As many of you might have heard, The Forum for Research in Medieval Studies (FoRMS) will host its first event this coming Monday, Sep 15, from 12–1 p.m. in Tisch 1014. We hope this event will be both a place for folks to get together to share their summer readings (sponsored by FoRMS!) and for new members to get to know the group. We have a good balance of people from History, Art History, English, and ALC who volunteered to present during this semester, and we plan to figure out the exact presentation schedule during this first event. So we hope to see the potential presenters on Monday!

For those of you who have read about FoRMS’ schedule via Professor Ryan Szpiech’s kind advertisement, here is a small update: We are meeting on Mondays, 12–1 p.m., on Sep 15, Oct 6, Nov 10, and Dec 8. The reason we shifted the November meeting is because Professor Sara McDougall, a medievalist and an important legal historian of late medieval France, will come to U-M for a presentation. We hope to leave that noon open for folks who are interested in meeting with Professor McDougall. Information for signing up will come out as the event approaches.

Besides our regular lunch series, we are also hoping to take folks to DIA for the exhibition Guests of Honor: Armor as Fashion, and we plan to ask the curator to guide us through the exhibition. This event is tentatively scheduled for a Saturday in late October or early November, and we're also hoping to hear your thoughts regarding this plan at our Monday gathering (Would Saturday work? Does DIA sound good?).

In addition, there is a call for MEMS Graduate Student Liaisons for this academic year. Anyone who is interested in helping facilitate conversations between graduate students and MEMS faculty, email Professor Ryan Szpiech (szpiech@umich.edu) to nominate yourself!

At last, if you haven't done so, please sign up for our email list so that you don't miss any event (with food!) from FoRMS and MEMS (Medieval and Early Modern Studies) more broadly.

We hope to see you there!