Academic Programs:
England and United States

The parent society has provided funding for the publication of important fifteenth-century source documents, including BL Harleian MSS 433, the surviving signet register of the reigns of Edward V and Richard III; York House Books, 1461-1490, the city council records for the period roughly paralleling the wars of the Roses; Crowland Chronicle Continuations, and the Howard Household Books.

The Society has also sponsored scholarly conferences and symposia on fifteenth-century topics, and funds two scholarships: one at the University of York and one at the University of London's Institute for Historical Research. (Use this link to reach the parent society web site.)

In the United States, the American Branch has encouraged the use of the case of Richard III at the secondary-school level. Richard III's guilt or innocence has the capacity to generate and sustain student interest and provides a springboard for the discussion of such issues as the validity or bias of evidence, the effects of rumor and propaganda, and important lessons on the way truth can be shaped to fit the writer's agenda -- issues that can be explored through the historical record and through literature, drama, and film. (See learning resources for further information.)

At the university level, the American Branch offers three academic programs which provide scholarship assistance, publication outlets, and a forum for presentations.

The William B. and Maryloo Spooner Schallek
Memorial Graduate Fellowship Awards

The Schallek Awards program memorializes Dr. William B. Schallek, whose vision and generosity established the original scholarship fund, and his wife, Maryloo Spooner Schallek. Today the program is supported by a $1.4 million endowment and is administered by the Medieval Academy of America. Beginning in 2004, the program offers five annual dissertation awards of $2,000 each and a dissertation fellowship of $30,000 annually. For additional details, consult the Medieval Academy website. [link]

Past Schallek Scholars and their Topics

• 1980: Lorraine C. Attreed, Harvard, fifteenth-century York; John Rainey, Jr., Rutgers, the Calais garrison in the Yorkist era.
• 1981: Pamela Garrett, UC/Berkeley, Yorkist resistance to early Tudor regime; Lorraine C. Attreed, Harvard (grant renewal); John Rainey, Jr. (grant renewal); John J. Butt, Rutgers, on brewers in London, Norwich, and Coventry; Lucy Moye, Duke, finances of the Mowbray family 1401-1476.
• 1982: John J. Butt, Rutgers (grant renewal); Lucy Moye, Duke (grant renewal).
• 1983: Pamela Garrett, UC/Berkeley (grant renewal); Dennis J. O'Brien, Ohio State University, fifteenth-century prose development; John T. Rainey, Rutgers (grant renewal).
• 1984: Katherine J. Workman, Indiana University, estate administration in fifteenth-century Norfolk.
• 1985: Shelley A. Sinclair, University of New Mexico, the Vere Earls of Oxford; Steven Halasey, Wycliffe Bible's effects on lay religiosity; Robin Dorfman, Harvard, cultural trends in the City of York.
• 1986: Robin L. Dorfman, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York (grant renewal).
• 1987: Shirley Grubb, University of Colorado/Boulder, rhetorical and dramatic characterizations in Shakespeare's Richard III; Thomas S. Freeman, Rutgers, Polydore Vergil's Anglica Historia.
• 1988: Gary G. Gibbs, University of Virginia/Charlottesville, London parish finances 1450-1620.
• 1989: Katherine Kamerick, University of Iowa, holy images in late medieval England; Beverly Dougherty, Fordham, statutes of Yorkist period and their effect on the development of the state.
• 1991: Helen Maurer, UC/Irvine, research on the skeletal remains alleged to be those of Edward V and his brother.
• 1992: Ann Bliss, UNC/Chapel Hill, ceremony in Malory's Morte Darthur.
• 1993: James H. Landman, University of Minnesota, late medieval concepts of law and equity as reflected in fifteenth-century literature; Claire M. Valente, Harvard, the changing nature of rebellion in England, 1258-1485.
• 1994:Leigh Allison Dingwall, University of Glasgow, Cicely Neville; Sarah A. Kelen, fifteenth- century historiography; Helen A. Maurer, UC/Irvine, Margaret of Anjou; Kristine Lynn Rabberman, University of Pennsylvania, marriage and divorce patterns in fifteenth-century Herefordshire.
• 1995: Susan M. Burns Steuer, University of Minnesota, Late Medieval Yorkshire Vowesses; Amy Elizabeth Fahey, Washington University, Heralds in Late Medieval English Literature; R. M. Jennens, Northwestern University, Lawyers in Yorkist-era Royal Government; Sharon D. Michalove, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Education of the Aristocracy in Late Medieval England. (Use link for additional information on these topics.)
• 1996: Anna Dronzek, University of Minnesota, Manners, Models, and Morals: Conduct Books for Women in Late Medieval England; John Dwyer, University of Colorado, Local Control in the Age of Reformation: Hereford, 1475-1620; Matth ew B. Goldie, City University of New York, Fifteenth-Century Language and Language Play. (Use link for additional information on these topics.)
• 1997: Theron Westervelt, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Edward IV's governance of England, with special reference to William, Lord Hastings, 1471-83.
• 1998: Kristin Burkholder, University of Minnesota. Sumptuary laws and material culture.
• 1999: Robert Barrett, Jr., University of Pennsylvanial, textual production and the revisions of local cultural traditions in Cheshire from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries; Leigh Ann Craig, Ohio State University, female pilgrimage and the Church’s attitude toward female pilgrims in the context of the cult of Henry VI; Jenny B. Diamond, Columbia University, the use of parish wall iconography in a system of behavioral modification.
• 2000: Stuart J. Borsch, Columbia University, study on comparative economic history of England and Egypt in the 15th century, comparing the impact of the Black Death on the two countries; Daniel Thiery Univ. of Toronto, research in the evolution, elimination, and creation of channels for honor and violence in religious ritual in the Norwich diocese, 1440-1553; Mary K. K. Hague Yearl, Yale University, research into periodic bloodletting in the medieval monasteries.
• 2001: Beth Allison Barr, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Gendered Lessons: Priests, Parishioners and Pastoral Care in Fifteenth-Century England"; Lisa H. Cooper, Columbia University. "'Unto our craft apertenying': Representing the Artisan in Late Medieval England"; Julie Noecker, Oxford University. a study of the concept of brotherhood or 'fellowship' as it is articulated in the war/peace and public/private debates in Malory's Le Morte Darthur compared concurrent historical sources.
• 2002: Lisa H. Cooper, Columbia University. "'Unto oure craft apertenying:' Representing the artisan in late medieval England" (grant renewal); John Thomas Sebastian, Cornell University. Lay religious practices in fifteenth century English Anglia as evidenced through early English drama and vernacular mystical and visionary writings; Tara N. Williams, Rutgers University, "Womanhood in the Chaucerian Tradition."
• 2003: Transition year; no award given.

