Author: Liz McAvoy

GMS Student Essay Prize Winner reports on her year since the 2016 GMS conference

2015 GMS student essay prize-winner, Laura Kalas Williams (Exeter) has reported on her progress since winning the GMS student essay prize, awarded to her at the Gender and Emotions conference at the University of Hull in January of 2016. Laura’s essay has since been published in the SMFS journal, Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal for Gender and Sexuality, and she successfully negotiated her viva in September of this year (for which, many congratulations to Laura!). She is now co-editing a collection of essays based on the successful 2016 conference with Daisy Black and Amy M. Morgan, entitled: Gender and Emotion in Medieval Culture: Uses, Representations, Audiences. In her report, appearing as a blog entry on Exeter University’s Centre for Medieval Studies blog (http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstudies/2016/10/gender-emotion-and-a-prize-winning-conference/), Laura underlines the importance of the annual GMS conference for encouraging and supporting both PhD students and early career academics, as well as emphasising its collegiate inclusivity and welcome of diverse approaches to the Middle Ages. You can access Laura’s blog-post here.

 

 

Guardian follow-up headline article on academic harassment

On October 6th, the Guardian newspaper ran a follow-up headline article on academic harassment, this time linking its prevalence to the Savile scandal and those besetting the Catholic church in recent times. It certainly did not make for pleasant reading (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/07/scale-of-sexual-abuse-in-uk-universities-likened-to-savile-and-catholic-scandals).

See also, the follow-up online contribution from the following day, ‘Accounts of sexual harassment in UK universities’ (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/07/i-was-so-traumatised-accounts-of-sexual-harassment-in-uk-universities), documenting the accounts of more than 100 women contacted by Guardian investigative journalists, Sally Weale and David Batty. It’s good to know that the Guardian is on to this in a big way and that the type of lobbying we have been trying to undertake on this pernicious issue in recently years may now begin to reach a far wider concerned public.

The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship is committed to combating such harassment and part of its initiative is accruing resources to help inform and assist anybody concerned with harassment in academic contexts. So, do please keep sending in information, reports and strategies for the Society to collate and add to its resources page.

Guardian Report on Academic Sexual Harassment

For those of us deeply concerned about the proliferation of sexual harassment and microagressions within academic contexts, it is gratifying to see the UK-base Guardian newspaper carrying a report of this as its headline article on Friday, August 26, 2016 (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/26/sexual-harassment-of-students-by-university-staff-hidden-by-non-disclosure-agreements).

Admittedly, it is a pity that the report was semi buried at the end of August and just before a national bank holiday, but what it has to say on this growing concern is most welcome. Also useful are the links included in the article, especially a link to the recently formed 1752 Group, a lobbying group convened by four former students of Goldsmiths University, London, to help combat sexual harassment within academia at all levels. The Group’s website also contains a very useful set of resources,  providing information and strategies about dealing with academic harassment.

Call For Papers: Medieval Feminist Forum Subsidia On Microaggressions, Harassment, And Abuse–Medieval And Modern

This special issue, which has come out of discussions among the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship Listserv, Advisory Board, and roundtable session at Kalamazoo, will present articles that investigate and interrogate the ways in which predatory sexuality, misogyny, racism, and other forms of gender harassment experienced and perpetrated in the Middle Ages are also reflected today in the experiences of contemporary medieval scholars. While we aim to focus on scholarly issues rather than personal narrations, these are not limited to traditional forms of academic research; indeed, scholarly investigations of the effects of microaggression in the classroom and curricula, along with some posited solutions, would also be welcomed.

The notions presented in the title are broadly conceived; any genre of medieval studies will be considered, as well as any form of modern-day academic experience and service.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to either Linda Mitchell (mitchellli@umkc.edu) or Jennifer Edwards (jennifer.edwards@manhattan.com) by 31 August 2016. Articles of 5,000-8,000 words will be considered. We plan to publish this special issue in a Subsidia format that will be open access in early 2017.

Kalamazoo Fashion Preview

The most stylish and committed supporters of medieval feminist scholarship were to be seen in Kalamazoo and Leeds this year in full SMFS regalia. Show your support for SMFS by acquiring one of these stunning SMFS pins ($2 / £2), bags ($8 / £8), or wristband flash drives ($8 / £8), available annually at the SMFS receptions at Kalamazoo and Leeds, and the business meeting or banquet at Kalamazoo on the Saturday evening.  If you are unable to be at Kalamazoo or Leeds, but would like one of these items, e-mail Linda Mitchell at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

See images in original post.