About the Guild

Cord (n.) 

A cord. Accord. A tie that binds. A term signifying cooperation, a combining of resources, the idea of working together with shared interests and goals. In music, a term that calls for different notes brought together to produce something of greater depth and power; a cooperative layering: a ‘chord’. One modern definition of a cord is ‘thin, flexible string or rope made from several twisted strands,’ the material form of  several threads brought together and intertwined to produce greater  stability and strength, a combination that makes more challenging things possible. This is the idea that structures our vision for this group: our CORD.  

Community: Our organization will foster community by providing a dedicated and easily accessible online space for academics and academic-adjacent practitioners of creative-critical work to find each other. The community  created and maintained by our organization will provide members with a ready pool of readers and collaborative partners in this small but growing practical-theoretical field.

Outreach: Our organization will bring together works and approaches that exemplify the current wave of creative-critical work in a way that speaks to academic and public audiences interested in the medieval. In order to keep our members informed and to also reach a wider audience, we will maintain a blog and newsletter that feature members’ work, highlight useful resources, share creative prompts and advertise upcoming events.

Recognition: The creation of an organized community coupled with our outreach activities will further our mission for greater recognition of creative-critical practice in  medieval studies. We will  increase and support collaborative opportunities and work towards projects with longevity. This includes our future sponsorship of panels at conferences with the resultant goal of publication of a special issue or edited collection. In addition to sharing our work to academic outlets, our organization will seek to collaborate with galleries and museums, poetry and arts foundations, and literary festivals to provide new public venues and audiences for our members to reach.

Development: Our organization will organize and sponsor events both online and in person that help members continue to develop their creative practices through workshops, seminars, panels, and maintain a collected library/bibliography of helpful resources and relevant scholarship. We will maintain an optional reading group and organize guest speakers for further teaching and discussion.