This journal demonstrates the value of medieval studies and of the deepest historical perspective on the development of contemporary cultural and critical theory.

postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies is a discipline-spanning, peer-reviewed journal that brings the medieval and the modern into productive critical relation. The journal advances a present-minded approach to medieval studies, which inspires new critical investigations of the Middle Ages by examining contemporary events, issues, ideas, problems, objects, and studies.

The intent of this approach is to illuminate deep historical structures – mental, linguistic, social, cultural, aesthetic, religious, political, sexual – that underlie contemporary thought and life. The journal advocates for and supports the continuing development, every disciplinary source, of historicist, materialist, comparatist, and theoretical approaches to subjects rooted in the Middle Ages.

Each issue is organized around a theme that reaches between today and the distant-yet relevant medieval past. Coverage emphasizes the intersection of the contemporary and the medieval, including such subjects as the interpretation of emotion in facial expressions in medieval and modern times; sickness, healing and the past, present and future of medical humanities; the relationship of the medieval Staffordshire Hoard with contemporary conservation efforts, metal detectorists and more.

postmedieval is affiliated with the BABEL Working Group.