New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession, newsletter

by Candace Barrington

Despite the popular portrayal of the solitary scholar working far into the night and puzzling out secrets of the past, medievalists know this image to be false. All our work shows the inevitable presence of other hands. As our Acknowledgements and Works Cited demonstrate, we could not complete any of our work without the help of other scholars, past and present. 

For this issue we invite brief essays (3,000–5,000 words maximum) that explore the theme of collaboration, either in the form of collaborations or as studies of important collaborations, whether successful or failed.

Potential lines of inquiry include

• Collaborations across disciplines, languages, abilities, and boundaries (both periodizing and national). 
• Ongoing collaborative partnerships.
• Large projects, especially those across multiple universities or institutions.
• Efforts to mentor early-career colleagues and graduate students.
• Pedagogy in classrooms based on collaboration.

We are also accepting open topic submissions for this issue.

New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession, an on-line open-access journal for medievalists, seeks to foreground aspects of our working lives that tend to be ignored, undervalued, or forgotten. Because our fundamental purpose is to provide a forum for sharing brief essays on teaching, service, and institutional environments and cultures geared toward teachers and scholars of Geoffrey Chaucer and his age, we recognize the importance of understanding and preserving our field’s research, pedagogical, and institutional history. We look forward to reading your contributions to this endeavor.

Essays need to be submitted by 15 February 2026 through our on-line platform. Please see General Guidelines and Guidelines for Authors. As always—and especially for this issue—we encourage collaborative authorship.

If you have questions prior to submission, please contact Candace Barrington, BarringtonC@ccsu.edu.