American Branch Publishing

• Monographs. The Monograph Publications Committee solicits works of original scholarship on topics focusing on fifteenth-century English history, particularly that concerned with King Richard III and Yorkist regimes. Manuscripts should contain very little, if any, previously published content. Editions and translations will not be accepted, nor will works under consideration by other publishers.

  Manuscripts must be typewritten in English, at least 25,000 words and no more than 50,000 words. Promising manuscripts will be reviewed by experts in the respective areas or subject, and should follow the Speculum Stylesheet, published in Speculum 62 (1987), 259-63.

  The monograph committee is chaired by Ralph A. Griffiths, University College of Swansea, and also includes H. A. Kelly, University of California/Los Angeles, John M. Suter, Houston Baptist University; and Roxane C. Murph, past chairman, American Branch.

  The first monograph to be published under this program, on Giles Daubeney, is in preparation.

  For additional information, contact:

  Sharon D. Michalove, Department of History
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  309 Gregory Hall, 810 South Wright Street
  Urbana, IL 61801
  217-333-4145 office
  217-333-2297 fax
  mlove@uiuc.edu

• Conference Proceedings. The American Branch has published proceedings on its 1995, 1998, and 2001 conferences.

International Congress on Medieval Studies

Abstracts for proposed papers for future sessions should be submitted in duplicate to the organizer, A. Compton Reeves, Ohio University, by September 15 (earlier is preferable). Submissions should conform to the Institute's Call for Papers; abstracts must be typed, double- spaced, not more than about 300 words in length, and must clearly indicate the paper's thesis, methodology, and conclusions. Papers submitted may not require more than 20 minutes of reading time.

Contact:

A. Compton Reeves
Department of History
Ohio University
Bentley Hall
Athens, OH 45701
614-593-4334 reevesc@ohiou.edu

Conferences and Symposia

• Ralph A. Griffiths, University of Wales/Swansea, The Provinces and the Dominions in the Age of the Wars of the Roses
• Charles Moreton, History of Parliament Project, The Diary of a Late Fifteenth-Century Lawyer
• DeLloyd J. Guth, College of Law, University of Manitoba, Climbing the Civil Service Pole during Civil War: Reynold Bray (d. 1503)
• John Friedman, Department of English, UIUC, Late Medieval Sample Alphabets
• Sharon D. Michalove, Department of History, UIUC, The Education of Upper-Class Women in Late Medieval England
• Philip Morgan, Department of History, University of Keele, The Death of Edward IV and the Rebellion of 1483
• A. Compton Reeves, Department of History, Ohio University, Bishop Lawrence Booth of Durham (1457-1476) and York (1476-1480)
• Colin F. Richmond, Department of History, University of Keele, Richard III and the Brutality of Fifteenth-Century Politics

Traditions and Transformations. Sponsored by the Richard III Society, American Branch in conjunction with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ohio University. May 3-5, 1998.

Fifteenth Century Conference. Sponsored by the Richard III Society, American Branch in conjunction with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 29-May 2, 2001.