Courses

Please check the Yale Course Search  site for the most up to date information, as well as the course descriptions and locations.

Spring 2026 Medieval Studies Courses

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 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.

MDVL 7180/RLST 7850/CLSS 7383/NELC 6810   Asceticism in the Late Antique Western Mediterranean
Maria Doerfler
W 9:25-11:15
Few aspects of late antique religious history have attracted as much scholarly interest as that of asceticism. While most attention has focused on early Christian communities and the development of the wide range of ascetic ideas and practices developed therein, asceticism similarly shaped aspects of late antique and rabbinic Judaism, early Islam, Manichaeism, and others. All drew inspiration for the “training” required from their sacred scriptures, including those shared among different groups, albeit with diverse hermeneutic lenses. As a result, instances where ascetic ideals differed (or too closely resembled one another) could precipitate intra- and intercommunal conflict, even violence. In a similar vein, different religious groups used their religious others to define the terms of appropriate, excessive, or lacking ascetic engagement, making right renunciation an essential term of communal self-definition. This seminar aims to introduce participants both to (some) of the central witnesses of ascetic practice across the late antique Mediterranean, broadly defined, and to explore the spaces, narratival and otherwise, of conflict between their practitioners. Prior familiarity with the relevant languages—Greek, Syriac, Rabbinic Hebrew, Coptic, Arabic, Latin, etc.—is encouraged but not strictly required. We read primary sources in translation and secondary literature in common research languages, with the expectation that final projects be informed by students’ linguistic and methodological interests and competencies.

MDVL 8110/REL 7100   Water and Spirit: Christian Initiation and Water Rituals from Ancient Judaism to Today
Gabriel Radle
M 9:30-11:20
This course traces the historical development, cultural settings, and theological interpretations of Christian Initiation across Eastern and Western traditions from the New Testament period to today. Beginning with early Jewish practices of ritual washing, we examine the earliest Christian evidence for baptismal rites both within and beyond the New Testament canon. In addition to the development of the catechumenate in late antiquity, we also trace broader ritual practices around water at the time (e.g. ablutions, ritual purity baths, charitable bathing). From there, we follow the evolution of Christian initiation rites through the Middle Ages and Reformation, attending to diverse theological accents as well as the material and special contexts of the rites (e.g. baptisteries) and their imagery. Throughout, students engage historical sources, liturgical texts, and interpretive methods and also have opportunities for considering this evidence in conversation with contemporary forms of Christian Initiation.

MDVL 8115/REL 6100  Rites of Passage: Liturgy and the Human Life Cycle in Pre-Modern Christianity
Gabriel Radle
W 9:30-11:20
From birth to death, the human life course is marked by moments of transition. Societies across the globe have practiced “rites of passage” around stages such as early infancy, childhood, adolescence, marriage, illness and death. This course examines the understudied phenomenon of how Christian liturgical traditions crafted formal rites and blessings for such passages, focusing especially on the early and later moments of the human life course (infancy, childhood, and adolescence; dying and burial). Drawing on pre-Christian sources, early Christian evidence, and medieval liturgical books, we explore how families and clergy adapted and Christianized existing ritual practices around childhood in the late antique Mediterranean world. Special attention is given to the cultural and anthropological frameworks that shaped these rites, as well as the theological meanings that accompanied their adoption into official liturgical practice and the composition of prayers to accompany them. From there, we consider additional examples of life-cycle moments, focusing especially on ritual processes of dying, burial and remembrance in the pre-modern world. While the course centers on late antique and medieval Christian practices, we also explore a range of contemporary rites of passage, both within and beyond Christianity, and students are encouraged to pursue a research project on a topic of their choice, whether historical or contemporary.

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.

MDVL 8729/REL 729  Liturgy in the City of Rome
Tyler Sampson
Th 9:30-11:20
The city of Rome looms large in the history of the medieval West and the church. But how did a pagan imperial city become the center of the western Christian world? This seminar traces the story of Rome from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance through its unique confluence of monuments and ritual. It queries how the bishops of Rome used the liturgy of the Church to construct a Christian city and how that city lived with its classical past. Following the monuments and liturgy of Rome across history allows us to engage with the city as it was encountered and experienced by potentates and peasants alike and to trace the long path of the city’s Christianization and many attempts to renew itself. We read a mix of primary sources and modern scholarship. All texts are available in English. Knowledge of Latin, French, German, and/or Italian will be helpful, but not required.

MDVL 9004/RLST 9004/EALL 7520/HIST 6105/NELC 5390  Academic Writing, Publishing, and Professionalization: A Proseminar
Maria Doerfler
M 3:30-5:20
This course is intended for doctoral students (particularly studying topics in the premodern humanities) in their post-coursework years. Over the course of the semester, students work with peers as well as faculty convener to build the skills they need to better understand and participate in academic writing and publishing, broadly construed. Topics covered range from foundational questions—do I need to publish, and, if so, when, what, where, and why?—to practical guidance on the central categories of academic writing/writing for academics, including preparing a proposal for a monograph for academic publishers on the basis of one’s dissertation. Weekly sessions generally include workshop time as well as presentations by the convener and visitors. This proseminar is particularly directed toward students affiliated with Archaia, Religious Studies, and Medieval Studies but welcomes all those with research interests in the premodern world; if space allows, students working on modern topics are also welcome to join. The broad range of primary specialties represented provides students with experience engaging with scholars outside their field, which is increasingly essential for premodernists in the modern academic world.

MDVL 9010  Archaia Seminar: Environmental Determinism and the Making of Human Difference in the Premodern World
Malina Buturovic and Giulia Accornero
M 9:25-11:15