Abbreviation | SMFS |
---|---|
Formation | 1985 |
Fields | Medieval Studies, Women's Studies, Gender Studies |
Membership | Melissa Ridley Elmes (President 2020-2021) |
Formerly called | Medieval Feminist Newsletter |
The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship (SMFS) is an academic organization which "promotes the study of the Patristic Age, the Middle Ages, and the Early Modern era from the perspective of gender studies, women's studies, and feminist studies". [1] Its development followed the rise of the study of medieval women in the 1970s and 1980s, and sought to increase the number of and sponsor papers about medieval women, and feminist theory driven scholarship, at the largest international medieval studies conferences, International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo and Leeds IMC. [2] [3]
In 2007, the Society had over 1000 members from around the world. [4]
The origins of SMFS lay in the Medieval Feminist Newsletter, begun in 1985 by the organization's founders, Elizabeth Robertson, E. Jane Burns, and Roberta (Bonnie) Krueger, who were later joined by Thelma Fenster who organised the "Commentary Column", and assisted by Colleen Anderson who typed the first newsletters. [5] The founders met at the airport after the 1985 International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where "few sessions had considered women and none had been feminist". [5]
Robertson remembers that:
"The Newsletter sprang into being because of shared dissatisfaction - and the history of the Newsletter's foundations testifies to the fact that dissatisfaction and grumbling can be productive."
— Elizabeth Robertson, Medieval Feminist Forum, 42.5 (2006), p. 15
The Newsletter was the "first publication to consider the relationship between feminism and medieval studies". [5] The Newsletter was illustrated with the image of a dragon chasing the Virgin Mary as she read a Book of Hours, which was drawn by Megan Brill to avoid copyright infringements. [5]
The group became SMFS in 1992, driven by a desire to establish more formal networks for communication, funding, and with a view to producing publications. [6] Jacqueline Murray was the first president. [5]
Since 1999, SFMS has produced Medieval Feminist Forum, a peer-reviewed journal which became an online-only journal in 2009.
The organization is affiliated with the MLA and the AHA [7] and has sponsored sessions at annual meetings of these societies. SMFS has also sponsored sessions at other major international conferences, including the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds, the Medieval Academy of America's annual meeting, and the Australia & New Zealand Association for Medieval & Early Modern Studies.
The scholarly organisations and projects Feminist Art History Project and the Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages were founded following SMFS Kalamazoo meetings. [5]
SMFS provides a Mentoring Exchange at most major conferences where it has a presence. It also awards several annual prizes, including one for the Best Graduate Essay, Best First Article of Feminist Scholarship on the Middle Ages, and Best First Book of Feminist Scholarship on the Middle Ages. It also manages a Listserv, MEDFEM-L.
In 2014, SMFS hosted a Wikipedia Write-In at the 49th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies [8] [9] [10] at Kalamazoo, where members were encouraged to contribute their time and expertise to adding and editing articles in their fields. [11] [12]
SMFS members contribute to the maintenance of the Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index, which is hosted by the University of Iowa. [4] [13]
SMFS is affiliated with the UK-based "GMS".and regularly sponsors sessions at the GMS annual conference.
More about notable SMFS Members:
The International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual academic conference held for scholars specializing in, or with an interest in, medieval studies. It is sponsored by the Medieval Institute at the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and is held during the first half of May. The Congress is the largest annual gathering in the field, regularly attracting over three thousand registered participants from all over the world. The 50th annual conference took place in 2015.
Men's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning men, masculinity, gender, culture, politics and sexuality. It academically examines what it means to be a man in contemporary society.
The Texas Medieval Association is an organization for medieval studies in Texas.
The Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women is an interdisciplinary research center focused on gender and women at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. It was established in 1981. In addition to research, the center is home to archives of feminist theory and women's history as well as Brown's undergraduate Gender and Sexuality Studies concentration. Postcolonial theorist Leela Gandhi, is the Center's director, having assumed the position in July 2021.
The International Medieval Congress (IMC) is an annual academic conference held for scholars specializing in, or with an interest in, the study of the European Middle Ages. It is organised and administered by the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds and is held in early July. The Congress is the largest annual conference in any subject in the UK, regularly attracting over 2,500 registered participants, and has been used in some research as a barometer for trends in Medieval Studies generally. In 2020 and 2021 the conference was held online due to restrictions to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, the IMC has been held as hybrid event.
