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Spring 2026 Medieval Studies Courses
Emily Thornbury
A close reading of Beowulf in Old English, within the modern and medieval critical landscapes.
Prerequisite: a strong working knowledge of Old English (typically ENGL 6500 or the equivalent).
Jessica Brantley and Jane Tylus
T 1:30-3:20
How was female sanctity practiced in medieval Europe? How did mystical engagement, in particular, spark both piety and disobedience? How was mysticism explored in writing and the arts by women themselves—especially those women who would challenge the status quo by asserting their own direct connections to the divine? Finally, how do we “access” these medieval minds today, and to what extent do contemporary theoretical concerns about gender identity, subjectivity, and alterity enable us to grapple with the intensely personal dynamics of mystical experience? We introduce these questions—and many others—in connection to the lives and works of five medieval women, beginning with Clare of Assisi, who fled her parents’ wealthy home in the middle of the night to join her radical neighbor, Francis. We consider the writings of Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, and Julian of Norwich, all formative figures in the crisis-ridden fourteenth century who unsettled the boundaries between private and public, religious and “profane.” Finally, we read the Book of Margery Kempe as a fifteenth-century record of how the mystical experiences of female saints inspired one bourgeois woman’s negotiation between her piety and her community. Historical, cultural, and religious topics to be considered include: the influence of the emerging vernaculars on religious movements and texts; the reassessment of Biblical figures such as Mary, Mary Magdalene, Judith, and Ruth; the impact of marginal, possibly heretical groups such as the Beguines; and the rise of the mendicant orders and the resulting changes to monastic and convent life. If our funding applications are successful, we take a course trip to England and Italy during spring break.
This advanced graduate seminar explores issues pertaining to the art and architecture of medieval Europe that can only be fully investigated on site. Readings, discussions, and short presentations by students in class meetings during the first half of the semester lay the theoretical and historical groundwork for a trip to Europe during spring break. Post-travel meetings will take up additional scholarly readings on the sites, and allow us to consider how our own encounters open up new questions and insights. Students will present original scholarship, based on their own research and first-hand observations, in presentations at the end of the term. Final papers of approximately 20 pages will be due at the usual time at the end of the semester. The theme for spring 2026 is Chartres Cathedral: Art and Architecture in Gothic France. Our main focus in the great pilgrimage cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, which stands out for its almost complete retention of its late-twelfth and early-thirteenth-century architecture, sculpture, and stained glass. It is the best surviving example of an “integrated” Gothic church in France, and since the late nineteenth century has generated a deep, broad, and conceptually rich literature. We will spend three full days exploring that building, getting to know its many elements and levels both inside and out, the changing lighting conditions that affected its appearance over the course of the day, and the processional routes that moved liturgical objects through the (small) town. We will begin our trip with four days in Paris. There we will visit two key buildings that were important precedents for Gothic Chartres Cathedral: the abbey church of St-Denis and the newly restored cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. We will also visit the Sainte-Chapelle, an important point of comparison for the stained glass program. At the Louvre we will examine some of the sculptural capitals from the Chartres choir screen and other related works of sculpture and metalwork. The Musée de Cluny offers a treasure-trove of early and high Gothic monumental and luxury arts that will enhance our understanding of Chartres. Students will emerge with an excellent understanding of the range and sophistication of ecclesiastical arts in the French crownland at an explosive moment of artistic and architectural experimentation.
This class is limited to eight students. Priority is given to history of art students and medieval studies students who have done graduate-level coursework in some part of the medieval field. Reading knowledge of French is required and of German strongly recommended.
This course examines the processes of human migration in premodern societies with an emphasis on ancient Rome. It explores voluntary and forced migrations, their motivations, processes, and outcomes. Particular attention is paid to sources and problems in the period of late antiquity, when human migration helped drive the collapse of the Roman Empire.
This graduate seminar places the middle-Byzantine world in a wider Mediterranean framework between the Middle East and Western Europe. Students analyze major themes and issues in Byzantine history each week in an effort to understand many of the major problems and debates within the field. The course also introduces students to the methodological tools of the discipline and how to use them. The course is open to both specialists and non-specialists. Knowledge of at least one medieval Mediterranean source language (e.g., Greek, Latin, Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic, Syriac, Old French, Old Spanish, Hebrew) is required.
Introduction to Jewish culture and society in Muslim lands from the Prophet Muhammad to Suleiman the Magnificent. Topics include Islam and Judaism; Jerusalem as a holy site; rabbinic leadership and literature in Baghdad; Jewish courtiers, poets, and philosophers in Muslim Spain; and the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.
This seminar explores how medieval Jews and Christians interacted as religious societies between 800 and 1500.
The Middle Ages have been defined by European culture as the period between 500 CE and 1500 CE. It is a period that witnesses the transformation of European Christianity into a Latin-speaking religious community under the Pope. It became increasingly separate from the developments in the Near East and Asia. All too long this epoch has served in legitimating discourses of confessions, nations and ethnic groups, such as in the nationalistic construction of the Germanic tribes. The course aims to draw a new image of these thousand years in terms of time, geography, ethnicity, gender, and culture. Medieval Christianity offers multiple possibilities for understanding both the perils and development of Christianity in an age of rapid change. On the one hand, the course examines processes of establishing power by exclusion, mainly of Jewish and Muslim believers, and of building strong hierarchies almost exclusively male. On the other hand, we find fascinating debates within Scholasticism about how to combine philosophical reason with Christian faith. Further, we explore the evolving of deep, inner spiritual practices among mystics, with special regard to female nuns, who were prolific writers. From this perspective we see how medieval Christianity is part of what we now experience as global Christianity, making a distinctive contribution to the emergence of a widely shared faith.