Concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

DIRECTOR

Associate Professor Kenney

About the Concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

If the period commonly referred to as the Renaissance marks the beginning of the Early Modern period in European history, it nonetheless exists in profound continuity with the Middle Ages. The two periods share common theses, issues, auctores and institutions and participate in a common enterprise: for they both attempt to forge a union out of the impressive remnants of ancient, but pagan, civilization and the living traditions of thought and piety associated with biblical (Jewish and Christian) religion. Even when the Renaissance writers do distance themselves from late medieval practices and thinking, often enough what they are doing is reviving the spirit and language of an earlier Middle Ages in preference to more recent developments. Hence the appropriateness of combining the study of the Renaissance with that of the Middle Ages in a single concentration. Concentrators are free, of course, to emphasize one period more than the other if they choose.

Through a consortium agreement with Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Dallas, it is possible for students pursuing the concentration to take courses in medieval subjects not usually offered here but available at the other institutions, with the approval of the Director of the Center.

The concentration requires the completion of six three-credit upper-division courses, in four different fields, from the list below or otherwise approved by the Director and distributed according to the following principles:

1. History (two courses)
2. English, Modern Languages or Classics.
3. Philosophy or Theology.
4. A fifth course other than History and other than the fields chosen in #2 and #3.
5. A sixth course, in any field.