Society for the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages

by J J Cohen

Readers of ITM will be interested to know that Paul Sturtevant has founded the Society for the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages. Their statement of purpose:

The Society for the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages (PUMA) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of academic research, discussion and interest in the contemporary Public Understanding of the Middle Ages. Our initial goals are the organization of sessions on this topic at the two major international conferences on medieval studies: the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and the International Medieval Congress (IMC) in Leeds. Have a look at the current session proposals for those conferences, along with any other calls for papers relevant to the society ... More forward-looking goals are the instigation of conferences and the promotion of further publication on the topic (whether that be in existing journals or in the promotion of new collections, monographs and journals), as well as a regular newsletter. The society welcomes academics interested in public understanding of the Middle Ages, practitioners in the field (e.g. those who work in museums and public history), and educators interested in how public understanding of the Middle Ages relates to teaching, research and public policy.

You can join the society at their website, which also publishes the society's blog.