Last December I spent many an hour on an application for funding that I was hoping would earn GW MEMSI, the medieval and early modern studies that I direct, another two years of life. We were initially funded through a proposal I put together with eight colleagues in 2007, and that success granted us the three years that came to their spectacular conclusion with the AVMEO conference. To be honest, if the institute's flourishing had ended with that conference I would have been able to say, with satisfaction, it has been a good run. We accomplished a great deal in a brief span of time: symposia, seminars, gateway lectures, a conference, sessions at the SAA and Kalamazoo. We've also been able in the past year to broaden our mission and co-sponsor events with Africana and Latino Studies. We want to be known as a place to conduct ambitious humanities research.
Luckily, though, the results of the application are in. Two more years for GW MEMSI. Please hoist a libation for us. We're too busy planning out the next 24 months to do so ourselves.
Congratulations! I'll be back at GW teaching again this fall and spring, and look forward to making it to some more events!
ReplyDeleteSuch marvelous news--fantastique!!! I lift many many many libations in the general direction of GW-MEMSI. This not just a fortuitous event, though: it is well-deserved and directly in proportion to the work already done. Also, I'm pretty much sure this also happened because of various magic rituals that were performed, but in which no animals or small children were harmed.
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