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Medieval and Early Modern Studies Current Courses

Fall 2025

Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
MEMS 200-02 Mapping the Global Middle Ages
Instructor: Chelsea Skalak
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 321-02.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
EASTC 301
Courses Offered in AFST
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
AFST 170-01 African Civilizations to 1850
Instructor: Jeremy Ball
Course Description:
Cross-listed with HIST 170-01. This course provides an overview to the political, social, and ecological history of Africa. We will examine the peopling of the continent, the origins of agriculture, the growth of towns and the development of metal technology. Written sources before the 1400s are almost nonexistent for most of Africa, and so we will use archaeological and linguistic sources. The geographic focus of the course will be the Middle Nile, Aksum in Ethiopia, the Sudanic states in West Africa, Kongo in Central Africa, the Swahili states of the East African coast, and Zimbabwe and KwaZulu in Southern Africa. We will also examine the Atlantic Slave Trade and the colonization of the Cape of Good Hope.This course is cross-listed as HIST 170.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 313
Courses Offered in ARTH
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
ARTH 101-01 An Introduction to the History of Art
Instructor: Melinda Schlitt
Course Description:
This course is a critical survey of western art beginning with the Ancient Near East (approximately 4000 B.C.) through the Gothic period in Europe (early 1300s). Emphasis will be placed on the analysis of style, subject-matter, and function within an historical context, and especially on the student's ability to develop skills in visual analysis. Developing appropriate vocabularies with which to discuss and analyze works of art and imagery will also be stressed, along with learning to evaluate scholarly interpretations of them. This course is a critical survey of western art beginning with the Ancient Near East (approximately 4000 B.C.) through the Gothic period in Europe (early 1300s). Emphasis will be placed on the analysis of style, subject-matter, and function within an historical context, and especially on the student's ability to develop skills in visual analysis. Developing appropriate vocabularies with which to discuss and analyze works of art and imagery will also be stressed, along with learning to evaluate scholarly interpretations of them.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
WEISS 235
ARTH 102-01 An Introduction to the History of Art
Instructor: Ty Vanover
Course Description:
This course surveys art of the European renaissance through the contemporary period. Art will be examined within the historical context in which it was produced, with attention to contemporary social, political, religious, and intellectual movements. Students will examine the meaning and function of art within the different historical periods. In addition, students will learn to analyze and identify different artistic styles.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
WEISS 235
ARTH 212-01 Michelangelo-Man & Myth
Instructor: Melinda Schlitt
Course Description:
In this course, we will explore the figure and art of Michelangelo from a historiographic and critical perspective. Understanding his role as an artist and the effect of his art on his contemporaries and subsequent generations of artists, critics, and scholars through our own era will be a primary goal. Readings will be drawn from a variety of primary and secondary sources, and will include writings by Michelangelo himself, critical and theoretical commentaries, historical narratives, and art-historical interpretations. Conflicts within the scholarly community about how we might understand and reconstruct his life will also be addressed, as well as how the idea of the creative process was constructed and enacted during the Renaissance in Italy.Prerequisite: 101 or 102, or permission of instructor. In this course, we will explore the figure and art of Michelangelo from a historiographic and critical perspective. Understanding his role as an artist and the effect of his art on his contemporaries and subsequent generations of artists, critics, and scholars through our own era will be a primary goal. Readings will be drawn from a variety of primary and secondary sources, and will include writings by Michelangelo himself, critical and theoretical commentaries, historical narratives, and art-historical interpretations. Conflicts within the scholarly community about how we might understand and reconstruct his life will also be addressed, as well as how the idea of the creative process was constructed and enacted during the Renaissance in Italy.Prerequisite: 101 or 102, or permission of instructor.
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
WEISS 219
Courses Offered in CLST
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
CLST 100-01 Greek and Roman Mythology
Instructor: Emma Dyson
Course Description:
An introduction to the study and interpretation of Greek and Roman myths, as they appear both in ancient sources and in later music, sculpture, painting, and literature. The course focuses on interpretive approaches that can help us to define the insights of these myths into to human psychology and the predicaments of men and women, and to apply those insights critically to our own time.
