New Minor in Medieval Studies programs offered at U.S. universities

Don't worry - medieval studies is a little more gender balanced!

The University of Arizona and the University of Connecticut have both added a Minor in Medieval Studies to their program offerings for undergraduate students. The Daily Wildcat that the University of Arizona approved of the minor last December, after it was proposed by professors Fabian Alfie and Albrecht Classen. They were inspired by the creation of a minor in Hip-Hop Studies at the university to go ahead with their own.

Professor Classen tells the newspaper, "“[The minor is] trying to give students a sense of a certain cultural period. [This] allows [students] to combine — in a unique way ­— philosophy, religion, art history, literature and economics. There is a lot of flexibility, yet with a concrete focus on a cultural period.”

Click here to read the article from the Daily Wildcat

Meanwhile, the University of Connecticut will offer their students to gain a minor in Medieval Studies by taking courses from over 11 departments. The Daily Campus reports that the program is designed so that students take a wide variety of subjects.

Graduate student Brandon Hawk explains, “It encourages people to take classes in music, art history and other subjects. It provides a greater spectrum of a liberal arts education.”

Professor Fiona Somerset, who is one co-head of the program, finds that it will appeal to many types of students. “For aspiring novelists, it’s a great way to get an edge,” she said. “Much of the basis of our pop culture is in the middle ages. If you read fantasy, that’s medieval based.”

Click here to read the article from the Daily Campus

Click here to see our page on Medieval Studies programs in the United States

Were Medieval Universities Catholic?

Perhaps the greatest and most enduring achievement of the Middle Ages was the creation of the university, an institution for which there was no precedent in the history of the West. It sprang into existence seemingly out of nowhere in the late 12th century primarily in two cities, Paris and Bologna. Both claim to be Europe’s first. By the early decades of the 13th century, others had emerged modeled on them—Oxford on the Paris model and Padua on Bologna. From that point forward, universities proliferated across the face of Europe and became a standard, important and self-governing institution in larger cities.

Medieval universities, although they differed among themselves in significant ways, all quickly developed highly sophisticated procedures and organizational strategies that we recognize as our own today. The list is long: set curricula, examinations, professorial privileges and duties, a full array of officers of various kinds, division into different “faculties” (we call them schools) and the public certification of professional competence through the awarding of degrees.

Click here to read this article from America: The National Catholic Weekly

How universities helped transform the medieval world

We like to think that we have moved on from the Middle Ages, but do universities from that period have something to teach us about the role of government in education? This column thinks so.

How does a new form of knowledge enter the public sphere and what are the consequences for economic activity? Today, thousands of students are pursuing university degrees in biotechnologies and computer sciences in order to enter the high-tech labour force or to become entrepreneurs. Do the institutions that train them generate economic growth? What roles can governments play in establishing educational institutions and supporting investments in the new forms of human capital they produce?

These are not new issues: around 100 years ago, the modern American research university – often supported by public funds – was taking shape, training scientists and engineers who were employed in the burgeoning industries of the early 20th century (Goldin and Katz 1999). Perhaps surprisingly, by going even further back in history – all the way to medieval Europe – we can learn important lessons about the relationships among public policy, educational institutions, educational content, and economic development.

Click here to read this article from VOX

Duke Partners with University of Wisconsin-Madison For Florence Study Abroad Program

A long-standing Duke global education program in Italy is changing shape.

The Duke in Florence program is ending after its host institution, the University of Michigan, decided to close its program near Florence, Italy, after Fall 2011. Duke in Florence, which began in 1997, might reopen next year as a new partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Florence program, located in Sesto Fiorentino, was a learning consortium headed by the University of Michigan in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Duke. Last Spring, the University of Michigan announced it would no longer manage the program and that it would end in December, said Margaret Riley, director of the Global Education Office for Undergraduates.

“The future of the Duke in Florence Program is yet to be determined,” Riley wrote in an email Thursday. “The University of Wisconsin... has indicated interest in reconfiguring the program.”

Click here to read this article from The Duke Chronicle

At MIT, dine like a 14th-century nobleman

MIT doesn’t seem like a place where you can dine on food from the Middle Ages. But this month, you could prepare, cook, and eat like a 14th-century nobleman.

