Medieval studies
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Medieval studies is the academic interdisciplinary study of the medieval period.
Development
The term was adopted by academics in the opening decades of the twentieth century, initially in the titles of books, like G. G. Coulton's, Ten Medieval Studies (1906), perhaps to distinguish them from more romantically inclined medievalists. The term was used in American and European universities in the early-twentieth century to provide an identity to centres composed of academics from a variety of disciplines including archaeology, art history, architecture, history and literature. The first was the Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the St. Michael's College of the University of Toronto in 1929. It is now the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS) and is part of the University of Toronto. With University expansion in the late 1960s and early 1970s further foundations were made in England at University of Reading (1965) and the University of York (1968), and in the United States at Fordham University (1971). A more recent wave of foundations, perhaps helped my the rise of interest in things medieval associated with neo-medievalism, include at the University of Bristol (1994), the University of Sydney (1997)
The discipline supports a number of annual international conferences, including the International Congress on Medieval Studies, at Kalamazoo MI, U.S., and the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. There are also a number of international interdisciplinary journals, including: Speculum and Mediaevalia. Learned societies include The Medieval Academy of America, founded in 1925 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
See also
- Canadian Society of Medievalists
- Centre for Medieval Studies
- Conferences in Medieval Studies
- Digital Medievalist
