The Medieval Studies Certificate has two sets of requirements: Coursework and Event Reports. You’ll need to complete both by the end of your senior year to earn the Certificate.
Coursework
You’ll need to take five courses on the Middle Ages worldwide. At most two can overlap with your major. If you’re double-majoring, two courses can overlap with each major, but they can’t be the same courses: courses can double-count but not triple-count.
Only three courses can cover the same geographic Zone. The Zones are:
- Zone 1: East and Southeast Asia
- Zone 2: South and Central Asia
- Zone 3: Middle East and North Africa
- Zone 4: Europe and Russia
- Other. This includes survey courses as well as courses on medieval civilizations beyond Eurasia.
All eligible undergraduate courses have been tagged with their relevant Zone: you can find these in Course Search under YC MDVL in “Course Information Attribute.”
If you would like to count a graduate-level course, a summer session course, or an undergraduate course that you believe should be eligible but isn’t tagged, please reach out to a Certificate Advisor.
Event Reports
All Certificate students will also attend at least three lectures or other events on medieval topics and write short reports on the event. These reports must be submitted by the grade deadline in your senior year, but you can still attend events throughout your time at Yale. However, we do strongly encourage you to submit reports soon after each event! You may email your reports to the Certificate Director or another Certificate Advisor.
You can find eligible events on Medieval Studies’ website, and by subscribing to the email list. If you have questions about whether a particular event is eligible, please ask a Certificate Advisor.
More about the reports:
- These must consist of at least one page of 1 1/2 or double-spaced, 12-point text with normal margins. A little over two pages is fine, but don’t go over three!
- In the header of your report, you should include your own name and email address, as well as the date, time, and location of the event; the name of the speaker or speakers; and the lecture title.
- About half of your report should consist of an account of the event itself: the main argument of the talk, its major sources of evidence, its methods and conclusions.
- The remaining portion should consist of your own reaction, including how the lecture relates to (and may have changed your views of) things you already know; what struck you as new; and questions that you feel were left unanswered. (You might take the Q&A into account in this part, too.)
- A report on a lecture dealing with a topic you know well might look very different from one on a subject entirely new to you–both are equally acceptable!
Have questions?
Contact our office, so we can help provide you with more information.