On April 3, the Department of Government Efficiency summarily cancelled almost all grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This cancellation had an immediate and destabilizing effect on the Middle English Text Series (METS), which was nearing the mid-point of a three-year NEH grant that had provided essential funding for the compensation of METS Managing Editor and the remainder of our editorial and research staff. In the days since, we have been scrambling to assemble new internal sources of funding that will allow METS to bring to completion editions currently under way (online and print) and to support further editions in the series. While we are hopeful that we will soon have a short-term plan in place to see these editions through to publication, that plan cannot succeed without your support.
METS issued its first volume in 1989, and published its hundredth volume in 2023. In November 2024 METS launched its completely renovated website and digital edition (www.metseditions.org): this offers a new reader interface, intuitive access to the texts, glosses, notes, and introductions, along with TEI encoding of all new editions, improved metadata, and enhanced transparency and accessibility. MIP has kept all volumes continuously in print, and the METS website (available through the University of Rochester Libraries) has attracted over a half million hits per year from more than one hundred thirty-five countries and language groups. The Series currently has some sixteen volumes in progress, and plans to publish two of these in print and online this year. The Series is also working on updating all its backlist editions for the new website, including adding TEI markup to each edition.
The abrupt loss of NEH support threatens all of this. While we have been working over the last several years to transition METS to a more sustainable funding model, we are not there yet. The emergency measures are just that: temporary. Without new sources of funding, METS will be unable to sustain its staff or operations beyond the near future.,
We are calling on the medievalist community: editors, scholars, instructors, and everyone who has relied on METS for teaching, research, or simply the joy of engaging with medieval texts to help ensure the survival of this vital resource. METS has long stood as a shared foundation for the field. Now, its future depends on those who believe in the value of collaborative, open-access scholarship and of engagement and understanding of history.
To that end, we have established the Russell Peck Memorial Fund through the University of Rochester. All contributions to this fund will go directly toward supporting METS’ editorial staff and ensuring the continued production of high-quality, freely available editions. If you have ever assigned a METS volume in a syllabus, cited one in your research, or found inspiration in a medieval text thanks to METS, we ask you to consider giving back. Every donation – no matter the size – helps sustain the work that makes our field accessible to the world. These donations are tax deductible for US taxpayers.
Donations can be made via our website: https://metseditions.org/donate. This link will take you to the University of Rochester's giving portal.
If you prefer to donate via check, please send to: University of Rochester, Office of Gift and Donor Records, 300 East River Road, BOX 270032, Rochester, NY 14627, with a note indicating that you wish the gift to go to the Russell Peck Memorial Fund. You can also support this initiative through gifts of stocks and securities; Qualified Charitable Distributions; or cryptocurrency. If you are interested in any of these options, please contact Pam Jackson at pamela.jackson@rochester.edu or 585.281.9061.
This is a time of crisis for our field and for the humanities. It is also an opportunity for us to come together as a field to protect what we’ve built together and to ensure that METS will continue to support future generations of students, readers, and scholars. Thank you for joining us in our mission.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Anna Siebach-Larsen (annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu) and Thomas Hahn (thomas.hahn@rochester.edu).
Thank you for your support,
Tom Hahn (General Editor) & Anna Siebach-Larsen (Executive Director)
