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Abstract

I am honored and delighted to be taking up the directorship of the Program in Medieval Studies in the new year. I want to thank Anne D. Hedeman for her dynamism and collegiality as director during the last three years. The programs of events for each year now archived on our website (www.medieval.uiuc.edu) reflect the richly varied interests of our members and a stream of distinguished visitors from around the world. Anne D. was key to the establishment of the program. It was she who drew together a bunch of us to compete for one of the seven exchanges that Illinois approved with France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1998. (The Program in Medieval Studies was the only humanities group to be funded. Our exchange was so successful that it was renewed for two years beyond the initial three.) This collaboration inspired us to work together to apply for official recognition as a Program with a graduate certificate. Then Stephen Jaeger came to be our first director in 2001, and in his wake new colleagues joined us in Classics, History, English, and Architecture. Anne D. has sustained the momentum generated six years ago. I owe a great debt to Charlie Wright for generously agreeing to act as director during the fall semester. He has accomplished an amazing amount for the program, organizing a high profile international conference for next fall on “Translating the Middle Ages,” drafting bylaws, initiating a proposal for an undergraduate minor in medieval studies—all of this besides teaching two courses and editing JEGP! Going forward, we hope to develop our undergraduate course offerings, build links with other programs on campus, strengthen exchange programs, and further increase our visibility on the national and international scenes. I look forward to continuing the work that Anne D. and Charlie have done.