Prize awarded annually for “a meritorious second monograph on a medieval topic”
A “timely intervention … that helps us rethink the gendered ecologies of ethics and virtue,” a substantial contribution “to feminist scholarship on gender prescriptions, marital relations, and female agency in medieval and early modern literature,” and a book on women’s virtues that is itself “courageous, temperate, just, and discerning” as well as “constant, faithful, patient, and full of hope”--these comments are typical of the reviews that have greeted Dr. Holly Crocker’s The Matter of Virtue: Women’s Ethical Action from Chaucer to Shakespeare since it was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2019. To such accolades Crocker can now add one of the most prestigious awards bestowed in her field: the Jerome E. Singerman Book Prize. The Singerman Prize, presented under the auspices of the Medieval Academy of America, honors annually "a meritorious second monograph on a medieval topic"; and, as every medievalist knows, it does so in the name of a long-time acquisitions editor for the University of Pennsylvania Press, a figure widely respected in the world of academic publishing and especially admired for the development of his press’s Middle Ages Series, which now contains hundreds of fascinating titles in literature, history, politics, religion, anthropology, and other fields. Singerman retired in 2021 but his impact continues to be felt. “I was delighted and surprised to win,” says Crocker with characteristic modesty. “I will just say that I am deeply honored to be awarded a prize in honor of Jerry Singerman. He has done a great deal for the field, and when I was first conceiving of this book, he gave me good advice about how to frame it.” The Singerman Prize will be awarded in late February in Washington, DC, during the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America.