†It is time to begin the process of our annual elections to the Advisory Board of the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship. Here is a summary of elections-related activity occurring this year:
Advisory Board members concluding terms of service in 2021:
Nicole Lopez-Jantzen
Marjorie Housley
Shyama Rajendran
Graduate Student Representative concluding term of service in 2020:
Becky Straple
The executive Team, on behalf of the Advisory Board and society membership, wishes to express our gratitude to these departing members of the ad board for your efforts in support of our organization’s many initiatives over the past several years. Thank you to all of you!
2022 ELECTIONS
The SMFS Advisory Board is electing four regular members, one graduate student representative, and a Vice-President during the 2022 elections.
Members of the advisory board are the advising panel for business related to the operation of Medieval Feminist Forum, and serve on various committees, including adjudicating the Best Book/ Best Article and Best Grad Student Essay Prizes, reviewing applications for the Foremother’s Fund, Trans* Travel Fund, and Rising-Star grant, and planning SMFS-sponsored sessions and events at various conferences and symposiums both online and, when the pandemic permits, in-person.
SMFS Ad Board members are not tasked with overwhelming amounts of service, but we do all play our part in ensuring the organization’s membership needs and desires in terms of scholarly and collegial support are being met. In addition to serving on at least one committee, ad board members are required to attend our once-annual meeting, typically at or at the same time as the International Congress on Medieval Studies/ Kalamazoo, in May.
We will be electing the following positions in the 2022 elections:
Vice-President, for a 2-year term (2022-2023), to automatically move into the President’s position for 2024-2025. From the by-laws:
The Vice-President is elected by the general membership of the Society from among currently serving Advisory Board members or those who have served recently. S/he serves for one two-year term and succeeds the President. S/he/they assists the President with her/his/their duties and also serves ex officio on the Book/Article prize committee.
4 regular ad board members, for three-year terms (2022-2024)
1 graduate student representative for a 3-year commitment (must be a graduate student at the time of election, but can roll into faculty or alt-ac during the 3-year service term; 2022-2024.)
*The call for nominations to these positions is now open, and will run through Friday, November 5*.
Nominations may be made by any current member of SMFS (now is a good time to renew your membership for 2021 if you have not already done so!) Candidates should be members of SMFS, or join SMFS prior to the election. Self-nominations are acceptable.
Please send your nomination(s), comprising an email address for the nominee, a brief biographical/candidate’s statement of approximately 150-200 words, and also an expression of which position–Vice-President, regular member, or grad student–the individual is running for to Thelma Trujillo, Elections Chair: thelma-trujillo@uiowa.edu and Kath Maude, SMFS Secretary: km55@aub.edu.lb .
Information about these positions, clarification about the process, and answers to questions about the elections can also be obtained by writing to SMFS President Melissa Elmes at MElmes@lindenwood.edu
2022 Elections timeframe:
October 26-November 5: Call for nominations to the ballot
November 10-19: voting period (all SMFS members with current membership during this voting period are eligible to vote)
Week of November 22: Results announcement
