Latest News
Our Kalamazoo sessions for 2005 are in the Call For Papers! If you'd rather not scroll through the whole list, our sessions are as follows:- 14th-Century Mysticisms
- Social Conflict in the 14th Century
- The 14th Century: an Era of Humanism (cosponsored with Italians and Italianists)
Minutes from the Society's Business Meeting (held May 6, 2004)
President Phyllis E. Pobst, presiding
- We began the meeting with a move to accept the previous meeting's minutes, which we did unanimously.
- We then moved to accept the new bylaws. After brief discussion, this also passed unanimously. (If the by-laws need changing at any point, it simply takes a membership vote.)
- Proceeding according to said bylaws, we then held elections. Phyllis, Lars, and Wendy agreed to stand for their respective positions for another term. No other nominations were made (to the officers' collective regret), so our 2003 slate of officers will continue for the next two years. In 2006, Lars Jonas will move from VP to President, and we will elect a new Vice-President/President-elect. In 2007, Wendy's term as secretary will be up, and before then she hopes to set up the website so that other people can update it easily.
- We then had the annual Leeds Discussion. In essence, the business-meeting attendees feel that it would be great to have Society sessions at the International Medieval Congress, but none of us are based in England or have universities wealthy enough to fly us there annually. (It was also pointed out that there is a Society for Fourteenth-Century Studies which sometimes sponsors sessions at the IMC. It would be wonderful to work with them.) We concluded that we will email the Society list and see if any regular Leeds attendees want to take up the baton for this one. We will then place all the resources of the Society at their disposal.
- Our 2004 sessions went/are going splendidly; we only had to cancel one proposed session, the "Ships and the Sea" entry, when nobody stepped forward to participate. We feel that three of our own sessions (plus one or two others organized by cosponsoring organizations) is probably a good target again for next year. Our current possibilities include:
- Fourteenth-Century Mysticisms (suggested by Trish Beckman at Missouri-Columbia; Wendy is willing to do some organizing on this one, and we will look into co-sponsoring with Mystics Quarterly)
- Social Conflict in the Fourteenth Century (I forget who suggested this one)
- The Fourteenth Century: An Era of Humanism (possibly cosponsored with the Italians & Italianists group; Jess Paehlke at Toronto will be looking into this)
- Finally, we decided that next year's business meeting -- which will not feature officer elections for the first time in the Society's history -- should seriously discuss the possibility of having a reception or a party to spark further interest in fourteenth-century studies.
Kalamazoo and Leeds organizational news as of July 20, 2003:
We got all the Kazoo sessions we'd asked for. Hey, would anyone like to give a paper? (See just below for contact info.)
We didn't have a formal meeting at Leeds, but an informal chat with Axel Müller suggests that we might be advised to submit a roundtable proposal for IMC 2004 -- "New Trends in Studying the Fourteenth Century" or something -- and use that as our organizational meeting. Any takers?
Kalamazoo organizational news as of May 15, 2003:
We have applied to sponsor three independent sessions:
- "The Conflicted Avignon Papacy"
- "New Universities and Learning in the 14th Century"
- "Ships and the Sea in the 14th Century"
We are also co-sponsoring three sessions with other organizations:
- "Fourteenth-Century Theological and Philosophical Perceptions of Magic," with Societas Magica (organized by Claire Fanger)
- "Peace Movements During the Hundred Years War," with the Society of the White Hart (organized by Doug Biggs)
- "Fourteenth-Century Prosopography," with Medieval Prosopography (co-organized by Phyllis and Joel Rosenthal)
Minutes from the Society's Business Meeting (held May 8, 2003)
President Phyllis E. Pobst, presiding
- Phyllis opened the meeting with a discussion of election procedures -- namely, that we don't currently have any. Those officers present expressed their willingness to serve another term only if nobody else was interested, and since nobody stepped forward, the 2003 slate of officers was unanimously voted to continue into 2004.
- However, we do not wish to have lifetime officers, nor do we wish a complete turnover each year. Members discussed several options and finally agreed to a three-year term for the Secretary/Treasurer (with the possibility of re-election) and two sequential two-year terms for the Vice-President (who will be President-Elect) and President. It is hoped that this scheme will allow for regular exchange of responsibilities while providing continuity.
- William Jordan of Princeton University kindly offered to write up Society bylaws expressing these plans; we will post them on the website and vote on them in 2004.
- This year's posters advertising our Kalamazoo sessions -- provided by Assaf Pinkus of Tel Aviv University -- were generally agreed to be striking, informative, and well-distributed. Our little horn-blower guy is going up on the website as soon as Wendy gets the relevant graphics file. Thank you, Assaf!
- W.L. Anderson reported on website progress and mentioned the possibility of an online membership directory; we agreed that members should be consulted as to whether or not they are comfortable appearing on such a directory. All other sections of the website are or are about to be functional, and the URL should be provided to Society members within a few weeks of the meeting.
- Dick DeBoer of the Rijksuniv. Groningen mentioned the possibility -- also brought up in 2003 -- of sponsoring sessions at Leeds. While the Society as a whole has an international orientation and seems very enthusiastic about this possibility, we have yet to take action. Dirk offered to talk to Axel Müller at the "Clash of Cultures" roundtable the following morning and see whether it might be possible to advertise a Society interest meeting in the corrigenda for IMC 2003. Wendy noted that she would be attending IMC 2003 from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon, and would be happy to attend/take minutes at a Wednesday meeting. Dick agreed to email Phyllis with the results of his meeting.
- Kalamazoo session ideas for 2004 were discussed in some detail. Possibilities include:
- the Avignon (or, more generally, the fourteenth-century) papacy
- new universities and learning in the fourteenth century (Wendy is willing to organize one of these two, although she welcomes volunteers!)
- scholastic and theological approaches to magic in the fourteenth century, potentially cosponsored with Societas Magica and organized by Claire Fanger, pending approval at their business meeting
- peace movements of the Hundred Years' War, potentially cosponsored with the White Hart Society, pending approval at their business meeting
- something about the sea/maritime culture and symbolism?
- Finally, we decided that we should look into having a reception (or at least a business meeting with food and/or drinks) in the future; this is something to discuss in more detail next year, as it would involve charging dues -- all our current labor is volunteered!
