Category Archives: ANZAMEMS

ANZAMEMS Publication Prizes and Subvention

ANZAMEMS is pleased to announce that applications for a number of its publication prizes and subventions are now open!

New for 2025 are:

2025 Chris Jones Book Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025
The Chris Jones Book Prize is awarded to the best first book published in any discipline/topic falling within the scope of medieval, early modern, or medievalism studies, published between 1 January 2024 and 31 July 2025. 

2025 ANZAMEMS subvention for the publication of a first book: closing date for applications 1 November 2025 
The subvention is intended to support the publication costs of a first book by an ANZAMEMS member. It is a fund for authorial costs relating especially to images or copyright permissions that a publisher may not be covering. Applications for subventions should only be for books that have already been approved for publication.


Applications are also open for the following publication prizes:

2025 Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025
The Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize is awarded to an emerging scholar for the best article- length scholarly work accepted to be published in Parergon within the previous two years (2023–2024).

2026 Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025
The Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize is awarded to an Early Career Researcher (ECR) for the best article-length scholarly work in Constant’s broad areas of scholarly interest: the medieval history of religions, intellectual history, and textual editing and translation, published in the period 1 September 2023–1 May 2025.

2025 George Yule Prize: closing date for applications 24 November 2025
The George Yule Prize is awarded to the best paper given at the next ANZAMEMS conference by a postgraduate student. NB: The application process for the George Yule Prize has been revised for 2025.

2025 Patricia Crawford Postgraduate Publication Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025
The Patricia Crawford Postgraduate Publication Prize is awarded to a postgraduate student for the best article-length scholarly work in any discipline/topic falling within the scope of medieval and early modern studies, published in the period 1 September 2023–1 May 2025.

2025 Philippa Maddern ECR Publication Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025
The Philippa Maddern ECR Publication Prize is awarded to an Early Career Researcher (ECR) for the best article-length scholarly work in any discipline/topic falling within the scope of medieval and early modern studies, published in the period 1 September 2023–1 May 2025.

Further details for all prizes and subventions can be found on the ANZAMEMS website: https://www.anzamems.org/?page_id=8

Please direct all queries regarding the publication prizes and the subvention to: info@anzamems.org.

ANZAMEMS Postgraduate Peer Support Group

The next cycle of the ANZAMEMS Peer Support Group will begin on Monday 4 November. The Peer Support Group is a writing and discussion space for postgraduate members of ANZAMEMS. The group will run online, via Zoom, and is open to postgraduate members at any stage from honours to PhD. Attendance across all sessions is not mandatory. This is an informal support group, and we welcome drop-ins as much as regular attendance. See our website for further information.

If you would like to participate or have any questions, please contact ANZAMEMS Postgraduate Representative (AUS) Jenny Davis Barnett at j.barnett@uq.edu.au

ANZAMEMS Reading Group, July session: Decolonisation, Race, and the Global Middle Ages

The next session of the 2024 ANZAMEMS ECR/Postgraduate reading group is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30. This will be a session on: Decolonisation, Race, and the Global Middle Ages. Please see the schedule below.

All readings and any updates to the schedule will be shared through the reading group’s Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Qi0W8i-38w0Dgwia9jJ0aDCh5OEQjpRF?usp=sharing.

Please register your attendance at https://www.trybooking.com/CTPIZ.

All ANZAMEMS members are welcome, especially postgraduates and ECRs!

Please contact the convenors with any queries: Alexandra Forsyth (University of Auckland), afor784@aucklanduni.ac.nz, and Emily Chambers (Murdoch University), emily.chambers@murdoch.edu.au.

Reading Group Schedule to July 2024Download

Call for Applications: ANZAMEMS Seminar

The MEMS group at The University of Western Australia invites postgraduate students and ECRs to apply to present at an ANZAMEMS Seminar to be held on Tuesday 26 November 2024 (as part of the larger CHASS Congress). The seminar, “Intercultural encounters and materialities in the medieval and early modern period,” will explore the methodological and theoretical challenges in researching inter-cultural encounter histories for MEMS scholars.

Abstracts (ca 150 words) for seminar papers (20 mins duration) are now invited and must be received by 15 September 2024. A limited number of bursaries will be available. For further details, see the ANZAMEMS website.

