History
Undergraduate Courses
History 100B: Land of Three Religions: Spain in the Middle Ages
Location: Dwinelle 182
Time: M, W, F: 12:00 pm - 1 pm
Instructor: Robert John Lafolla
This course is devoted to the history of the Iberian Peninsula, home to modern Spain and Portugal, during the Middle Ages. The simultaneous presence of large communities of Christians, Jews and Muslims, and the influence they had on one another, distinguishes Iberia from (most of) the rest of medieval Europe. That phenomenon will be a major theme throughout the course. In chronological terms, it begins with the conquest of the peninsula by armies from North Africa in 711, establishing Muslim rule over the majority of the region. It then examines the era of Muslim ascendancy after 711, before turning to the small Christian kingdoms in the far north. In the eleventh century, political and cultural initiative shifted in their direction, and they achieved predominance on both counts by the dawn of the fourteenth century. The last part of the course takes us from 1300 until the defeat of Granada, the last Muslim realm, by the Kingdom of Castile in 1492. That same year, the Jewish population of Castile was expelled by royal command, bringing the religious diversity of medieval Spain to an end. There is no textbook for the course, though there are two shorter texts you will need to purchase or borrow. All other readings will be provided through bCourses.
Medieval Studies Program
Graduate Seminar
Medieval Studies 200: Introduction to Research Methods and Materials
Location: Dwinelle 6415
Time: W - 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf
This graduate pro-seminar introduces students pursuing the concurrent Ph.D. in Medieval Studies to problems in interdisciplinary research, contemporary approaches to cross- disciplinary thinking, and bibliographical resources within and across traditional disciplines. The general theme that will help us explore these areas will be 'The Global Middle Ages'. This theme is intended to allow for a wide interpretation so as to address the specifics of disciplinary work for individual students and the interdisciplinary nature of medieval studies in general. The semester project will be adapted to the individual: For students expecting to advance to candidacy next year, the final essay should be a complete and polished draft of the field statement required for the concurrent Ph.D. in Medieval Studies. For other students, it should take the form of a term paper that facilitates progress towards the field statement. Readings will be posted to bCourses.
English
Undergraduate Courses
English 100 | The Seminar on Criticism: Troilus and Criseyde
Location: Wheeler 305
Time: M, W - 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Instructor: Michelle Ripplinger
Today Chaucer is best known for The Canterbury Tales, but in the centuries following his death, many readers considered his greatest work to be Troilus and Criseyde. In this seminar, we will engage in a sustained reading of this dazzling and self-consciously bookish poem, which unfolds against the backdrop of the Trojan War. Like the narrator who sets out to tell the story of “Troilus’s double sorrow,” we will have a double object: as we carefully read (and reread) Troilus and Criseyde, we will explore how the poem’s reception has been shaped by various turns in literary criticism, including historicism, feminist literary criticism, ecocriticism, postcolonialism, and queer theory. We will also have occasion to ask how Chaucer places Troilus and Criseyde in conversation with the literary-theoretical debates of his own day. Students will write one short and one long paper, both of which will intervene in an ongoing critical conversation about Chaucer's epic poem.
Graduate Seminar
English 190: Beowulf
Location: Wheeler 306
Time: M, W: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Instructor: Shu-han Luo
What does it mean to be in conversation with a story set in its own distant past, whose creator and purpose are unknown, whose subtle, strange, sophisticated structures resist settled answers and easy categorization? In this course, we will read the Old English poem Beowulf in translation, in a facing-page edition that will allow us to dip into the original language as needed as we investigate the work’s many mysteries. We will pair careful close reading of the poem with medieval analogues and critical essays, to help us understand the poem’s cultural backdrop as well as controversies in modern interpretation. Our discussions will leverage as well the analytical power of translation, taking as critical prisms renderings by Seamus Heaney, Meghan Purvis, Maria Dahvana Headley, among others. Prior knowledge of Old English will be helpful but is not required. As students develop individual research projects through weekly written responses and in-class workshops, we will also peer over the shoulders of early readers in the three centuries of Beowulf scholarship, to explore the poem’s stakes for past audiences, and what it might have yet to say to us now.
East Asian Languages and Culture
Graduate Seminar
Chinese 234: Texts on the Civilization of Medieval China
Location: 287 Dwinelle
Time: M - 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Instructor: Robert Ashmore
Course content varies with interests of students.
Celtic Studies
Undergraduate Courses
Celtic 173: Celtic Christianity
Location: Dwinelle 234
Time: T, TH: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Instructor: Myriah Williams
This course considers the evidence for the presence of early Christian believers in the so-called "Celtic" areas of western Europe. Students will examine how the Celtic peoples received Christianity in the context of native (pagan) religion; they will look specifically at how the Roman Church doctrine influenced the doctrinal stands of the early Celtic church(es), and vice versa, with particular attention to the Pelagian controversy, the date of Easter, the monastic tonsure, and the use of penitentials. The period covered is approximately 70 CE to 800 CE.
Scandinavian
Undergraduate Courses
Introduction to Old Norse II
Location: Dwinelle 6415
Time: M,W,F: 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Instructors: Kate Heslop, Joshua Peter Lee
Introduction to Old Norse literature through readings of Old Norse texts in their original language and translation. Critical essays on Old Norse literature and scholarship illuminating the historical context in which the texts were written, transmitted, and read will supplement the readings of primary texts. The class will also deepen the students’ understanding of Old Norse grammar and metrics, and introduce them to sub-fields of Old Norse studies such as paleography and runology.
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Undergraduate Courses
Slavic 198 | Supervised Group Study for Undergraduates: Medieval Armenian Literature
Location:
Time: TH - 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm & FRI - 10:00 am - 11:00 am *See Details Below*
Instructors: Myrna Douzjian, Dzovinar Derderian
This group study presents a mini survey of topics in medieval Armenian literature. The course will feature four guest speakers, each of whom will deliver a lecture on the literature of the period and conduct a seminar on a medieval text. Some of the authors or works covered will include Grigor Narekatsi, Nerses Shnorhali, and Daredevils of Sasun. Requirements: four lectures and five seminars (see schedule below); assigned readings for the seminars; and short written responses to the reading, lectures, and discussions. For credit toward the Armenian studies major or minor, students must also complete a graded research paper or equivalent. Please contact the instructors for more information.
Schedule:
Speaker: Dr. Ani Honarchian
Thursday, January 30 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m
Friday, January 31 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Abraham Terian
Thursday, February 27 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Friday, February 28 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Peter Cowe
Thursday, March 13 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Friday, March 14 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Jesse Arlen
Thursday, April 3 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Friday, April 4 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Concluding class session: Friday, April 4 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.