Trans Travel Fund

The Society of Medieval Feminist Scholarship created the Trans Travel Fund to support travel to medievalist conferences for those scholars who identify as trans. For some, given recent legislation and political events, certain forms of travel present increased risk due to the potential for scrutiny of gender presentation. For others, their own university may be reluctant to support their scholarship or provide suitable mentorship, support they might better find at a conference venue. The Trans Travel Fund is funded by the sale of SMFS merchandise and private donations.

Each year, the fund will provide 2-3 award(s) of up to $250 to defray travel and/or housing expenses, so that valued members of our community can participate in annual gatherings of scholars in their profession. Those awarded the grant will also receive a year’s free membership in SMFS. Graduate students and contingent faculty will receive priority, but all scholars at any stage are welcome to apply.

Applicants should fill out the form provided here, and will need to include their paper abstract and a brief narrative (200-300 words) identifying their need for this funding. Membership in SMFS is not necessary to apply. Applications for conferences in 2022 and 2023, including papers which have been proposed, accepted, and already given, will be considered.

Deadline June 30, 2023. Decisions will be announced in August.

Please send the completed form to Nicole Lopez-Jantzen (nlopezjantzen@bmcc.cuny.edu) and Kersti Francis (kerstifrancis@ucla.edu).

Trans Travel Fund Application in MS Word

Trans Travel Fund Application in PDF

If you wish to donate to the fund, you may do so here:




Recent winners include:

Nat Rivkin, University of Pennsylvania
“‘as a ronde of flesche yschore’: The King of Tars, Race-Thinking and Trans Childhood,”
Modern Language Association conference, 2022

Basil Arnould Price, University of York
“The Prophecies of Drauma-Finni: Queer Indigenous Relationality in Finnboga Saga,”
18th International Saga conference, 2022

Alice Grace Fulmer, University of California, Santa Barbara
“‘Gode is the lay, swete is the note’: The Liminality of Media in the Worlds of Sir Orfeo,”
Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association conference, 2022

Ellis Light, Fordham University
“Deathbed Biopolitics: Power, Care, and Otherworldly Visions in Julian of Norwich”
New Chaucer Society Biennial Congress, University of Toronto, July 2018

James Sargan, University of Oxford
“Cultural Graphology and Creative Reading: Derrida, Fleming, and Reading Practice in Late Medieval Manuscripts’
New Chaucer Society Biennial Congress, University of Toronto, July 2018

Micah Goodrich, University of Connecticut
“Queer Waste in Wynnere and Wastoure” and “Hanging and Lolling as Queer Temporal Pause in Piers Plowman” The 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2017

Jonah Coman, University of St. Andrews
“Human and trans-human experiences of pain in the late Middle Ages,” The 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2017

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