09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
EASTC 411
CLST 253-01 Roman History
Instructor: Scott Farrington
Course Description:
Cross-listed with HIST 213-01. An introduction to the history of ancient Rome focusing on the rise and fall of the Republic, the Augustan Age, and the Principate. Topics include race, gender, and sexuality. Students develop habits for reading ancient and modern sources critically. Assignments introduce students to the primary tools, methods, and conventions of researching and writing in the field of ancient history. Part of the Globally Integrated Semester in Italy. An introduction to the history of ancient Rome focusing on the rise and fall of the Republic, the Augustan Age, and the Principate. Topics include race, gender, and sexuality. Students develop habits for reading ancient and modern sources critically. Assignments introduce students to the primary tools, methods, and conventions of researching and writing in the field of ancient history.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
ALTHSE 07
Courses Offered in ENGL
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
ENGL 220-01 Introduction to Literary Studies
Instructor: Carol Ann Johnston
Course Description:
In literary studies, we explore the work texts do in the world. This course examines several texts of different kinds (e.g., novel, poetry, film, comic book, play, etc.) to investigate how literary forms create meanings. It also puts texts in conversation with several of the critical theories and methodologies that shape the discipline of literary study today (e.g., Marxist theory, new historicism, formalism, gender theory, postcolonial theory, ecocriticism, etc.). This course helps students frame interpretive questions and develop their own critical practice. Prerequisite: 101. This course is the prerequisite for 300-level work in English. In literary studies, we explore the work texts do in the world. This course examines several texts of different kinds (e.g., novel, poetry, film, comic book, play, etc.) to investigate how literary forms create meanings. It also puts texts in conversation with several of the critical theories and methodologies that shape the discipline of literary study today (e.g., Marxist theory, new historicism, formalism, gender theory, postcolonial theory, ecocriticism, etc.). This course helps students frame interpretive questions and develop their own critical practice. Prerequisite: 101. This course is the prerequisite for 300-level work in English.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
EASTC 303
ENGL 321-02 Mapping the Global Middle Ages
Instructor: Chelsea Skalak
Course Description:
Cross-listed with MEMS 200-02. From England to Jerusalem, Morocco to Rome, Ireland to India, the medieval traveler encountered and came to terms with varieties of cultures, religions, and races. The maps and written records of these travelers, both imagined and real, inspired the imaginations of their contemporaries and helped shape larger cultural narratives about nationalism, religion, and personal identity. This course will examine medieval maps and travel narratives from 1000-1500 CE in order to better understand the diverse cultural work performed by reports of encounters with other cultures. How did these travel narratives strengthen or question faith, critique or support nationalism, and establish or sustain gendered and racial identities?
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
EASTC 301
ENGL 341-01 English Literature: 1660-1800: Plagues, Petticoats, Poems & Plays
Instructor: Jacob Sider Jost
Course Description:
Canonical authors and marginal voices of the long eighteenth century. Plagues, fires, invasions, fashion, theology, flirtation, lexicography, heavy drinking, slavery, rebellion, municipal sanitation, love. Pepys, Dryden, Rochester, Behn, Addison, Pope, Swift, Johnson, Wheatley, the sarcastic works of teenage Austen.
09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 211
Courses Offered in HIST
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
HIST 101-01 The Age of Faith: Medieval Europe Between Church and State
Instructor: Peter Schadler
Course Description:
Cross-listed with RELG 209-01. This survey course will study the development of European civilization during the period c.400 to 1500 with special attention to the rise of the papacy and religious conflict. It will consider the impact of such events as the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic invasions, the development of Christianity and the Church, the emergence of feudalism, the expansion of Islam and the Crusades, and the creation of romantic literature.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
EASTC 411
HIST 106-01 Early Modern Europe to 1799
Instructor: Regina Sweeney
Course Description:
Society, culture, and politics from the Renaissance through the French Revolution.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 311
HIST 170-01 African Civilizations to 1850
Instructor: Jeremy Ball
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 170-01. This course provides an overview to the political, social, and ecological history of Africa. We will examine the peopling of the continent, the origins of agriculture, the growth of towns and the development of metal technology. Written sources before the 1400s are almost nonexistent for most of Africa, and so we will use archaeological and linguistic sources. The geographic focus of the course will be the Middle Nile, Aksum in Ethiopia, the Sudanic states in West Africa, Kongo in Central Africa, the Swahili states of the East African coast, and Zimbabwe and KwaZulu in Southern Africa. We will also examine the Atlantic Slave Trade and the colonization of the Cape of Good Hope.This course is cross-listed as AFST 170.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 313
HIST 213-01 Roman History
Instructor: Scott Farrington
Course Description:
Cross-listed with CLST 253-01. An introduction to the history of ancient Rome focusing on the rise and fall of the Republic, the Augustan Age, and the Principate. Topics include race, gender, and sexuality. Students develop habits for reading ancient and modern sources critically. Assignments introduce students to the primary tools, methods, and conventions of researching and writing in the field of ancient history. Part of the Globally Integrated Semester in Italy.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
ALTHSE 07
HIST 253-01 Autocracy, Uprisings, and Daily Life in Medieval Ukraine, Russia, and its Empire
Instructor: Karl Qualls
Course Description:
Cross-listed with RUSS 253-01. Course taught in English. This course will survey the first 1000 years of the eastern Slav lands that are now Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus and the expanding empire of the former into Central Asia and the Caucasus. Students will gain a better understanding of the regions political, economic, social, and cultural development and how it can inform our understanding of Russia today. We will examine the early formation of multi-ethnic clans into a large multinational empire while highlighting state formation, the role of women, church power, the arts, and nationality conflict. The course concludes with the impending collapse of the Russian empire under Tsar Nicholas II.This course is cross-listed as RUSS 253.
