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Criticism or Emotion? Why Not Both?
I was recently reading a piece in The Chronicle, “Faculty Productivity in Literary Studies.” In this post, Daniel Deckner proposes that scholars of literary studies shift their focus away from critical...
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Kalamazoo Sessions You Won’t Want to Miss!
The Kalamazoo schedule has been posted! Kisha’s Sessions: Session 8 (Valley II 205) – Thursday, 10AM – What We Have Here Is a Failure to Confess: Impediments to Confession in Medieval Literature...
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St. Scholastica’s Day: Town and Gown problems in the 14th century
The new semester is well underway, and my teaching load this semester (one section of History of the English Language, one section of Chaucer’s Works, and two sections of a Second-Year Seminar on the...
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Recap: Kzoo, Jobs, Travel, Research, and Teaching
I could simply apologize for the long hiatus on MassMedieval, but it’s much more entertaining to blame Mother Nature and her insane decision to include only twenty-four hours in a day. It’s very unkind...
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A stout Carl for the nones…
This month will see me making a concerted effort to be a more regular updater on this blog. Like Kisha, I won’t bother recounting all the reasons for my hiatus, but I thought I’d better briefly explain...
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Charlie Angell
Yesterday I received news that Dr. Charles F. Angell, a colleague, friend, and fellow fan of medieval literature, passed away in his home at the age of 70. When I arrived at Bridgewater State for my...
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Travel Destination 2012: Dover Castle
First of all, I commented in my last update that Facebook was an entirely different post. Well, I wrote that post – but for a different blog, my colleague Ben Railton’s American Studier. If you’re...
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Sigh…
The end of summer inevitably means a scramble to get through the reading that I decided I was absolutely, definitely going to do this summer. Nonacademic things have taken an inordinate amount of my...
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England Study Abroad…Test Run
As I mentioned on a previous post, I took a trip to England this summer, both as (primarily!) a vacation and as a bit of a test run for a future study abroad course I will be leading in 2014 (that date...
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Middle Ages in the News: Richard III and Hildegard of Bingen
A short post in honor of two recent news items: Richard III Found? In September, archaeologists might have uncovered the body of Richard III (1452-85) under a Leicester car park. The skeleton has the...
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Learning the New Rules
Welcome to MassMedieval 2013! After the first half of 2012 served up a lot more than I was ready for in both joys and sorrows, I spent the fall semester trying to adjust to some new realities–the most...
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E-Books and the Culture of Reading
A few days ago, I ended up in an interesting conversation with several colleagues about the likely impact of e-books on our work as teachers of writing and literature. As often happens in groups like...
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Friends of MassMedieval at Kalamazoo 2013
The Kalamazoo schedule has been posted! MassMedieval’s Session: Session 382 (Schneider 1160) – Saturday, 10AM – Blogging the Medieval(ist) World (A Roundtable) Organizer: Kisha Tracy Presider: John...
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The Benedicts Society…
The announcement of Benedict XVI’s decision to step down from the papal seat has, unsurprisingly, led to a flurry of media attention. A fair amount of the initial reaction has focused on the medieval...
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Wanted: Help Slaying Two-Headed Middle Ages Course
As it happens, I am teaching ENGL 3030: The Middle Ages course again in the Fall. My first reaction? A metaphoric fist pump. Upper-level course in my field of study? Yes, please, as always....
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The Path of the Scholar
I received in my Inbox this morning an announcement concerning the Heckman Research grants to the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at St. John’s University in Minnesota. I was immediately...
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Higgins Armory Museum of Worcester, MA, announces closure
Massachusetts medievalists (and history scholars and enthusiasts) are losing a tremendous resource at the end of this year with the announced closing of the Higgins Armory in Worcester. The...
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Photos from Student Trips to the Higgins
In addition to the photos below, one of my students recently blogged for the university about her experience at the Higgins. I echo John’s sentiments – the Museum’s closing will be a great loss.
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So when does the medievalist get medieval?
I’m currently in recovery from a series of colds–what a friend refers to as the “creeping crud” that hits teachers in the winter, as one after another of the year’s crop of flus, rhinoviruses,* and...
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The Parlement of Conspiracy Theorists
A few years ago, I started building in a final-day debate in my Chaucer class about the argument mounted by Terry Jones et al. in Who Murdered Chaucer? Our discussion involves looking over the evidence...
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