The New Chaucer Society

Do remember to submit your abstract for the NCS Congress in 2026! The deadline is Saturday 10 May 2025. All details and the CFP can be found on the NCS website. We look forward seeing you in Freiburg!

We have extended the deadline for submissions of proposals for the next NCS Congress! The new deadline is 10 May 2025. Do remember to submit your abstract for the NCS Biennial Congress in Freiburg in July 2026!

The NCS Program Committee is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for the Society’s 2026 Congress at the University of Freiburg in Germany. The deadline for submission is 27 April 2025. For the CFP and further details on the submission process see the NCS website: https://newchaucersociety.org/page/cfp26

Pasadena here we come!

The deadline for the Early Bird registration rates for the NCS Congress in Pasadena in July has been extended by a week and is now end of day (EST) Monday, April 8th!

We look forward to seeing you in Pasadena!

For all NCS members, today is the last day to vote for the next NCS President and four new trustees! Cast your vote for your preferred candidates!

(PS: only current members are allowed to vote and will have received the election ballot already)

I am passing on information that might be of interest to some Chaucerians.
It has come to our attention that a Victorian stained glass roundel depicting Chaucer is currently up for sale by an antiques dealer in the UK. Further details on the nineteenth-century stained glass roundel can be found below, if anyone is interested. I would like to note that the NCS is in no way promoting the company selling the artefact or its services. But given the relevance to Chaucerian studies broadly speaking, we thought that it might be worth bringing this to members’ attention.

Geoffrey Chaucer: Nineteenth Century Stained Glass Roundel Window | 1042761 | Sellingantiques.co.uk Declaration: Geoffrey Chaucer: Nineteenth Century Stained Glass Roundel Window has been declared an antique and is approved for sale on sellingantiques.co.uk.

We are pleased to invite applications for the New Chaucer Society Early Career Fellowship in association with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, UK. The deadline for applications is 15 March 2024. Full details regarding the fellowship and the application process can be found on the NCS website:

Bodleian Research Fellowships - New Chaucer Society In collaboration with the Bodleian Libraries, the New Chaucer Society supports one or two one month (30 day) research visits by a member of the New Chaucer Society to the Special Collections of the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford. Applications will be considered from candidates eligib...

A friendly reminder that the deadline for submitting applications for the NCS Huntington Early Career Fellowship is coming up! Consider submitting a proposal. The deadline is 20 January 2024!

Huntington Research Fellowship - New Chaucer Society The New Chaucer Society, in collaboration with the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, offers annually a one-month Early Career Fellowship to support advanced research in the history, literature and culture of the time of Chaucer in the collections of The Huntington. The amount of the fellowship is....

The registration for the 20204 Congress in Pasadena is now open! The Congress will be held July 15-18, 2024. Information regarding the venue, the program, registration, and accommodation can be found on the Congress pages.

We look forward to seeing you in Pasadena!

2024 Biennial Congress - New Chaucer Society We look forward to welcoming the 2024 New Chaucer Society Congress to Pasadena, California from July 15 to 18! Located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, 11 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena is home to an abundance of rich history, natural beauty, and educational and cultural attr...

You are invited to the first meeting of

The Half-Acre Café

With hosts
Danielle Allor (Haverford College) and Shannon Gayk (Indiana University)

December 15, 12-1 PM ET

Zoom
(https://haverford.zoom.us/j/93452664297?pwd=ZTlyaE9CVGsvM2hYZnN5SzhyTVdmdz09)

Question to be debated:
"Is Piers Plowman an Environmentally-Friendly Poem?"


Scholars have often been interested in the status and representation of nature in Piers Plowman, but can we say that Piers is an “environmentally-friendly” poem? What kinds of ecologies and ecological attitudes does it represent? How does it imagine the relationship between human beings and the more-than-human world they inhabit? How do its major literary modes and devices (dream vision, allegory, satire, biblical and historical allusion) affect its treatment of ecological concerns?

In our first Half-Acre Café, we will consider the ecological ethics and aesthetics of the poem by focusing on several key moments in the B-text: Reason’s Sermon (B.5.9-20), The Vision of Kynde (B.11.319-371), and The Sowing of the Virtues (B.19.255-319). No preparation is required for this discussion, but you may wish to consider the excerpts as well as a brief selection from Elizabeth DeLoughrey’s Allegories of the Anthropocene in advance if time allows.

Medium Aevum essay prize
SSMLL (The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures) publishes Medium Aevum and Medium Aevum Monographs, helps fund attendance at conferences – and it runs an annual essay prize. For which the deadline is near - Monday 4 December 2023.

For more information see https://aevum.space/EssayPrize
For submissions see: Enter the Medium Ævum Essay Prize (jotform.com)

We are interested in contributions relating to all areas of literary studies, involving all medieval European languages both East and West and from every culture.

Quite apart from the essay prize, essay submissions to Medium Aevum (David Rundle now being the managing editor) are always welcome, as are suggestions for the monograph series (edited by Anthony Lappin). Membership of SSMLL brings many benefits, including being able to download e-copies of the journal and the monographs. And being part of a friendly organization, which is keen to further research in all the above-mentioned areas and has a special interest in supporting the work of early-career scholars.

Alastair Minnis, Yale University emeritus (SSMLL president)
[email protected]

Medium Ævum Essay Prize The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature has awarded the Medium Ævum Essay Prize since 2008. The competition is run annually, with postgraduates and those recently graduated with a higher degree invited to submit an essay on a topic that falls within the range of the interests...