For over a decade, during the Independent Activities Period between semesters, Massachusetts Institute of Technology has offered a noncredit class on “old food’’ from the region around the Mediterranean Sea. The idea came from conversations History Department chair Anne McCants, who teaches the class, had with a colleague about how little students know about daily life in the past, she says. “Both of us liked to cook and I was especially interested in nutrition and health of past populations, as well as the productive capacity of agricultural societies. So all of that came together to suggest a fun but informative IAP class using ancient and medieval recipes.’’

This year’s participants were a diverse dozen from the university’s various academic departments, including budding engineers, staff, and at least one bona fide student of history. The hands-on, half-day class took place in the modern kitchen of Next House, a student dormitory. Electric ovens stood in for wood fires.

Click here to read this article from the Boston Globe

Medieval Studies Graduates Go International (Wilfrid Laurier University)

As part of the first external review of the Medieval Studies Program last year, graduates responded to a survey concerning their careers. Every one of the respondents was either employed or pursuing further education, a remarkable record for such a new program—especially considering the difficulties that one may observe in the current economy. Another remarkable tendency among our Medieval Studies graduates, apparent from the survey responses and further information from graduating students, is their willingness to pursue graduate degrees at prestigious universities overseas, and in a remarkable variety of disciplines. This variety speaks to the interdisciplinary strengths of the Medieval Studies Program, while the willingness of these students to pursue their studies in an international context speaks to their independence of spirit, their sense of adventure, and their clear preparedness to take advantage of opportunities and to add to their learning and personal growth.

Instructors in Medieval Studies are not surprised by such qualities in Medieval Studies graduates, because students in the Program tend to be exceptionally committed to it: genuinely engaged by course material, ready to volunteer for the Program’s annual Medieval Day, to promote the Program to high school students, and to showcase their own achievements at colloquia that they have organised themselves. Often at the forefront of these kinds of initiatives are officers and other members of the Medieval Students’ Society, which has been running since 2005, and is unquestionably one of the strongest student clubs on campus.

Click here to read this article from Wilfrid Laurier Univerisity

See also their Medieval Day Events on October 26th

Sources of illumination

Characterised by creativity and attuned to the needs of their age, the first European universities have important lessons for higher education today, says Miri Rubin

As a historian of the Middle Ages, I am frequently asked about the links between universities then and now. Given the momentous changes that are affecting modern-day institutions of higher education and that touch the lives of so many people - students, parents, teachers, employers - such questions have become more frequent and more urgent, too.

All historians (especially those of us who focus on more ancient times) delight in pointing out parallels between "our" period and the present. An assessment of the role of medieval universities reveals some telling affinities between higher education then and now - and may hold lessons for today's turbulent times.

Click here to read this article from Times Higher Education

Face of 14th-century Archbishop of Canterbury revealed

The face of Simon of Sudbury, the controversial former Archbishop of Canterbury, was revealed last week – 630 years after he met his grizzly end during the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381.

Using skeletal detail taken from his part-mummified skull, forensic artist Adrienne Barker from the University of Dundee has employed state-of-the-art reconstruction techniques to recreate Sudbury’s facial features and complete a series of 3-D bronze-resin casts of his head. The skull has been kept at St Gregory’s Church at Sudbury in Suffolk for more than six centuries.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Tulane University offers course on 'Medieval New Orleans'

A “persistent presence of the Middle Ages” exists in New Orleans, says Michael Kuczynski, a medieval scholar and associate professor of English. Kuczynski teaches Medieval New Orleans, a Tulane InterDisciplinary Experience Seminar designed to introduce first-year students to the city’s medieval connections.

From handling a Bible that was printed in Strasbourg in the 15th century and is now housed in Rare Books in Special Collections of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library to hearing tunes authentically played by Musica da Camera, an ensemble dedicated to performing medieval music, students experience up close the city’s link to the literature and culture of a faraway time.

Kuczynski’s course examines the 19th– and 20th–century medieval revival that influenced iconic New Orleans cultural institutions such as Mardi Gras, the “festival of fools,” and the Richardson Romanesque–style architecture of Gibson, Tilton and Norman Mayer halls on the Tulane campus.

