MEDIEVAL FEMINIST MOVEMENT

tJ URPAST My task as a speaker in the "Founding Mothers " Session at Kalamazoo last spring was to provide a brief historical timeline of the first ten years of The Medieval Feminist Newsletter that Bonnie (Roberta L. Krueger), Beth (Elizabeth Robertson), and I founded in 1985, with Thelma (Thelma Fenster) joining us soon thereafter (1986). I include that timeline below so that readers can see at a glance how rapidly the landscape of feminist scholarly activity in Medieval Studies changed between 1985 and 1995. The Newsletter was of course not the source of the complex and Widespread transformations that were taking place in many quarters during those years. Changing patterns in feminist research were fueled by the unflagging commitment and writing of a host of individual scholars. But MFN offered, I think, a particularly fruitful venue for feminist conversation and challenge, for the sharing of information, and for lively disagreement. My recent review of the early issues of the Newsletter revealed the key role played by certain features that appeared early on and persisted throughout: perhaps most importantly the publication of feminist bibliography (so crucial in the days before online bibliographic sources), the ever-expanding list of subscribers with notations of their publication and teaching interests deSigned to facilitate networking (which was also fostered by the annual business meeting and cash bar at Kalamazoo), the productively controversial Commentary Column edited by Thelma Fenster, and book reviews, which began with MFN#4 (1987). Other concerns were highlighted through special topics featured in individual issues of MFN between 1985 and 1995, including feminist/women-centered teaching, graduate student concerns, the processes of mentoring younger colleagues and supporting feminist research, and the commitment to collaboration in medieval feminist scholarship. The Newsletter was also often at the forefront in articulating the interface between medieval feminism and other emerging fields of study. As early as 1991, MFN addresse