26 April 2021

Dr. Jana Schulman, Director The Medieval Institute Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5204

Dear Dr. Schulman,

We the undersigned write to protest your decision to keep the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS) virtual in 2022.

The ICMS is by far the largest conference in the field of Medieval Studies, and it has brought both fame and revenue to Western Michigan University from scholars around the world. Over many decades the ‘Zoo has done an enormous service to our profession by enabling smaller, marginalized fields to hold their own alongside larger ones. It has given independent scholars, underemployed medievalists, and graduate students (even a few undergraduates) a chance to speak alongside established faculty, helping to democratize the field. In short, the ICMS has been at the forefront of making Medieval Studies inclusive, as well as broadening its appeal by welcoming interested members of the public.

For fifty years, the ‘Zoo has been the place where the medievalist community has gathered to share work in progress, network with peers, meet old friends and make new ones, buy books, celebrate publications, announce prizes, and commemorate our dead. It has been a venue for live performance and creative entertainments of every sort. Most graduate students in Medieval Studies present their first papers at the Congress, and many senior faculty celebrate their retirements there. In the second week of May, colleagues across the academic landscape envy medievalists for this grand, festive event.

We understand that because of the pandemic, it was not possible to hold a live Congress in 2020 or 2021. But the plague will not last forever, and despite a few setbacks the vaccine campaign is going well. President Biden, no facile optimist, has spoken of an approach to normalcy by July 4. So we can reasonably hope that by the end of this summer, every willing adult in America will be vaccinated. Many in-person conferences will take place in 2021-22, and theatres and other performance spaces have begun to announce live programming. Some may require a vaccine passport for entry, which would be a good option for keeping the Congress safe. Since the life- saving Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is manufactured in Kalamazoo, we could even offer a gesture of gratitude to the workers at that plant.

After more than a year of virtual classes, virtual meetings, and virtual lectures, we are all heartily sick of Zoom. Virtual conferences are, at best, a pale facsimile of live ones. So why should we pay hefty registration fees just to keep sitting in front of our screens, where we’ve already been trapped for much too long? Many academic events on Zoom over the past year have either been free or charged only modest fees, unlike the virtual ‘Zoo in 2021. Of course Zoom or live- streaming could still be used for a select few events, such as plenary addresses and the award of 2 prizes, but the vast majority of medievalists would prefer to meet in person. The continuing loss of a live Congress would also be a crushing blow to publishers, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that have come to rely on it for revenue.

Traditions are hard to create, but all too easy to destroy. It has taken decades to build the ones we cherish in Kalamazoo. If we are compelled to go four years without a live Congress, from 2019 until 2023, a whole generation of students will receive their degrees without a chance to savor the “Zoo experience.” Momentum will be lost and our beloved traditions will be difficult to restore.

For all these reasons, we the undersigned will not participate in a virtual Congress in 2022. You can call it a boycott or say, if you prefer, that we’re simply not interested. As of this writing, we represent 112 medievalists from nine countries, at all career stages in every kind of institution. And we are not alone; even as we send this letter, more signatures continue to arrive. We beg you: please reconsider. It’s not too late.

Sincerely,

Alison Altstatt, University of Northern Iowa School of Music Bridget Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison Mary-Jo Arn, independent scholar Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University Timothy M. Baker, Dartmouth College Christopher Baswell, Barnard College and Columbia University Virginia Blanton, University of Missouri-Kansas City Sarah Blick, Kenyon College Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, University of Pittsburgh Jessica Brantley, Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Brooklyn College, City University of New York Jennifer N. Brown, Manhattan Marymount College Rachel Fulton Brown, Brigitte Buettner, Smith College Louisa Burnham, Middlebury College , Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Mary Carruthers, New York University Cristina Maria Cervone, University of Memphis Celia Chazelle, The College of New Jersey Joyce Coleman, University of North Dakota Michael T. Davis, Mount Holyoke College Tom Devaney, University of Rochester Leah De Vun, Rutgers University Daniel DiCenso, College of the Holy Cross Kristin Doll, independent scholar Eglal Doss-Quinby, Smith College Dyan Elliott, 3

Richard Emmerson, Florida State University Ruth Evans, Saint Louis University Margot Fassler, University of Notre Dame George Ferzoco, University of Toronto, Canada Sean Field, University of Vermont Carmela Vircillo Franklin, Columbia University Laura Gelfand, Utah State University Paula Gerson, Florida State University Elina Gertsman, Case Western Reserve University Charlotte Newman Goldy, Miami University of Ohio Thomas Goodman, University of Miami Karlyn Griffith, California State Polytechnic, Pomona Natalie Grinnell, Wofford College Barbara Haggh-Huglo, University of Maryland Thomas Hahn, University of Rochester Robert W. Hanning, Columbia University Anna Harrison, Loyola Marymount University Thomas Heffernan, University of Tennessee Ronald Herzman, State University of New York, Geneseo Sarah Higley, University of Rochester Daniel Hobbins, University of Notre Dame Patrick Horner, Manhattan College C. Stephen Jaeger, University of Illinois-Urbana David Johnson, Florida State University C. J. Jones, University of Notre Dame Lynn Jones, Florida State University Jacqueline Jung, Yale University Steven Justice, University of California at Berkeley Michelle Karnes, University of Notre Dame Kathleen E. Kennedy, University of Bristol, U.K. Richard Kieckhefer, Northwestern University Racha Kirakosian, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Tania Kolarik, University of Wisconsin-Madison Leslie Kordecki, DePaul University Andrew Kraebel, Trinity University Johanna Kramer, University of Missouri Lori Kruckenberg, University of Oregon Rebecca Krug, University of Minnesota Elizabeth Lapina, University of Wisconsin-Madison Frank Lawrence, University College Dublin, Ireland Peter Loewen, Rice University Erika Loic, Florida State University Sarah Long, Michigan State University Gerhard Lutz, Cleveland Museum of Art John Magee, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto Lauren Mancia, Brooklyn College 4

Marina Mandrikova, Case Western Reserve University Brian Patrick McGuire, Kalundborg, Denmark Cameron Hunt McNabb, Southeastern University Charles-Louis Morand Métivier, University of Vermont Amanda Mikolic, Cleveland Museum of Art Laura Saetveit Miles, University of Bergen, Norway Kristin Mills, University of Oslo, Norway Catherine M. Mooney, Boston College Carolyn Muessig, University of Calgary, Canada Tristan Matthias Mueller-Volmer, University of Wisconsin-Madison Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, University of Groningen, Netherlands Barbara Newman, Northwestern University Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame Frances Freeman Paden, Northwestern University William D. Paden, Northwestern University Janine Peterson, Marist College Merrall Llewelyn Price, Western Kentucky University Denis Renevey, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Steven Rozenski Jr., University of Rochester Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan University Michelle M. Sauer, University of North Dakota Misty Schieberle, University of Kansas Leah Schwebel, Texas State University Neslihan Senocak, Columbia University James Simpson, Harvard University Helen Smith, University of Wisconsin-Madison Kathryn Smith, New York University Laura Ackerman Smoller, University of Rochester Susan Solway, DePaul University Alfred Thomas, University of Illinois at Chicago Kisha Tracy, Fitchburg State University Justine Trombley, University of Nottingham, U.K. Benjamin D. Utter, Ouachita Baptist University Nancy Bradley Warren, Texas A&M University Nicholas Watson, Harvard University Laura Whatley, Auburn University-Montgomery Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University Anna Zarayuznaya, Yale University Alex Zawacki, University of Rochester