Editor's Note

Taking stock of the field of medieval studies in one nationally-defined area has its significant uses. On the one hand, it may be possible to identify specific national characteristics in the research, and perhaps in the future to build upon those strengths and further to emphasise them. Thus, manuscripts and editions (to judge by the SSHRC awards) are an overriding presence for Canadian medievalists. There is acknowledgment of and obeisance to theoretical approaches but the latter tend to be packaged up with one or both of the former, whereas just looking at a set of manuscripts or just embarking on a new edition of a significant text is clearly quite acceptable (with, of course, awareness that all decisions are freighted with the baggage of the researcher’s past and present). Similarly, as a national group we tend to speak with passion about our teaching of matters medieval to undergraduates. More evident, perhaps, in the reports from smaller universities whose remit is a liberal arts curriculum, the desire to communicate well our excitement in our field is endemic, perhaps to all medievalists, and certainly to Canadian medievalists. We fuss, trade numbers of students, recommend texts for reprinting, talk about teaching techniques, and even drag our students (even undergraduates) along to national and international conferences.