Institute for Medieval Studies

The Institute for Medieval Studies (IMS‌) at the University of Leeds, founded in 1967, is a research and teaching institute in the field of medieval studies. It is home to the International Medieval Bibliography and the International Medieval Congress.

Although Leeds University had seen lively intellectual activity in medieval studies throughout its history, the first formal precursor to the Institute for Medieval Studies was Leeds's 'Medieval Group', founded in October 1951. The group would gather to hear academic papers on relevant topics, preceded by 'sherry in the Chairman's room' and followed 'by supper'. Early chairs were John Le Patourel (1951–71), J. R. Wilkie (1971–77), and A. C. Cawley (1978–79); secretaries were Kenneth William Humphreys (1951–52), A. C. Cawley (1952–59), and William Rothwell (1959–?); and treasurers included Glanville Rees Jeffrey Jones (1951–71). As of the 2018–19 academic year, Medieval Group still existed, within the Institute for Medieval Studies, run by a committee of both staff and graduate students under the aegis of Melanie Brunner, organising papers, workshops, and field trips.

The inter-departmental community-building of the Medieval Group was consolidated in 1967, when Le Patourel led the establishment of the Leeds Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies (GCMS). Early directors included Le Patourel (1967–70), A. C. Cawley (1970-72), and R. L. Thomson (1972–77). The centre focused on offering an interdisciplinary MA degree in Medieval Studies that drew on the skills of scholars in a range of departments whose teaching tended to be separated by institutional barriers. It had an important role in building up Leeds's capacity to deliver postgraduate education. It was partly inspired by the recent establishment of the Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto and a Medieval Studies MA at the University of Manchester under the guidance of J. S. Roskell. However, it lacked any dedicated premises for teaching or students and relied for its budget on petitioning individual departments for funds.

The foundation of the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, which came amidst took place alongside a wave of new activities among Leeds medievalists (and in the context of a great expansion of the size and state funding of British universities). Most prominent was the foundation of the International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) by Peter Sawyer, also in 1967. Related endeavours were the founding of the journal Northern History in 1966; the refounding of the medieval-studies-orientated journal Leeds Studies in English (1967) and associated book series Leeds Texts and Monographs (1966); hosting the first colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l'étude du Théâtre Médiéval (1974); and, in 1975, co-ordinating the staging of 42 pageants from the York Mystery Plays on the Leeds University campus.

In 1977, the Centre's first female director, Lynn Muir, was appointed (1977–82). In 1978 she removed the word 'Graduate' from the name of the Centre, making it the 'Centre for Medieval Studies', and in 1979 won a dedicated room for the Centre, which was christened 'The Le Patourel Room' and housed in a one-time church building which later became the home of the University's Workshop Theatre. Muir was succeeded by Peter Meredith; subsequent directors included Lawrence A. S. Butler (1934–2014) (to 1988), Wendy R. Childs, and Joyce Hill. In 1996, the first appointment was made to the Centre itself, when Mary Swan was made its Director of Studies. She oversaw, in 1999, the introduction of a Ph.D. programme run by the Centre, and in 2000 the shifting of the Le Patourel Room to the University's Parkinson Building, where, as of 2019, it remained.

In 1998, Leeds's Centre for Medieval Studies was described in the Times Higher Education as

Britain's largest: it boasts 38 staff and 60–70 students from 16 humanities departments, plus 14 medieval studies MA students. From this autumn a new PhD programme will teach palaeontology [presumably an error for 'palaeography'], medieval Latin, Hebrew and Greek — crucial tools for students of the period. Medieval studies finally seems to be emerging from its own Dark Ages.

Alongside similar UK centres at Nottingham, Reading and York, the CMS's cross-departmental and interdisciplinary teaching was credited with breathing new life into the study of the Middle Ages.