The Program in Medieval Studies offers an undergraduate interdisciplinary Minor in Medieval Studies. The Minor has three principal purposes:
- To give undergraduate students who have an interest in Medieval Studies the benefit of advising about what courses are available in the various departments and how certain courses might fit together into a meaningful sequence or cluster.
- To enable students to be informed about lectures, colloquia, social events, and conferences of interest to them.
- To allow those undergraduates who complete substantial work in Medieval Studies to have that fact acknowledged. Should those students wish to pursue further academic work after graduation, their chances of success in the competition for admission to graduate school will be enhanced, not just because of the official notice on their transcript but because they will have gained greater professional competence through informed participation in the Program in Medieval Studies at Berkeley.
Undergraduates who contemplate applying for the Minor should contact the Graduate/Undergraduate Advisor, Professor Jonas Wellendorf, to discuss their interests and needs.
Students can receive credit for fulfilling the Minor by completing any five upper-division or graduate courses in Medieval Studies. Please note that the following restrictions apply:
- At least three of the five courses must be taken at U.C. Berkeley.
- The courses must be of 3 or 4 units and must be taken for a letter grade, with a minimum GPA of 2.0 in those courses.
- So that cross-disciplinary skills are ensured, only three of the five courses may be taken in a single department. Students should consult with a Letters and Science advisor to ensure that there is no more overlap between the Minor and the Major programs than is permissible. Only one course can be counted toward both the major and the minor degrees.
- The Graduate/Undergraduate Advisor in Medieval Studies must certify that the five courses do qualify as courses in Medieval Studies. This verification should take place early in the student's last term at Berkeley. Previous consultation with the Advisor is strongly recommended.
Qualifying Courses
Please click here to see each semester's qualifying courses for the Medieval Studies minor. If you would like to take a course that you don't see on the list, please contact Professor Jonas Wellendorf to discuss the course. See the Medieval Studies course catalog.
Recommended Courses
Students who are contemplating advanced work in Medieval Studies should, if possible, take History 4B (Origins of Western Civilization: The Middle Ages) early in their undergraduate career. Other lower division courses are also recommended (e.g. Italian Studies 30, "Dante," and Music 75, "History of Western Music to 1700"). Please note, these courses are not required and do not count as one of the 5 upper division requirements for the minor.
How to Declare the Medieval Studies Minor
The deadline to declare your minor is the semester before your expected graduation term; if you do not declare your minor by this deadline, you cannot graduate with the minor. This means the last day of RRR week in fall if you're graduating in the spring and the last day of RRR week in spring if you're graduating in the fall.
Students may declare the Medieval Studies Minor once they have declared a major and completed one upper-division course towards the minor. At that time, students should meet with the Medieval Studies Minor Adviser to fill out a Minor Registration Card. Undergraduate Advising office hours can be found here.