Click here to read this article from Tulane University

The Ecology of Medieval Art - new course at DePaul University

Anne F. Harris, associate professor of art history and director of the Women's Studies Program, received a student-faculty summer stipend to write curriculum for a new interdisciplinary course she will offer next year - The Ecology of Medieval Art.

Her motivation behind designing the course is to show students that Western culture, indeed human culture, is not self-contained. "The course is an attempt to make Medieval art less white and less European," Harris says. "As I looked at the courses I was teaching, I realized that they were consistently about a very self-enclosed Medieval Europe.

"Modern Western culture is influential but also deeply influenced by other cultures," she explains. "Looking at the Crusades, opened up the Middle Ages because it made me realize that not only did Christians go to Jerusalem, but there were Christians ruling in the Middle East from 1099 - 1291. There was a 200-year colonial period right in the middle of Medieval history."

Click here to read this article from DePaul University

Trinity College Dublin creates Masters programmes in Public History and Digital Humanities

Ireland’s Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan, launched two new postgraduate Masters programmes, in ‘Public History and Cultural Heritage’ and ‘Digital Humanities and Culture’ at Trinity College Dublin earlier this week, which will add a new dynamic to the development of country’s cultural heritage.

The programmes have been developed under the umbrella of Trinity’s Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture initiative and are an outcome of the new partnership between the university and some of Ireland’s leading cultural institutions located in close proximity at the centre of Dublin. The National Library of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, Dublin City Gallery Hugh Lane, Dublin City Public Library and Archive Services and the Chester Beatty Library among others will collaborate with Trinity in the development of these new programmes.

Students will pursue courses in Trinity in established research areas such as History, English, Languages and Cultural Studies, and Computer Science while undertaking internships in the cultural institutions and gaining practical experience of working in the cultural heritage industry.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Warburg Institute, Saved From Nazis, Faces Bureaucratic Threat

A great cultural foundation that was saved from the Nazis is now under threat from a different, more insidious menace: the bureaucratic policies of modern British higher education.

The Warburg Institute at London University is renowned throughout the scholarly world for its remarkable library, founded over a century ago. Yet today its existence as an independent entity is in doubt, and may be decided in court.

The story is a long and sad one. “Everybody has a feeling of disbelief that we have got to this point,” the director of the Warburg, Charles Hope, said in an interview. “The university has said that it wishes to change the Trust Deed, according to which the Warburg was originally handed over to the University of London in 1944, and is talking to its lawyers -- and we are talking to our lawyers.”

Click here to read the article from Bloomberg

See also our earlier article Professor Peter Mack appointed Director of Warburg Institute

Winthrop University begins offering Medieval Studies minor

Undergraduate students attending Winthrop University in South Carolina can now study for a new minor program: medieval studies.

Approved in April 2009, the 18-hour interdisciplinary minor offers three dozen courses – both existing and newly created – that are particularly useful to students studying fields such as history; English; political science; philosophy and religious studies; art history; music; theatre and dance; and modern languages.

Click here to read the article on Medievalists.net

Unique Class to Explore Medieval Sculpture Exhibit

This fall, University of Texas at Dallas students will have an unprecedented opportunity to learn about The Mourners medieval sculpture exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art from an all-star roster of scholars.

Dr. Rick Brettell, the UT Dallas Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetics, will teach the course jointly with two Southern Methodist University medieval literature and history professors, Dr. Bonnie Wheeler and Dr. Jeremy Adams.

Scholars from Queen’s College, Rutgers University, The University of Illinois, Bowdoin College, Trinity University and the University of Iowa will also lecture.

The seminar – Majesty, Memory and Mourning in the Late Middle Ages – is open to UT Dallas undergraduate and graduate students and will meet weekly at the DMA from Aug. 27 to Dec. 2.

Click here to read this article from the University of Texas website

New Institute of Medieval Studies created in Paris

A new Institute of Medieval Studies has been established at l’Institut Catholique de Paris, also known as the Catholic University of Paris. The institute will be headed by Isabelle Moulin and will hold its inaugural session of its foundation on June 25th.

