David Herlihy

The American Medievalist: A Social and Professional Profile

In becoming medievalists and members of the Academy, we assumed a commitment to promote the study of the European Middle Ages on this continent. But to do this well, we ought on occasion to study ourselves, to discover who we are, who we were, and who we are likely to become in the near and distant future. Our arts are long and our lives are short, and we ought frequently to inquire how the changing composition of our profession may be affecting the arts we uphold.1 In this paper I propose to survey the current membership of the Medieval Academy of America. My chief source may appear singularly pedestrian; it is the Academys mailing list for 1982, used primarily for the distribution of its flagship publication, Speculum. I shall look at the names and addresses of Academy members resident in the United States, with a glance also at institutional subscribers to Speculum. These remarks, in sum, do not apply to the many members and subscribers in Canada and overseas.2 Because the list of Academy members in the United States is long 3,060 names and because the questions put to it are somewhat involved, I enlisted the aid of a computer to gather the responses. The computer does this work well. Given the right data to scrutinize, it is an exact observer and an implacable judge. The information which the mailing list offers is admittedly limited. The register of North American medievalists compiled for the Academys Committee on Centers and Regional Associations by the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo contains some 7,924 names, better than twice the number of the Academys 3,289 North American

Computation in History: Styles and Methods

Recent advances in interactive computing and file management systems help the historian fulfill his traditional function as a collector, critic, and interpreter of documents.