Richard Scott Nokes, "Medievalists without Borders"

Abstract

As technological and social changes alter the ways in which the general public connects with scholarship, as well as the ways scholars connect with one another, medieval scholarship needs to change as well. One model for change is that offered by King Alfred the Great’s educational reforms, which sought to translate Latin text into Old English in order to make them readable to the Anglo-Saxons. Medieval scholars in the very near future will need to “translate”　their work into electronic media, both established media such as e-mail and webpages, and emerging media such as blogs and new cell phone functions. Through this act of translation scholars can cross both academic and international borders, becoming “Medievalists without Borders.”　

Keywords: Medievalists without Borders, King Alfred, technological changes, electronic media, crossing borders technologically