Snow is finally here in southern New England, and the Massachusetts Medievalist just read Sy Montgomery’s newest book, Of Time and Turtles, which describes the important process of brumation - it’s like hibernation, but for reptiles instead of mammals. I’ve always loved reading about Montgomery’s animal-focused adventures - she has books about tigers and octopuses and pink dolphins and a pig, and the turtle book entrances with its stories of turtles overcoming challenges and the humans that help them along the way.
Simultaneously, I’ve been feeling a bit like a reptile myself - a dinosaur, specifically. It’s clear that spring 2024 will be the last semester I’ll teach at Lesley; the university has eliminated my job as it reinvents itself as a professional, technical institution and moves away from liberal arts and traditional scholarship. Lesley will no longer offer my classes in medieval studies or the History of the English Language; its English major will be stripped down substantially and, I suspect, eventually eliminated.
I’m trying to figure out whether medieval studies will have a place in my life in whatever the next chapter will be - so it seems sensible to put this blog into brumation and await a change of season. I’ve very much enjoyed writing the quasi-monthly postings to this blog in the past seven years, and hope you readers have as well, especially those that made the jump with me from Humanities Commons to Substack. I won’t be popping into your inbox again any time soon, although The Massachusetts Medievalist may emerge from brumation at some point if a new season presents itself.
Best wishes. Hope you find a renewed season for medieval musings.