Studies in Medievalism

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 the founder of the academic study of medievalism in the English-speaking world. The work of the society is characterized as open to innovative and inclusive interdisciplinary scholarship. As Elena Levy-Navarro writes: "The Society has not restricted itself to a single definition of medievalism, and has, both by its calls for papers and by its acceptance and inclusion, encouraged academics to explore medievalism in such disparate phenomenon as the 'Celtic' tattoo, medieval gaming, and the early modern. Such an expansiveness that resists firm boundaries, and thus resists any efforts to develop a concrete field of specialty over which the academic can preside as expert is evident to the continued commitment of its members to electronic media that can provide (for those who can afford it) open access to its collective work, including its journal, Year’s Work in Medievalism, and its community-authored blog, Medievally Speaking. One need only consider the subtitle of this blog—'An Open Access Review Journal Encouraging Critical Engagement with the Continuing Process of Inventing the Middle Ages' (emphasis mine)—to see that the members insist on an openness, in which they critically engage—but not adjudicate—the 'continuing process of inventing the Middle Ages.'" In 2017, the ISSM's president, Richard Utz, published a short monograph, Medievalism: A Manifesto, that embedded the subject of medievalism studies within the larger academic contexts of reception studies, feminism, gender studies, and medieval studies.

The society maintains a peer-reviewed journal, Studies in Medievalism, an online journal for shorter articles (The Year's Work in Medievalism), and a review journal, Medievally Speaking edited by Richard Utz. They also organize annual conference sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University and the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds, and hold their own Annual International Conferences on Medievalism at institutions of higher education worldwide.

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