Leslie J. Workman (5 March 1927 in Hanwell, London, England – 1 April 2001 in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

, Michigan, USA) was an independent scholar and founder of academic medievalism.

Biography

Workman received his education at the Russell School,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, studied at Kings College,

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(B.A. in History), and then served in the British Army in Egypt, Palestine, and Sudan from 1945 to 1948. In 1954 he emigrated to the

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and studied History at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. Later he taught at Queens College of The City University of New York in

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, Muhlenberg College in

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, and Western College for Women in

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. In 1983 he married Kathleen Verduin, a Professor of American Literature at Hope College in

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa and Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located in the West Michigan, western region of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Lower Peninsula, the city is si ...

Achievements

Workman's original contribution to the academy is the establishing of a network of scholars who studied the reception of medieval culture in post medieval times. Although without academic appointment since the early 1980s, he managed to convince numerous colleagues of the value of the paradigm of medievalism studies. He began to organize the first conference sections on the topic in 1971 at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (

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), founded the leading academic journal, ''Studies in Medievalism'', in 1979, and started the annual International Conference on Medievalism in 1986. In 1998, colleagues and students recognized his extraordinary achievements with a ''Festschrift'',
Medievalism in the Modern World: Essays in Honour of Leslie J. Workman
', edited by Tom Shippey and Richard Utz.

Studies in Medievalism

Workman founded '' Studies in Medievalism'' (''SiM'') in 1979 as the only academic journal dedicated entirely to the study of post-medieval images and perceptions of the Middle Ages. Initially privately published (1979–1990), it was adopted by Boydell & Brewer Publishers in Cambridge, UK. After Workman's death, the publication was edited by Tom Shippey of St. Louis University. It is currently edited by Karl Fugelso at Towson University. As was Workman's original intention, the journal welcomes articles on both scholarly and popular works, with particular interest in the interaction between scholarship and re-creation.

The Year's Work in Medievalism

Workman originally conceived of ''The Year's Work in Medievalism'' (''YWIM'') as a publishing venue not only for the Proceedings of the annual International Conference on Medievalism, but also for comprehensive field bibliographies, book reviews, and announcements of conferences and other events. However, it became mostly an outlet for shorter essays based on conference presentations. Since 2020, the journal has been made available online. And some volumes are available elsewhere.Volumes 14, 15, and 16 are available in .pdf at: http://www.uni-due.de/perspicuitas/editorial.shtml#year Gwendolyn Morgan, Montana State University, served as general editor for the proceedings series for many years. Since 2011, E. L. Risden (St. Norbert College), M.J. Toswell, Karl Fugelso, and Richard Utz (Georgia Tech) have served as editors. The current editors are Valerie B. Johnson and Renée Ward.

International Conference

Workman founded the annual International Conference on Medievalism (ICOM; known as the General Conference on Medievalism until 1993) with two meetings at the

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(Notre Dame, IN) in 1986 and 1987. Subsequent conferences were organized through the Newberry Library and Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, IL: 1988), the United States Military Academy (1989), Castle Kaprun (jointly with the 5th Symposium on Mittelalter-Rezeption, Austria: 1990), the

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(1991), the

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(1992), the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

(UK: 1993), Montana State University (Bozeman, MT: 1994), the Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester, MA: 1995),

Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo College is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, K ...

(Kalamazoo, MI: 1996), Christ Church College (Canterbury, UK: 1997), University of Rochester (Rochester, NY: 1998), Montana State University (1999), Hope College (Holland, MI: 2000), Buffalo State College (Buffalo, NY: 2001), the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA: 2002), St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO: 2003), University of New Brunswick (Canada: 2004), Towson University (Baltimore, MD: 2005),

(Columbus, OH: 2006),

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(London, ON, Canada: 2007),

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(Macon, GA: 2008), Siena College (Loudonville, NY: 2009), the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

(Groningen, Netherlands: 2010); and the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM: 2012); Kent State University Regional Campuses (Warren and Canton, Ohio, 2012); St. Norbert College (De Pere, Wisconsin, 2013);

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(Atlanta, Georgia, 2014); Washington and Jefferson College (Pittsburgh, PA, 2015); Bamberg University (Bavaria, Germany, 2016);

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(Salzburg, Austria, 2017); Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 2018); Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia, 2019); Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia, 2020); Delta College (Michigan, 2021).

Select Publications

* "Medievalism." In: ''The Arthurian Encyclopedia'', ed. Norris J. Lacy. New York: Garland, 1985. pp. 387–91. * "Medievalism and Romanticism." In: ''Poetica''. 39-40 (1994), 1-34. * "Medievalism Today." In:
Medieval Feminist Forum
'. 23/1 (1997), 29–33. * ''Studies in Medievalism'', 1979–1999. (Ed.)

Literature

* William Calin: "Leslie Workman: A Speech of Thanks," in: Richard Utz and Tom Shippey (eds.): ''Medievalism in the Modern World. Essays in Honour of Leslie Workman''. Turnhout: Brepols, 1998. pp. 451–52. * Richard Utz: "Medievalism in the Making: A Bibliography of Leslie J. Workman," in:
The Year's Work in Medievalism
' 15 (2001), 127–31. * Richard Utz: "Medievalism," in: Robert Bjork (ed.): ''Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), vol. III, pp. 1118–1119. *Richard Utz: "Coming to Terms with Medievalism: Toward a Conceptual History." ''European Journal of English Studies'' 15.2 (2011): 101–13. * Kathleen Verduin: "The Founding and the Founder: Medievalism and the Legacy of Leslie J. Workman," ''Studies in Medievalism'' 17 (2009). * Kathleen Verduin: "Remembering Leslie J. Workman (1927–2001)," in: Anne Lair and Richard Utz (eds.): ''Falling into Medievalism'

Special edition: ''UNIversitas: The University of Northern Iowa Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity'', 2006.

References

External links

short biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Workman, Leslie J. 1927 births 2001 deaths British medievalists Alumni of King's College London Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Ohio State University alumni New York University faculty Western College for Women faculty Muhlenberg College alumni 20th-century British Army personnel Academic journal editors People from Hanwell British emigrants to the United States Independent scholars