The Medieval Studies Institute

We are happy to announce the 2024-2025 recipients of the Clifford Flanigan Memorial Fellowship.

 

This fund was established in honor of Clifford Flanigan (1941-1993), professor of comparative literature and a founding member of the Medieval Studies Institute. In memory of his commitment to facilitating opportunities for graduate students, the fund provides travel assistance for graduate students studying the Middle Ages to attend conferences. This award is restricted to those graduate students who have completed a MEST minor and/or certificate.

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."

Benjamin Yusen, PhD student in the English department

“Benjamin Yusen is a third year PhD student in the English department, studying the early medieval literature of the North Atlantic. His research interests include the transmission and reception of myth and texts with mythic resonances, humor and laughter studies, and uses of parody and satire in criticisms of cultural production.

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." 

Mikaela Renshaw, PhD student in the English department

“In April, I presented my paper "Cu Chulainn: A Grievous Figure" at the annual Celtic Studies Association of North America conference at the University of Arkansas, where it was very received.  My paper analyzed the figure of Cu Chulainn in the second recension of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, and how his role of both causing and experiencing grief allows him to level critique at the heroic culture that has created him.”

Samuel Allen, PhD student in the Religious Studies department,