The Medieval Studies Institute

We are happy to announce the 2024-2025 recipients of the Shirley Jean Cox Medieval Studies Conference Travel Award.

These funds were made possible by the generous support of Cheryl Kinney of Dallas, Texas. It is the intent of the Donor that this gift be used to support travel costs for graduate students attending conferences for the purpose of presenting their research. 

We asked awardees to share some information on their research or on the conferences they were able to finance with this funding opportunity. Please, join us in celebrating the following graduate students:

Benjamin Howard Hoover, PhD candidate in the English department

"My current research focuses on Middle English literature, particularly drama, specifically how medieval English dramatic texts revise literary motifs and patterns of violence. Both the Shirley Cox Medieval Studies Travel Award and the IUB-Clifford Flanigan Memorial fund enabled my presentations of my research this past year at the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, the International Congress of Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, as well as upcoming presentations at the joint conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest with the Illinois Medieval Association at the Newberry Library and at the Pacific Modern Language Association. Furthermore, this funding afforded my participation as an embedded reviewer for performances of the York Corpus Christi plays in Toronto, sponsored by the University of Toronto's Centre for Medieval Studies. These plays will be the subject of a forthcoming issue of the journal Early Theatre, wherein my work as a reviewer will appear."

Joshua Pontillo, PhD candidate in the English department

“As a graduate student, funding for conference travel is relatively limited, and I am grateful for MEST’s support of graduate student travel, research, and professionalization.

This previous year, I presented at numerous conferences that these funds helped to defray the costs of: namely, the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS) at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI; the Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA) Annual Conference at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR; and the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, TN. At ICMS, I presented an early draft of my first dissertation chapter, which provided me with invaluable feedback for the chapter. I was also able to participate in a roundtable and organize my first roundtable at ICMS, not to mention network with numerous others at the largest medieval conference in North America. At the CSANA and Sewanee conferences, I presented early drafts of my third and fourth dissertation chapters, respectively, again receiving valuable feedback for said chapters. 

Perhaps needless to say, these conferences have proven generative for my dissertation writing, providing me with a platform to receive feedback from senior scholars in the field and to consider how my presentation of this material ought to be reorganized for better comprehension, not to mention putting me into contact with numerous medievalists beyond IU. Without MEST’s financial support, such experiences would be far more costly, and, in many cases, I would have to forego them." 

Pouyan Shahidi, PhD candidate in the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Department

 

“The awarded travel fund by MEST is enough to cover the expenses of attending and presenting my research at the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (CSDH) Conference as a part of the 2025 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. This year, the conference will be held at the George Brown College, Toronto (Ontario, Canada) from May 30st to June 1st. The paper that I am presenting in CSDH is a more comprehensive version of the one for which I am awarded the Shirley Jean Cox Travel Fund. I have attached my acceptance email to the CSDH Conference as well as the abstract of my paper for your review.

As a medievalist who practices digital humanities (DH) methodologies in his research and teaching, and as a professional DH expert who has served the IU community for over three years, I have become well-prepared for the job market in this field. While finalizing my doctoral dissertation, I am seeking DH job prospects back home in Canada. The CSDH Conference is the largest digital humanities community meeting in Canada. My past contributions to this conference in 2023 and 2024 based on my research, teaching, and service at IU have earned me valuable professional development, connections, and a scholarly contribution to a large-scale digital humanities project between two major universities in Toronto. CSDH Conference is a unique occasion for me to further expand my professional network in seeking career opportunities.”

Taylor Nasim Stone, PhD student in the Central Eurasian Studies department

 

“This fund allowed me to travel to Hewlêr, Iraqi Kurdistan to present my research at the 4th International Kurdish Studies Conference on April 23, 2025. My research is about traditional Kurdish tattoos (deq). Specifically, I am building a consistent archive of the tattoo motifs and mapping the sources mentioned in literature in order to plan for the future of more quality fieldwork.”

Mary Gilbert, PhD student in the Germanic Studies department

“I used the travel award to present at the ICMS in May 2025. My paper explored homoeroticism in the 10th-century poetry of Icelandic skald Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld (“troublesome poet”), which is preserved in a 14th-century saga outlining the poet’s pagan youth and troubled conversion to Christianity. I argued that homoeroticism is vital to the narrative of both the older poetry and the younger prosimetrum. The ICMS was as always a fascinating conference!”