The International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) is an international membership organization of women and men dedicated to fostering and encouraging the activities of women in music, particularly in the areas of musical activity, such as composing, performing, and research, in which gender discrimination is a historic and ongoing concern. In the U.S. the organization operates as a 501(c)3 non-profit. The IAWM engages in efforts to increase the programming of music by female composers, to combat discrimination against female musicians, including as symphony orchestra members, and to include accounts of the contributions of women musicians in university music curricula and textbooks.
Leslie J. Workman was an independent scholar and founder of academic medievalism.
Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of women's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievements over a period of time, the examination of individual and groups of women of historical significance, and the effect that historical events have had on women. Inherent in the study of women's history is the belief that more traditional recordings of history have minimised or ignored the contributions of women to different fields and the effect that historical events had on women as a whole; in this respect, women's history is often a form of historical revisionism, seeking to challenge or expand the traditional historical consensus.
The Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) was established in 1981, by the Arizona Board of Regents as a state-wide, tri-university research unit that bridges the intellectual communities at Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. Located centrally on the campus of Arizona State University, ACMRS is charged with coordinating and stimulating interdisciplinary research about medieval and early modern literature and culture.
The International Society for the Study of Medievalism is an academic organization that exists to promote the interdisciplinary study of the popular and scholarly reception of the Middle Ages in postmedieval times. The Society is based on the work and studies of Leslie J. Workman (1927–2001), who is recognized as formalising the academic study of medievalism in the English-speaking world. Katheen Verduin collaborated with Workman for nearly 20 years to establish the Society and its peer-reviewed journal, Studies in Medievalism (SiM).
The International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) is a non-profit international association dedicated to raising awareness and inquiry of feminist economics. It has some eight hundred members in over 90 countries. The association publishes a quarterly journal entitled Feminist Economics.
Joan Cadden is Professor Emerita of medieval history and literature in the History Department of the University of California, Davis. She served as president of the History of Science Society (HSS) from 2006 to 2007. She has written extensively on gender and sexuality in medieval science and medicine. Her book Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science, and Culture (1993) received the Pfizer Award in 1994, from the History of Science Society, as the outstanding book on the history of science.
The Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) at the University of Oregon in the United States supports feminist research, teaching, activism and creativity. Established in 1973, it is a non-profit partnership between the Associated Students of the University of Oregon Women's Center and the University. According to the Handbook of Gender, Work, and Organization, CSWS is "a major feminist center for scholarship on gender and women".
The Women's Classical Committee UK (WCC) is a group of academics, students, and teachers who aim to support women in Classics, promote feminist and gender-informed perspectives in Classics, raise the profile of the study of women in antiquity and Classical reception, and advance equality and diversity in Classics.
Florilegium, the journal of the Canadian Society of Medievalists / Société canadienne des médiévistes, is a quarterly "international, peer-reviewed academic journal concerned with the study of late Antiquity and the Middle Ages".
Ruth Mazo Karras is an American historian and medievalist, whose academic research and publications are focused on the disciplines of sexuality, religion and marriage in the late Middle Ages. Her notable works include: From Boys to Men, Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages and Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others.
Lisa M. C. Weston is a scholar of medieval literature and Old English language. She teaches at Fresno State Department of English, and served as interim chair of the department in 2019.
Jacqueline Murray is a Canadian medieval historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Guelph. Her research focuses on sexuality and gender in medieval Europe, with a specific focus on masculinity and male sexuality. She has also studied marriage and the family in the Middles Ages.
The Medieval Institute is a research and teaching institute in the field of medieval studies associated with Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The institute was founded in 1962 and offered the United States's first publicly awarded Master of Arts degree in medieval studies. Presently, the institute organizes the International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Marie A. Kelleher was a medieval history scholar and professor at California State University, Long Beach. She has published several works of scholarship in medieval Iberia, the Mediterranean, and regarding the medieval world, gender, and law. One of which is her book The Measure of Woman: Law and Female Identity in the Crown of Aragon (2011), which focuses on a large analysis over the relationship between law and gender, especially that of women, in 14th century Crown of Aragon. It is also the winner of the American Historical Association’s 2012 Premio del Rey. She also has another book, The Hungry City: Food, Famine, and a Year in the Life of Medieval Barcelona, which will be published in January 2025 via Cornell University Press. She was diagnosed with cancer in March 2024, and died on May 6.
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