In an interview on the university's website, Moulin states the institute "is dedicated for promoting research on medieval thought, as seen in continuity with late antique thought, on the one hand, and with renaissance and early modern philosophy, on the other. Members of the Institute are particularly interested in evaluating the historical development of theological and philosophical knowledges, whether through the transmission of specific ideas or texts, or in connection with certain institutions."

The Institute of Medieval Studies will focus on promoting the research activities of graduate students, and will be organizing conferences and an annual colloquium. Moulin adds that they aim "to recreate a “civitas philosophorum” taken in a broad sense, in memory of the development of the University of Paris in the Late Middle Ages. The Institute wishes to promote strong interdisciplinary discussions among scholars and is not devoted solely to philosophers, but is open to theologians, historians, and art specialists. Its members and its invited scholars are welcome to build strong regular and a relationship within the Institute; as well as with the international community and the diverse institutions to which they belong."

L’Institut Catholique de Paris, located in the Latin Quarter of the French capital, teaches about 14 500 students a year and has a faculty of 750. The university was founded in 1875.

Click here to read the full interview with Isabelle Moulin

Source: Institut Catholique de Paris

University of Nebraska-Lincoln touts its Medieval and Renaissance Studies program

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has promoted its Medieval and Renaissance Studies program, touting its flexibility to allow students to learn about what part of the period interests them.

In an article on the university's newspaper, Peter Lefferts, chief adviser and former director of the program, said, “One of our strengths is that every student has to come up with a location and time period they want to focus on.”

For instance, he said, a student might want to study the Elizabethan period in England in the time of Shakespeare.



Carole Levin, the director of the department and a history professor, said students can study a whole range of countries and get a global perspective. “It comes from a whole group of departments,” Levin said.

These departments include English, history and art history. Students might use the degree to go into the teaching profession, seminary or art history.

Lefferts said the program is one of the less credit-heavy degrees available in the university. “What we find, usually, is that it is used as a double or triple major,” he said.

Many of the courses required for a student’s first or second major overlap with the ones found in the Medieval and Renaissance program.

While there are not many students majoring in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and it is a small program, Lefferts said, “We have a very active Medieval and Renaissance study that brings speakers on a regular basis to campus in the fall and spring.”
Past speakers have included Hannibal Hamlin, who spoke about “King Lear,” which was the play the drama department performed.

Next semester an art historian and a women’s historian will be speaking, Levin said.
“Any way the lecture can mix with different departments at UNL is wonderful,” she said.

Click here to go to the University of Nebraska-Linclon's Medieval and Renaissance Studies program website

West Virginia University offers online Religious Studies minor

From Buddhism to Christianity, Judaism to Hinduism the introduction of an online religious studies’ minor at West Virginia University allows students from all over the world to study the various realms of religion.

“A lot of traditional and non-traditional students are very interested in religious studies,” said Aaron Gale, program coordinator for WVU’s Program for Religious Studies. “Especially with the popularity of the multidisciplinary studies program, non-traditional students and distance students can all take advantage of the program.”

In order to complete the minor, students must complete a total of five religious studies courses. Two of the courses can be any 100-200 level courses offered, which include Religion 102: Introduction to World Religions and Religion 219: The History of Christianity.

The other three courses must be upper level including: Religion 303: Studies in Christian Scriptures, Religion 304: Studies in Hebrew Scriptures and Religion 350: Biblical Ethics and Current Issues.

“Religious studies is generating more contemporary interest because it’s always on TV and in the news, so the minor provides a way for students from all over West Virginia and the world to learn more about religious issues,” Gale said.

The online minor also gives students an opportunity to participate in various study abroad experiences offered through the Religious Studies’ program. Currently students can participate in an archeological dig in Israel, and a trip to Turkey and Greece is being planned for the summer of 2010. In the future there are plans to add two more summer programs in Egypt and Tunisia, and Thailand and Japan.

For more information, visit http://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/.

Graduate couple wins fellowships from Medieval Academy of America

Two University of Houston graduate students won two of the Medieval Academy of America’s seven fellowships earlier this year, beatng out hundreds of other graduate students from across North America.

“We are the only school that had two students win,” history professor Sally Vaughn said. “We were up against all these students from Ivy League schools.”

