The Round Table

News and Notes from the North American Branch

Minutes of the International Arthurian Society-North American Branch meeting held at the XXIVth Triennial Congress of the International Arthurian Society, Bucharest, Romania, 23 July 2014, at 6:45 p.m

The meeting was called to order by President Joan Grimbert, presiding.

President’s Report

President Grimbert first asked Keith Busby, President of the IAS, to summarize the issues discussed in the International Committee regarding the transition from the Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian Society (BBIAS) to the online Bibliography of the International Arthurian Society (BIAS) and the creation of the Journal of the International Arthurian Society (JIAS). The problems encountered initially have been resolved, and the second issue of the JIAS will soon appear. For details regarding these matters, members were referred to the FAQ sheet that had been included in their congress registration packet.

President Grimbert next addressed the problems that the NAB has encountered regarding the sponsored sessions at the Medieval Studies Conference at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo). The new organizers continue to mistreat its stalwarts and to cut back on the number of sessions that learned societies are allowed to sponsor. We have been repeatedly told that they want to include as much diversity as possible while keeping the congress at a manageable level. Consistently strong attendance at our sessions in past years apparently has no bearing on their choice of proposals; the ‘intellectual justification’ of each proposal is paramount. As with last year, only two of our usual four sessions were approved. Consequently, we are considering the possibility of taking the sessions that were rejected by the organizers and proposing them for inclusion at the Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies held in mid June at St. Louis University (http://smrs.slu.edu). David Johnson was asked to speak to this initiative, first suggested by Secretary-Treasurer Evelyn Meyer. He has attended the SLU conference before and gives it high praise both for ease of access and for organization. Literature, he adds, is under-represented. For the NAB sessions that were retained for Kalamazoo 2015 (‘Trauma in Arthurian Literature’ and a round table on ‘The Round Table’), members are invited to submit proposals directly to President Grimbert by Sept. 15. The excised sessions (‘Arthurian Adaptations’ and ‘Late Arthurian Texts in Europe, 1270–1610’) would likely be accepted at SLU, should people wish to submit them there.

Award for Lifetime Service to Arthurian Studies to Norris J. Lacy (in absentia)

President Grimbert read the citation for this award, which was presented in person to Professor Lacy at the NAB business meeting in Kalamazoo in May:

The North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society is proud to announce that it has chosen Norris J. Lacy to receive its Award for Lifetime Service to Arthurian Studies. We have created this exceptional commendation specifically to honor Norris for his extraordinary contributions to our field and to the Society.

It is impossible to imagine what Arthurian studies would be like without Norris Lacy. To begin with, he has served the IAS as International President and the IAS-NAB as President, Secretary-Treasurer, and member of the Executive and Advisory Committee. He has supported Arthuriana from its inception as a member of the advisory board, contributing his expertise regarding the choice of submitted articles and of special issues. He also sits on the editorial board of the newly created Journal of the International Arthurian Society and on that of numerous other journals, including Arthurian Literature. He currently directs two important series published by D.S. Brewer: ‘Arthurian Studies’ and ‘Arthurian Archives.’

Author or editor of numerous books and countless articles, Norris has covered all periods of Arthuriana. His contributions to Arthur of the French (2006) pertain to both late medieval Arthurian literature and modern French fiction and film. As a Chrétien scholar, he authored The Craft of Chrétien de Troyes: An Essay on Narrative Art (1980) and co-edited both The Legacy of Chrétien de Troyes (1987-88) and A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes (2008). Moreover, he was one of the first major scholars to examine productively the two...