We’ve been to the ‘zoo

After a long and gruelling term and catching an evil bug so that I lost my voice, the end of term came at last. Postgraduate students and I crossed the Atlantic ocean to Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, and the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies (known as the ‘zoo). Theresa Vann, Joseph S. Micallef Curator of Malta Study Center at Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, St John’s University, Collegeville MI, had organised sessions at the ‘zoo to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Hospitallers’ receiving papal recognition as a religious order. Six of us presented papers on the Hospitallers’ regulations and interpretation of their statutes; other colleagues from Cardiff University also gave papers in other sessions. The photo shows the participants in Theresa’s sessions at the ‘zoo, and a fellow Cardiff participant from another session.