Minutes 2016 – St. Louis, Missouri

Saturday, March 26, 2016

The annual business meeting of the Andrew Marvell Society was called to order at 08:30.

I. Old Business

The minutes from our business meeting in Raleigh, NC, in 2015 were approved subject to members checking online.

II. Wallace Award

1. Martin Dzelainis announced the winner of this year’s Wallace award for the best paper on Andrew Marvell by an early career scholar. The adjudicator gave praise for Brendan Prawdzik’s (Pennsylvania State University) exploration of the darker side of Upon Appleton House, and the overall winner was Stephanie Coster (University of Leicester) for her excellent biographical sleuthing about Robert Boulter.

III. Conferences

1. The SCRC will be held in Austin in 2017 from 20-22 April. Sean McDowell Drew attention to the unusually late date for the conferences designed to avoid March madness in the city, and emphasized the need to make presenters aware of this later date.
   1. Several satirical poems were suggested for our special poem panel, but ultimately in response to Martin Dzelzainis’ question about neglected lyrics, Nigel Smith proposed ‘The Mower Against Gardens’. This proposal was seconded by Martin Dzelzainis, and was unanimously agreed upon.
2. The RSA will be held in Chicago in 2017. Martin Dzelzainis explained that proposals would need to be submitted by early June, and the concomitant need to flag the Call For Papers via the website and any other available means as early as possible following this year’s SCRC.
   1. Nicholas Von Maltzahn asked about the procedure for submissions. Martin Dzelzainis confirmed that proposals should be sent to the incoming President of the Marvell Society, Alex Garganigo, via a dedicated submissions portal. The adjudication process is handled by the Marvell Society rather than the RSA itself.
   2. Martin Dzelzainis expressed a hope that the Society would field at least as many if not more panels at the 2017 RSA as it has this year. Panels require three presenters.
   3. Alex Garganigo asked if anyone had thoughts for proposals. Nigel Smoth responded that he had a panel in mind with Nicholas McDowell on ‘The Horation Ode’. Nigel Smith also mentioned the possibility of using conference sessions to share work from the forthcoming Marvell Handbook co-edited by Martin Dzelzainis and Edward Holberton, suggesting this would also serve as constructive promotion for the volume. Alex Garganigo checked to confirm that Nigel Smith had in mind a panel, among others, to celebrate the imminent publication of the volume. Martin Dzelzainis concurred with these suggestions, adding that it would be good to be able to have a panel including his co-editor Edward Holberton with the volume in mind.
3. The European Marvell conference is organized, with a robust program in place. Laurent Curelly may ask Alex Garganigo to address attendees as President of the Society.

IV. Publications Update

1. Alex Garganigo provided an update about our publications as a proxy for Matthew Augustine. Matthew is currently exploring new platforms for Marvell Studies, as well as looking into the possibility of working with the Online Library for the Humanities. The aim is for the new electronic platform to do what the Society website does in terms of archiving materials, but also streamlines the submission and review process so that everything is not diffused via email but held in a dedicated electronic setting. The first issue of the renamed Marvell Studies will be published on our existing platform.
2. Martin Dzelzainis praised the great work that Matthew Augustine has been doing for the journal, and noted that with his upcoming Vice-President and then subsequently President duties for the Society, that Matthew may want to step down, meaning that the Society needs to start thinking about enlisting another editor to take over down the road. He noted that this might have ramifications about the use of St, Andrews web servers to host the journal. Nigel Smith asked if this would mean that the journal would leave St. Andrews, and Nicholas Von Maltzahn asked about the potential costs for an institution of hosting a journal. Emma Annette Wilson confirmed that there would be some server costs for an institution stemming from the demands placed upon a server by repeated hits on a website and article downloads. Alex Garganigo suggested that this is something we need to bear in mind going forward, and that we may need to consider levying dues to support the journal hosting longer-term, though this is still uncertain.
3. Martin Dzelzainis rounded out this discussion by giving renewed thanks to Matthew Augustine for his great work in taking the journal forward.

V. Social Media

1. Emma Annette Wilson proposed that the Executive Secretary be enabled, with the Society’s blessing, to work with a graduate student each year to maintain regular social media posts for the Marvell Society Twitter feed.
2. Brendan Prawdzik seconded this motion, and it was unanimously approved.

VI. Elections

1. Three new Executive Committee Members were sought.
   1. Jonathan Sawday was proposed by Nicholas Von Maltzahn. This nomination was seconded by Alex Garganigo, and was unanimously approved.
   2. Stephanie Coster was proposed by Nicholas Von Maltzahn. This nomination was seconded by Alex Garganigo, and was unanimously approved.
   3. Nigel Smith was proposed by Nicholas Von Maltzahn. This nomination was seconded by Stephanie Coster, and was unanimously approved.

VII. Constitutional Matters

1. Martin Dzelzainis raised the possibility of holding some business meetings for the Marvell Society at the RSA should it prove convenient. Nicholas Von Maltzahn asked if there would be a default location only altered by request, or if one of our annual business meeting agenda items should be to decide the venue year-by-year. Martin Dzelzainis suggested it might be useful to be flexible and to be able to decide year-by-year. Joan Faust drew attention to the issue that if the Marvell Society were not to hold an AGM at the SCRC, then it would no longer constitute an affiliate organization. This is the mechanism by which the Martz plenary is awarded to the affiliate organizations. As such, it was agreed that we should maintain an AGM at the SCRC, whilst having the potential to have an additional meeting at the RSA in years when there is a suitable gap between the two gatherings for a second meeting to be useful. Alex Garganigo asked if there needed to be a meeting this year, and both Nicholas Von Maltzahn and Martin Dzelzainis said this would not be relevant, given the proximity of the two events in 2016.

VIII. The SCRC Martz Lecture

1. Alex Garganigo asked if the Marvell Society were due to receive the SCRC Martz lecture. Joan Faust and Sean McDowell confirmed that the Marvell Society would be the recipient of the Martz lecture in 2017 at the 65th gathering of the conference. Sean McDowell noted that as an anniversary gathering, the 2017 SCRC is likely to attract a substantial audience.
2. Nicholas Von Maltzahn asked if Alex Garganigo would be seeking suggestions for the plenary session, and it was confirmed that suggestions would be very welcome. Brendan Prawdzik proposed James Turner, Alex Garganigo proposed Nicholas McDowell, and ultimately Nigel Smith proposed that the Society continues to think about this, and Martin Dzelzainis reminded us that the Executive Committee can both confer and also make decisions via email following last year’s constitutional update, so this will be the process for determining the 2017 Martz speaker.

IX. Thanks

1. Thanks was duly given by Alex Garganigo to Martin Dzelzainis for his excellent leadership as President of the Marvell Society.

X. Any Other Business

1. Matthew Augustine sent by proxy his Editor’s congratulations to A. D. Cousins, whose monograph Loss and Aspiration, Home and Homeland in Miscellaneous Poems has just appeared from Routledge Press. Tony published several excerpts from the book in the Marvell Society Newsletter, and has kindly recognized the Society in his acknowledgements.

VI. Adjourned

The meeting adjourned at 08:56. Respectfully submitted, Emma Annette Wilson Executive Secretary The annual business meeting of the Andrew Marvell Society was called to order at 08:32 by President Timothy Raylor.