thursday, January 7, 2027: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Studio 9 (New Orleans Marriott, 2nd Floor)
Chair:
Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech
Panel:
Melanie Holcomb, Cloisters and Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thomas Lecaque, Grand View University
Elise Wang, California State University, Fullerton
Session Abstract
One might say that the study of the past is under assault from all sides, but at least throughout the twenty-first century, one might always say that. That said, the perpetual crisis does seem particularly acute as it relates to the Middle Ages. Positions disappearing, programs shuttering, legislators openly questioning the very value of our scholarship. And yet, all sorts of publics seem to desire the Middle Ages, to approach it with wonder or horror or (in its political manifestations) nostalgia. Streaming shows, films, and video games set in medieval or quasi-medieval fantasy worlds continue to appear, generate interest, and win awards, and enrollments in K-16 courses in this area remain high. Therefore, taking inspiration from a recent exhibition (“Spectrum of Desire”) at the Cloisters in NYC, and taking their framing as a provocation, this proposed roundtable then aims to think similarly about the Middle Ages and different publics’ desire for the medieval world. By bringing together scholars -- all in different positions and at different stages of their careers -- who are working creatively with a host of different publics, this roundtable will showcase a variety of approaches to increasing understanding of the period among specialists and non-specialists alike - be it in a museum, high school, small liberal arts college, large public university, or online via youtube or podcast.
In his 1920 presidential address to the Modern Language Association, a speech that launched the later founding of the Medieval Academy of America (in 1925), John Manly said that “we of the humanities... have stars in our firmament, systems as mysterious and fascinating as comets or double suns, but we have too seldom invited the public to look through our telescopes and share our visions...- visions of food for starving peoples, visions of wider opportunities for cramped lives,... or of excavations of long-buried civilizations, visions of dead poets and painters and lawgivers, visions of man in every stage of his long climb up from his feeble and brutish beginnings.” Pairing these thoughts from more than a century ago with the very recent provocation of “desire,” this roundtable will then ultimately be of interest not just for those studying the premodern world but for any - all - colleagues and friends who want to invite others to look through our telescopes, to invite publics of all kinds to investigate and understand the past.
