Newsletter

In 2024, AVISTA sponsored two sessions at the 99th Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting at the University of Notre Dame on the theme of Moving Through Sacred Medieval Interiors, and one session during the Virtual Society of Architectural Historians conference in September. AVISTA also sponsored three sessions and a roundtable at the 2024 ICMS: the Notre Dame in Color sessions, inspired by ongoing research during the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris and organized by Jennifer Feltman, brought together an international cohort to discuss medieval polychrome, and were extremely well-attended and a real highlight of the conference. Moving into 2025, AVISTA will be sponsoring two in-person sessions at the 60th ICMS Kalamazoo: From Trees to Truss 1: Wood in Medieval Building(s), and From Trees to Truss 2: Woodcarving in Medieval Architecture. We will also be arranging a celebratory social event and the annual business meeting during ICMS—more updates on dates/times/locations to come. Please join us if you can! The business meeting will have a Zoom modality available.

AVISTA continues to have an interest in sponsoring sessions at IMC Leeds, the Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting, the Medieval Academy of America annual meeting, and other conferences of interest to our membership and to the field. We would also love to hear ideas for virtual programming and engagement. If you have a conference session topic or an event proposal, please contact AVISTA Vice President Maile Hutterer.

AVISTA offered small travel grants to assist with the expenses of international presenters at ICMS. The generosity of longtime member Robert Jamison meant we could award the second round of the AVISTA Graduate Student Research Grant, intended to assist early-stage graduate research on the theme of crossing borders in the medieval world. The 2024 recipients, Allison Grenda and Maria Shevelkina, are pursuing research on intercultural violence in the Byzantine Empire and medieval Anatolian monumental ornament, respectively. This grant will also be available next year, with a fall application deadline; see the website for details later this spring.

Our book series, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art, continues; please visit our listing on Brill’s website to find information on the latest volumes and on proposal submission. The editorial board has received several promising book proposals in 2024. A book drawing from and expanding on the American Gothic sessions from 2023 is getting close to production, and we have more to come.

For information during the year, visit www.avista.org

Facebook users: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116240305084695/ for the Facebook group and https://www.facebook.com/groups/116240305084695/user/61554413490720 for the Facebook user page.