12:30 PM-01:20 PM, MWF
DENNY 203
Courses Offered in ITAL
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
ITAL 341-01 The Discourse of Love
Instructor: James McMenamin
Course Description:
What is Love? Through a diverse selection of works from authors such as St. Francis, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo de' Medici, Pietro Aretino, Gaspara Stampa, and Veronica Franco, students will examine the nature of love from a variety of perspectives. From the spirituality of religion to the physicality of desire and attraction, this course will confront topics such as the medieval and Renaissance ideas of love (courtly love, the Dolce Stil Novo, and love sickness), theological notions of love (charity), different expressions of love (heterosexuality, same-sex attraction and polyamory), and transgressive types of love (lust, adultery, and prostitution). This course is taught in Italian. Prerequisites: 231 and 232, or permission of the instructor. Offered every year. What is Love? Through a diverse selection of works from authors such as St. Francis, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo de' Medici, Pietro Aretino, Gaspara Stampa, and Veronica Franco, students will examine the nature of love from a variety of perspectives. From the spirituality of religion to the physicality of desire and attraction, this course will confront topics such as the medieval and Renaissance ideas of love (courtly love, the Dolce Stil Novo, and love sickness), theological notions of love (charity), different expressions of love (heterosexuality, same-sex attraction and polyamory), and transgressive types of love (lust, adultery, and prostitution). This course is taught in Italian. Prerequisites: 231 and 232, or permission of the instructor. Offered every year.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
ALTHSE 201
Courses Offered in MUAC
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
MUAC 125-01 Keys to Music 2: Sacred Roots
Instructor: Greg Strohman, Hannah Koby
Course Description:
Cross-listed with RELG 318-02. What are the deepest roots of contemporary music, popular and arcane? In this course, we begin by studying the earliest written music in the Western world. We trace its technical developments from the modal music of the secluded monastery to the contrapuntal complexity of Renaissance musical cathedrals. Doing so, we begin assembling a tool kit for musical performance, composition, and analysis, including modes and the incipience of the major-minor key system. The course includes two fifty-minute classes of aural skills lab each week. This course is cross-listed as RELG 318. Prerequisite: 115, placement exam, or permission of the instructor. Offered every fall semester.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MTWRF
WEISS 212
Courses Offered in RELG
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
RELG 209-01 The Age of Faith: Medieval Europe Between Church and State
Instructor: Peter Schadler
Course Description:
Cross-listed with HIST 101-01. This survey course will study the development of European civilization during the period c.400 to 1500 with special attention to the rise of the papacy and religious conflict. It will consider the impact of such events as the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic invasions, the development of Christianity and the Church, the emergence of feudalism, the expansion of Islam and the Crusades, and the creation of romantic literature.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
EASTC 411
RELG 312-01 Stories from the Christian Tradition
Instructor: Peter Schadler
Course Description:
(e.g., Contemporary Roman Catholic Thought; Medieval Mysticism; Christianity in Crisis; Augustine of Hippo; Eastern Orthodoxy) Prerequisite dependent upon topic.
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, M
STERN 12
RELG 318-01 Keys to Music 2: Sacred Roots
Instructor: Greg Strohman, Hannah Koby
Course Description:
Cross-listed with MUAC 125-01. What are the deepest roots of contemporary music, popular and arcane? In this course, we begin by studying the earliest written music in the Western world. We trace its technical developments from the modal music of the secluded monastery to the contrapuntal complexity of Renaissance musical cathedrals. Doing so, we begin assembling a tool kit for musical performance, composition, and analysis, including modes and the incipience of the major-minor key system.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MTWRF
WEISS 212
Courses Offered in RUSS
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
RUSS 253-01 Autocracy, Uprisings, and Daily Life in Medieval Ukraine, Russia, and its Empire
Instructor: Karl Qualls
Course Description:
Cross-listed with HIST 253-01. Course taught in English. This course will survey the first 1000 years of the eastern Slav lands that are now Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus and the expanding empire of the former into Central Asia and the Caucasus. Students will gain a better understanding of the regions political, economic, social, and cultural development and how it can inform our understanding of Russia today. We will examine the early formation of multi-ethnic clans into a large multinational empire while highlighting state formation, the role of women, church power, the arts, and nationality conflict. The course concludes with the impending collapse of the Russian empire under Tsar Nicholas II.This course is cross-listed as HIST 253.
12:30 PM-01:20 PM, MWF
DENNY 203