CFP: ANZAMEMS Seminars 2024 and 2025

The call for proposals for ANZAMEMS Seminars to be held in 2024 and 2025 is NOW OPEN.

The criteria and application form are to be found on the association webpage.

  1. Please read the criteria before completing the application form.
  2. Please ensure the total ANZAMEMS funding requested does not exceed $5,000.
  3. Please ensure the proposal and any attachments is no longer than four pages (single sided).
  4. Please return the proposal to Marina Gerzic, info@anzamems.org no later than 5pm (AWST) on 31 May 2024.
  5. Outcomes will be announced to all applicants in early June 2024.

Parergon 2024 Early Career Committee Call for Nominations

Parergon, the journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.), seeks nominations for interested early career scholars within ANZAMEMS to participate as members of the 2024 Early Career Committee (ECC). The aim of this committee is to recognise and support early career researcher contributions to ANZAMEMS, and specifically, Parergon.

The ECC meets three times a year and offers an opportunity to provide advice to the Editorial team and gain a deeper understanding of the detailed intellectual and practical processes of production of a prestigious, peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

Additionally, participation in the ECC will provide valuable service experience for those interested in pursuing academic and publishing career pathways. Membership of the ECC is not a paid position.

Terms are for a calendar year, with a possible maximal renewal of an additional, immediate year.

Nominations are sought from late-stage doctoral students through to those five years post PhD or equivalent), who are current members of ANZAMEMS.

Applications should consist of a CV, and a covering email outlining disciplinary expertise to the Editors of Parergon, info@anzamems.org.

Doctoral students wishing to apply should also provide an email from their supervisor indicating support for their application.

Nominations close on Friday 1 March 2024. Successful candidates will be notified in early March.

Selection criteria

  • Candidates are expected to be available to make 3 meetings a year by Zoom link.

No prior experience is necessary

The Editorial team will seek to achieve a broad disciplinary spread among the committee.

Parergon Early Career Committee Terms of Reference

Version: 2 February 2024

1.                  Purpose

The Committee’s purposes are:

  1. to provide advice to the Editor and Reviews Editor on the content, production and promotion of Parergon.
  2. to give the opportunity for early career researchers to gain experience in the intellectual and practical processes of production of a high-quality international peer- reviewed journal.
  3. to support the aims of the association with regard to the publication of its journal.

2.                  Membership

The members of the Committee are:

  • The Parergon Editor
    • The Parergon Reviews Editor
    • The ANZAMEMS Communications Officer
    • Up to 12 persons appointed by the Editor and Reviews Editor for one year.

Persons appointed in category 2.3:

  1. must be members of ANZAMEMS; and
  2. must be early career researchers (within five years of achieving a doctoral qualification) or currently enrolled doctoral students (with support of a doctoral supervisor)
  3. are eligible for reappointment for a further term of one year.

3.                  Meetings

  • The Parergon Editor is the Chair of the committee.
    • The Committee normally meets three times a year.

3.2       The Committee reports through the Editor to the ANZAMEMS Editorial Sub- Committee.

Winners of the ANZAMEMS Publication Prizes for 2023 and 2024 announced!

It is with great pleasure, ANZAMEMS can announce the winners of the Association’s Publication Prizes for 2023 and 2024!

Congratulations to all the Prize winners, and thank you to all those who took the time to enter. The judges have reported back that the quality of all the publications was extremely high, which made their jobs very difficult!

Thank you to the judges of each prize: we greatly appreciate your service to the Association.

Finally, a big thank you to the chair of the ANZAMEMS Prizes sub-committee, Prof Andrew Brown, who brilliantly co-ordinated the judging for all the Prizes!

