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The Early Middle English Society (EMES), which is separate from the journal Early Middle English, seeks to promote the study and scholarly discussion of English literary and cultural production from the mid-twelfth century to the mid-fourteenth century. Founded by Dorothy Kim over a decade ago on intersectional feminist principles, we are an inclusive and interdisciplinary collective such that our research interests are not confined only to the English languages and literatures of the period between c.1150 and 1350 in England. We welcome work that focuses on any and all languages, literatures, cultures, religions, material artifacts, etc in or engaging with England at that time. Our current president Carla María Thomas, for example, has worked on Old English and continental Latin influence on Early Middle English homiletic verse, and new work is finally taking her to the French of England as well.

Although we’ve been around for a decade, the society is in development (e.g., we need to become a legal non-profit). Our first goals included establishing a continuous presence at major medieval conferences in the United States and Europe, and we have successfully done that with the International Congress on Medieval Studies held in Kalamazoo, MI. Our next steps are to expand our conference presence and eventually establish our own annual Early Middle English conference, taking the rousingly successful 2016 “Making Early Middle English” conference at the University of Victoria, organized by Adrienne Boyarin Williams and Dorothy Kim, as our inspiration.

Find us on Twitter as @EarlyMESoc, and our Facebook Page is the Early Middle English Society. We’re in the process of creating a Facebook Group as well. If you’re interested in joining the Society, please email us at EarlyMESociety@gmail.com.