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A Brief History of the Medieval Institute

The Medieval Institute was launched as a result of conversations between two WMU medievalists, John Sommerfeldt in History and John McNally in English. After surveying the number of faculty members with expertise in medieval studies, they enlisted colleagues in identifying a core of courses that could be used to support both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the field. With the active encouragement of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornelius Loew, they were able to announce a new MA program in Medieval Studies less than two years later, in May 1961, and to set in motion plans for an undergraduate minor. In 1962 the program became the Medieval Institute, with Sommerfeldt as the Director; a board of faculty members from supporting departments was elected to work with the Director. In March 1962, the Institute sponsored a regional Conference in Medieval Studies—an event that proved decisive for the future of the Institute. At first a biennial affair, by 1966 the Conference had grown to nearly two hundred participants from colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. In 1970 the conference became an annual event and moved from March to May.

One reason for the success of the conference was the central location of Kalamazoo in the United States, but the most important was the egalitarian strategy successfully argued by Sommerfeldt. Invitations to present papers at the Kalamazoo conference went out to everyone in the field, and abstracts were invited from anyone who wished to be considered. Young scholars and graduate students were encouraged to submit abstracts, and their papers were by design included among Conference sessions. This approach, considered radical at the time, served to open scholarship to a broad range of persons; many young scholars read their first papers at Kalamazoo.

When the Medieval Academy of America voted to have its 1974 meeting in Kalamazoo in conjunction with the Medieval Institute’s annual May conference, the success of the Sommerfeldt strategy became evident. The local philanthropist Irving Gilmore gave the financial support that made this joint meeting possible.

Then, as now, WMU has supported the Institute and its programs, not least by active library collection development. The University Library has very substantial holdings in medieval and early modern scholarship, including full runs of specialized periodicals, manuscript facsimiles, and microfilms. With the foundation of the Institute of Cistercian Studies (ICS) in 1973, a major collection of medieval manuscripts, incunabula, and rare books was added as permanent loans to the library holdings. The ICS participates actively in the Congress by having its own Cistercian Studies Conference as part of the offerings, publishes four series of books, and has collaborated with the Medieval Institute in sponsoring summer workshops.

The growth of the May conference both in prestige and size in the late 1970s and 1980s may be traced to the appointment in 1975 of Otto Gründler, first as Associate Director and then in the following year as Sommerfeldt’s successor as Director of the Medieval Institute. Gründler instituted the practice of inviting affiliated organizations and scholars to organize sessions, enlarged the international participation, and suggested that the Board rename the “conference” the International Congress on Medieval Studies. By May of 1984 the number of registrants had exceeded 2,000, and in 2005 over 3,100 registrants came to hear more than 1,800 papers read in nearly 650 sessions over a four-day period. Plenary speakers, many of them from abroad, form a roster of the most distinguished researchers in the field. Music and drama programs have provided a tradition of enrichment for the Congress participants.

Throughout its history the Medieval Institute has sought to strengthen its ties with various organizations. In 1976 the Medieval Institute became a fully supporting member of the Medieval Academy’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA). The Institute is also affiliated with the Newberry Library’s Center for Renaissance Studies, an association that enables students and faculty to participate in Newberry Library seminars and to utilize the collections in specialized research. In recent years the Institute has also sought to develop its international ties by a reciprocal arrangement on mutual participation in meetings with the Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea [MEMESAK]. It also works with the School of English at the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan).

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the first Medieval Studies Conference at WMU, in 1982, the Medieval Academy of America assisted in the celebration by holding its annual meeting once again in conjunction with the May Congress. In 1992, the Academy assumed sponsorship of one of the two plenary lectures at the Congress.

In January 1995 Paul E. Szarmach came from the State University of New York at Binghamton to succeed Gründler, who retired. Particularly with the help of Timothy Graham, who began his association with the Institute in 1995, holding the position of Assistant Director from 1999 to 2002, Szarmach directed or co-directed with Graham seven NEH summer programs (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007).

The current Director of the Medieval Institute is James M. Murray.

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