Gründler Book Prize

2025 Competition

The Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University announces the twenty-ninth Otto Gründler Book Prize to be awarded at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 8-10, 2025). It consists of an award of $1,000 to the author of a monograph in any area of medieval studies that is judged by the selection committee to be an outstanding contribution to its field.

The Prize, instituted by Dr. Diether H. Haenicke, then president of Western Michigan University, honored and now memorializes Gründler for his distinguished service to the University and his lifelong dedication to the international community of medievalists. The first award was made in 1997.

Eligibility

Authors from any country are eligible. To be eligible for the 2025 prize the book must have been published in 2023. Collections of essays, bibliographies, editions and reference tools are not eligible.

Nominations

Readers or publishers may nominate books. Letters of nomination, two to four pages in length, should include sufficient detail and rationale so as to assist the committee in its deliberations. Supporting materials should make the case for the award. Readers' reports, if appropriate, and other letters attesting to the significance of the work would be helpful.

The selection committee needs five copies of any book to pursue its work efficiently. If a book is nominated by a reader, the Medieval Institute will reach out to the book's publisher to request copies of the book. Publishers should send copies of the book directly to the Medieval Institute with their nomination. All materials submitted become property of the Gründler Prize Committee.

Submission

Send letters of nomination and any supporting material by Nov. 1, 2024, to:

Secretary, Gründler Prize Committee
The Medieval Institute
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5432 USA

or as email attachment to medieval-institute@wmich.edu

Further notes

• The prize is not a life achievement award.
• Typically, the book will have one sole author.
• No student, staff or faculty member at Western Michigan University, past or current, may receive the Otto Gründler Book Prize.

Past Winners of the Otto Gründler Book Prize

2024

Jonathan R. Lyon, "Corruption, Protection, and Justice in Medieval Europe: A Thousand-Year History" (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

2023

Elina Gertsman, "The Absent Image: Lacunae in Medieval Books" (Penn State University Press, 2021).

2022

Dyan Elliott, "The Corrupter of Boys: Sodomy, Scandal, and the Medieval Clergy" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).

2021

Marion Turner, "Chaucer: A European Life" (Princeton University Press, 2019).

2020

Geraldine Heng, "The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages" (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

2019

Kathryn Blair Moore, "The Architecture of the Christian Holy Land: Reception from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance" (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

2018

Richard Firth Green, "Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).

2017

Jonathan Sumption, "The Hundred Years War, Volume IV: Cursed Kings" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

2016

Maureen C. Miller, "Clothing the Clergy: Virtue and Power in Medieval Europe, c. 800–1200" (Cornell University Press, 2014).

2015

Robert Bartlett, "Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation" (Princeton University Press, 2013).

2014

Ronald G. Witt, "The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy" (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

2013

Max Harris, "Sacred Folly: A New History of the Feast of Fools" (Cornell University Press, 2011).

2012

Margot E. Fassler, "The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts" (Yale University Press, 2010).

2011

Thomas F. X. Noble, "Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

2010

John Van Engen, "Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).

2009

Caroline Walker Bynum, "Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).

2008

William Caferro, "John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).

2007

Charles McClendon, "The Origins of Medieval Architecture: Building in Europe A.D. 600-900" (Yale University Press, 2005).

2006

Dyan Elliot, "Proving Woman: Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages" (Princeton University Press, 2004).

2005

Thomas F. Madden, "Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice" (The John Hopkins University Press, 2003).

2004

Geraldine Carville, "The Impact of the Cistercians on the Landscape of Ireland" (K. B. Publications, 2002).

2003

David Burr, "The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis" (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001).

2002

John Lowden, "The Making of the Bible Moralisées" (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).

2001

Paul Freedman, "Images of the Medieval Peasant" (Stanford University Press, 1999).

2000

Gordon Kipling, "Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph" (Oxford University Press, 1998).

1999

Jeffrey Hamburger, "Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent" (University of California Press, 1997).

1998

Diane Cole Ahl, "Benozzo Gozzoli" (Yale University Press, 1996)
and
Judith M. Bennett, "Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in Medieval England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300–1600" (Oxford University Press, 1996).

1997

Amy Hollywood, "The Soul as Virgin Wife" (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995).