History graduate students Courtney DeMayo and her husband Ben Pugno won $2,000 each. DeMayo used her money to support herself while conducting historical research. Pugno used his to study medieval manuscripts in the British Museum of London.

“We did it mostly for the prestige,” DeMayo said. “Two thousand doesn’t last long.”
Pugno won the Helen Maud Cam Grant for his dissertation, Physicians of the Soul:
Healing and Conversion in Anglo-Saxon England.

With a pre-med background, Pugno focused on how Christians converted pagans to Christianity by fusing medical knowledge with the supernatural. Vaughn said no one has previously connected medicine with the conversion of the pagans to Christianity.

“That’s Ben’s great discovery,” Vaughn said. “He’s going beyond that to look at the development of medicine in England.”

DeMayo earned the Etienne Gilson Dissertation Grant for her piece, The School at Reims and the Early Capetian State. This dissertation focuses on Pope Sylvester II.

“Nobody’s even thought of that before,” said Vaughn. “Her idea was very original.”
The couple began working on their dissertations in Spring 2008, but finished in a timely manner because they maintained a strong work ethic.

“The hardest thing is pushing yourself to do the dissertation,” Pugno said. “A lot of people have to drop out because they can’t do it.”

“The biggest struggle has been the time commitment”, said DeMayo, who started graduate school in 2003.

DeMayo completed most of her work when she taught in Germany during Fall 2007. During the trip, she found unique manuscripts for her research at five libraries in three countries.

Pugno and DeMayo came to University of Houston to study with Vaughn, who they said has an excellent reputation among medievalists. The couple needed four years of language training to conduct research.

DeMayo learned French, German and Latin, while Pugno learned Latin and Old English.
When they aren’t researching, the couple works as teaching assistants to support their research.

“The History Department has been great about funding us,” DeMayo said. “It’s a small salary, but you can live on it.”

Seminar on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales receives funding

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a Kent State University faculty member the opportunity to give American school teachers an enriching experience abroad.

Kent State English Professor Susanna Fein has won a major federal grant in the humanities to co-direct a seminar on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales for school teachers in London next summer. The NEH grant totals $131,663. It covers the cost of the four-week program and provides stipends to participating teachers to cover their transportation, housing and other expenses.

Fein will co-direct this seminar with David Raybin, an English professor at Eastern Illinois University who is also Fein's husband. The pair was chosen to lead a similar NEH seminar in the summer of 2008. With the success of that program evident in participants' satisfied responses, the federal humanities agency has again selected them to lead an educational program abroad.

NEH summer seminars are designed as critical outreach and enrichment endeavors by its Division of Education Programs. Such seminars enable American school teachers to explore a topic with expert scholars. A seminar's principal goal is to engage teachers in the scholarly enterprise and to expand and deepen their understanding of the humanities through reading, discussion, writing and reflection.

The Chaucer program, which will run from July 19 to Aug. 14, 2010, will include in-class discussion of the entire Canterbury Tales, walking tours of surviving medieval sites in London and Oxford, scholars from England as guest speakers, and an overnight trip to Canterbury. The participants will be 16 teachers from across the United States, chosen by committee. The application deadline for participants is in early March. Participants will be informed of their selection in early April.

Fein teaches a course on The Canterbury Tales every spring in Kent State's Department of English. Since 2001, she and Raybin have been editors of The Chaucer Review, a well-regarded academic journal that has been serving the scholarly community since 1966, and they have also produced two books of critical essays on Chaucer. In addition, Fein currently serves as a trustee of the international New Chaucer Society.

A resident of Kent, Ohio, Fein has taught medieval subjects in the English department for 25 years. She coordinates the College of Arts and Sciences' interdisciplinary minor in ancient, medieval and Renaissance studies, and she also undertakes and publishes research on medieval manuscripts under the auspices of the Kent State Institute for Bibliography and Editing.

Consolidated Medieval Studies Research Group: Space, Power and Culture

The Consolidated Medieval Studies Research Group "Space, Power and Culture" is a research group made up of medievalists from the universities of Lleida and Rovira i Virgili from the areas of Medieval History, Art History, Spanish Philology and Catalan Philology. Last month they posted a video that talks about their organization and the work they do:



To learn more about The Consolidated Medieval Studies Research Group, please visit their website.