The unprecedented difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic meant the regretful, but necessary, cancellation of many AVISTA activities. In May, we successfully held our 2020 business meeting in a virtual format. Due to the cancellation of the ICMS in 2020, AVISTA has chosen the option to present our planned sessions at the 2021 congress. The 2021 AVISTA sessions at the ICMS are dedicated to two recently departed scholars, both of whom inspired many AVISTA members: Andrew Tallon and Robert Mark. In their honor, Robert Bork has organized a roundtable for colleagues to share personal perspectives and three sessions addressing interdisciplinarity, Gothic structure, and Notre-Dame de Paris. Because the ICMS will be virtual, we are hoping to see great attendance from members who otherwise might not have been able to join us. All members will also be able to attend our annual meeting in a virtual format, and we’re working on planning a social hour as well.
We hope to hear from our membership about potential topics for future conferences. We would love to sponsor more sessions at Leeds, the Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting, the Medieval Academy annual meeting, and other conferences of interest to our membership and to the field. We would also love to hear ideas for virtual programming and engagement. Even after the pandemic ends, we can continue to cross distances with virtual meetings.
Our most significant activity of the year is our new series contract with Brill. We are very excited to move forward with AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art under Brill’s wing, and encourage you to visit http://www.avista.org/publications/brill/ to read the announcement and find information on proposal submission. Many thanks to AVISTA Publications Director Jennifer Feltman for her diligent work on this contract! A volume drawing from the articles in the AVISTA Forum Journal will be our first publication with Brill, and should appear in 2021.
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We appreciate your support and look forward to better times to come.