2023 Philippa Maddern ECR Publication Prize winner:

Dr Jessica O’Leary (Australian Catholic University) for:

“The Uprooting of Indigenous Women’s Horticultural Practices in Brazil, 1500–1650”, in Past and Present 262.1 (2024) [published online in March 2023]: https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtac047

2023 Patricia Crawford Postgraduate Publication Prize winner:

Dr Georgina Pitt (The University of Western Australia) for

“Alfredian military reform: the materialization of ideology and the social practice of garrisoning,” in Early Medieval Europe 30.3 (2022) : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emed.12560

2023 Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize winner:

Dr Kirk Essary (The University of Western Australia) for

“‘The Bloody Sweat of Our Minds’: (Dis)embodied Emotions in Erasmus, More, and Calvin,” in Parergon 38.1 (2021): https://muse.jhu.edu/article/799947

2024 Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize winner

Catherine Rosbrook (Ghent University) for

“Ascetic Instruction in the Life of John of Gorze”, in Journal of Medieval History 49.4 (2023): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03044181.2023.2235355

ANZAMEMS 2024: Registration Open

Registration is now open for the ANZAMEMS conference, hosted 8-10 February in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand and online.

Register Here

Registrations fees are quoted in $NZD. An early bird registration offer is available until 22 December, after which standard registration charges will apply.

For details regarding travel and accommodation, please see the conference website.

A seminar for postgraduates and early career researchers will take place at the University of Canterbury on Sunday 11 February. Further details to follow shortly.

We look forward to seeing you in Christchurch.

ANZAMEMS Conference Revised CFP, Extended Deadline

ANZAMEMS Conference 2024
Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand
8 – 11 February 2024

Legacies & Relevance

In addition to encouraging papers related to the theme, the ANZAMEMS conference welcomes paper and panel proposals on all aspects of medieval and early modern studies, including medievalism.

Submissions for individual papers and panels should be made by 15 October via the conference website: https://www.anzamems2024.co.nz/

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Tarren Andrews, Yale University
Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies in the program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University

Tarren is a Bitterroot Salish scholar and documented descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Her forthcoming book brings Indigenous studies questions and methods to Old English law and literature with the aim of understanding how Anglophone settler colonial ideologies developed in the early medieval North Atlantic, long before the first contacts between Europe and North America. 

Wallace Cleaves, University of California, Riverside
Associate Dean and Director of the University Writing Program at UC Riverside, Director of the California Center for Native Nations

Wallace’s work, teaching, and research centre around the fields of composition, medieval literature, and Indigenous methodologies. He is a member of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Native American tribe, the Indigenous peoples of the Los Angeles area, and is the co-founder and president of the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy which received the first land return for the Tongva people. He is co-author of the 13th edition of St. Martin’s Guide to Writing.

Natasha Hodgson, Nottingham Trent University
Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in History, Heritage, and Memory Studies at Nottingham Trent University

Natasha’s research and teaching focus mainly on the medieval period, with a special interest in the crusades, gender, and social and cultural history. She is the author of Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative (Boydell, 2017), co-editor of Crusading and Masculinities (2019) and most recently edited Miracles, Political Authority and Violence in Medieval and Early Modern History (2021) for Routledge.

CONFERENCE THEME: Legacies and Relevance – Exploring the Medieval & Early Modern World Beyond Europe

How does pre-modern European History “add value” in Australasia? Is its study the vestige of an outdated colonial legacy? Or is it something else? Where does it stand in a world of toppled statues and questioned legacies? In the face of a previous Australian government overtly committed to defunding the Arts and a New Zealand government with similar aims (but a less confrontational way of putting it), and universities in both countries cutting staff, should we now re-focus the curricula of universities across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand on what matters? But what does matter? And who should decide?

In the wake of a global pandemic, which has re-written “business as usual,” is it time for a reformation or for holding fast? This conference will showcase the best of scholarship across a range of disciplines pursued by medieval and Early Modern scholars, but will also seek to ask complex and challenging questions about the future of our discipline. Can the study of medieval and Early Modern Europe help to meet the needs of our times? What is the role of the medieval or Early Modern scholar in Australasian society? Indeed, what was it? In considering these issues, we encourage the exploration of questionable as well as positive legacies, and offer a forum to consider the possible future(s) of our discipline.

ANZAMEMS SEMINAR: A seminar for PG and ECRs will take place at the University of Otago, Dunedin on 13 February. Further details to follow via the conference website.

For all academics enquiries, please contact the conference co-convenors:

Chris Jones (chris.jones@canterbury.ac.nz)
Madi Williams (madi.williams@canterbury.ac.nz)

For all practical enquiries (submission, accommodation, etc.), please contact the conference manager:

Mandy Train (mandy@conference.nz)