Leslie J. Workman (5 March 1927 in Hanwell, London, England – 1 April 2001 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA) was an independent scholar and founder of academic medievalism.
Biography
Workman received his education at the Russell School, London, studied at Kings College, University of London (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 United States and studied History at Columbia University and Ohio State University. Later he taught at Queens College of The City University of New York in New York City, Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. In 1983 he married Kathleen Verduin, a Professor of American Literature at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.
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 (Kalamazoo, Michigan), 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. 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.