Notes from the President

This Year at Kalamazoo . . .

Dear Members and Friends,

Medica made a strong showing at the 2010 Medieval Congress at Western Michigan. A fine crowd of attendees gathered to hear the four papers presented in this year's Medica session "Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine" (see picture, left to right): Iona McCleery (Univ. of Leeds) "Preserving the Health of Body, State and Soul: Recipes and Regimen in the Commonplace Book of King Duarte of Portugal (1433-38)," Sarah Matthews (Univ. of Iowa) "Bloodletting in Monastic Customaries," Donna Trembinski (St. Francis Xavier Univ.) "Household Cures for Common Pain," and Efraim Lev (Univ. of Haifa) "Mediators between Theoretical and Practical Medieval Medical Knowledge: Notebooks in the Cairo Genizah and their Importance." An enthusiastic discussion with members of the audience followed.

After the session, we held Medica's annual business meeting. Highlights of our discussion follow.

Announcements and Updates:

* Of special note, at the 2011 Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo Medica will co-sponsor 5-6 sessions with AVISTA, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, and Societas Magica. The theme of the sessions is "The Scared and the Secular in Medieval Healing." The sessions will focus on papers addressing sites, images, objects, and texts to explore the multivalent practices and meanings of medieval healing. Keep an eye out for the upcoming CFPs as this promises to be a very special Congress! I'll keep you apprised of developments.

*In addition, we discussed sponsoring a session on Food, Nutrition, and Health at next year's Leeds Medieval Congress. The theme for the 2011 conference is "Rich . . . Poor." Details will follow.

*Also on the agenda, members discussed the open position of Vice President of Medica. Members are requested to start thinking of possible nominations -- yourself or a colleague. Nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Gerard NeCastro (necastro@maine.edu).

*In the meantime, William H. York, aka "Harry," the session organizer for "Housebooks and Everyday Medicine," has graciously agreed to step in as Interim Vice President. Thank you, Harry!

*A final gentle reminder to members. It's that time of year again. Membership for Medica runs from Kalamazoo to Kalamazoo. Annual dues is $20 for full-time professionals and $10 for students and retired, part-time, or unemployed faculty and researchers. Please make out checks to Medica and mail to our Treasurer and Secretary, Gerard NeCastro, Department of English, 9 O’Brien Avenue, University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME 04654. For more information contact Gerard at necastro@maine.edu.

Thanks to all who made this yet another successful Medieval Congress for Medica. And for those traveling across the pond this summer, remember that Medica is sponsoring the session "Healing Journeys: Travels for Body and Soul in Medieval Culture" at the Leeds Medieval Congress, 12-15 July 2010.

Cheers,
Linda Migl Keyser