Medieval Studies encompasses a broad domain of interdisciplinary research, approaches and disciplinary methods related to the Middle Ages. Research into the Middle Ages is fuelled by a desire to know, interpret and open up the world between 500 and 1500, in local, regional and global perspective, to and with academic and wider audiences. The common factor in this research is the use of hard-to-access source material in various languages, mostly unpublished handwritten texts and images, supplemented by archaeological and other material sources, such as objects, landscapes and soil remains. Various textual genres, including chronicles, religious and scientific tracts, poetry, novels, drama texts, administrative and legal sources are research objects, as well as visual and musical sources. Deciphering and interpreting such sources require thorough knowledge of the auxiliary sciences, such as codicology, paleography and numismatics. In addition, a variety of methodological questions and approaches are addressed, such as connections, comparisons and representativeness of the sources within their social, cultural, religious, political, legal and spatial contexts.
Specialised research takes place in sub-disciplines such as Arabic, archaeology, historical sciences, art history, Celtology, Latinistics, musicology, Medieval Studies, Old Anglistics and Old Romanistics. These each have their own research traditions, drawing on theoretical approaches developed within (and outside) the subdisciplines and enriching each other through cross-disciplinary methods. Shared methodologies are provided from the digital humanities, e.g. development and application of tools in the field of digital text analysis and text mining, forensic paleography and digital editing techniques. There are collaborations with other disciplines such as classical antiquities studies, philosophy, Islam studies and literary studies. These interdisciplinary links are actively maintained, as the research culture in medieval studies has strong similarities with other fields in addition to specific characteristics. As a network, the Research School of Medieval Studies contributes to the training of PhD students and provides communication about the research domain both within academia and for a wider audience of interested parties.
Target groups
Medieval studies in the Netherlands is internationally oriented, as evidenced not only by publications but also by international collaborations with colleagues, research institutes, museums and heritage institutions. In addition, research has a local and regional function. There is great interest in research in this field, which originates largely from society at large and the cultural field. This is visible in the close cooperation with local and regional heritage institutions, museums and archives that manage historical collections and make them accessible to the public. In addition, the great public interest in the Middle Ages and medieval research is evident from the attention paid to the many lectures, blogs and public books on the Middle Ages, in Dutch or other European languages.
Products and communication
- Academic publications mostly appear in the form of books and contributions in collections, published by national and international academic publishers; and additionally in the form of articles in international and national academic/peer reviewed journals and publications. A significant proportion of publications, both print and digital, are additionally aimed at a non-academic, broadly interested audience. There is a significant trend towards publishing in Open Access.
- Most international publications are in English. Other common languages for specialist publications are Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Publication in languages other than English is important for various specialisms.
- Review processes are important for national and international publications. This applies to articles in journals, to contributions to collections and to books.
- It almost always involves peer review, but sometimes also editorial review.
- Medieval Studies makes an important contribution to making (information on) sources accessible by means of digital databases. It contributes to public history by advising on and contributing to large-scale Dutch-language media productions on history and culture and by working actively on exhibitions, study materials for primary and secondary schools, and other forms of opening up heritage.
Processes and strategies
- Communication with a broad group of interested readers is important. Researchers communicate by producing hybrid publications (including books), writing articles in popular periodicals (e.g. weeklies) and literary media, and blogging. Medievalists also frequently collaborate with radio and television producers, organize exhibitions, make research results available in digital formats, translate medieval texts, and present their research via social media.
- The most common type of publication is the ‘single-authored publication’, especially in the case of books (monographs), which have a lengthier production time.
Domain-specific aspects of quality and relevance
Hybrid books, journal articles, participation in public debates, blogging, articles in popular periodicals (e.g. weeklies) and literary media, contributions to databases, social media, and media productions.
Relevance of quantitative indicators for use and marks of recognition
Given the rather limited registration of journals and the lack of monographs as sources for established databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, using bibliometric data from these databases is not recommended. Where appropriate, it is possible to trace references to monographs using Google Scholar. However, the latter source is of limited representativeness for publications in this domain, so caution is advised.
For hybrid publications, it is possible to carry out usage analyses in addition to Google Scholar, for example through internet searches, with a view to identifying social and scientific users.