Bibliotheque Nationale: Jousts of St. Inglevert
at
Georgetown University
Bibliotheque Nationale: Jousts of St. Inglevert | MEDIEVAL STUDIES at Georgetown University |
The Medieval Studies Program at Georgetown University offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor and major focused on the period from roughly the fall of Rome (5th century A.D.) to the year 1500. The Program's faculty and courses are drawn from 16 different disciplines within the University, with predominant emphasis on the interrelations among art, history, philosophy, and literature. Though the focus of the course offerings is predominantly on the Western Middle Ages, there is increasing representation in comparable periods in non-Western cultures.
Georgetown's location offers students a rich field of opportunity for exploration of medieval art, music, and literature beyond the University: at the National Gallery of Art, the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Asian art, the Library of Congress exhibits, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery, and, within reach, the major museums and collections of New York, especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, and the Pierpont Morgan Library.
The students in the program sometimes attend academic conferences on the Middle Ages as far away as New York and Boston; they serve as indispensable assistants at the medieval conferences that the program has sponsored at Georgetown; and they organize an annualMedieval Banquet for over 100 participants, with dishes prepared from authentic medieval recipes, and with medieval entertainments.
The Medieval Studies Program is the sponsor of the first and still one of the best humanities Internet gateways, theLabyrinth, which organizes links to material of use and interest to students and researchers of the Middle Ages.
Since 2004, the Medieval Studies Program has hosted theAnnual Conference of the Charles Homer Haskins Society for Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and Angevin History.
- An Interdisciplinary Major:
- Some of our most lasting modern ideas, institutions, and technologies have their points of origin in medieval culture(s): the city, the state, the Church, romanic love, religious war, religious orders, extended fictional narrative, capitalism, artistic realism, gunpowder, the Papacy, religious tolerance and religious persecution, natural law, absolute monarchy, democracy, witchcraft, heresy, the vernacular as a literary language, linguistic and literary theory, cathedrals and skyscrapers. Dante, Aquinas, Saladin, Frederick, Maimonides, Averroes, Al-Ghazali, Innocent III, Joan of Arc, Christine de Pizan, all have made their mark on modern thought and cultural practice. The program encourages the study of medieval culture(s) across disciplinary boundaries.
- Requirements for the Major:
- Students in the College may choose either of two tracks.
- I. Medieval Studies
- Majors are required to take "Introduction to Medieval Studies: The Age of Dante" (MVST-201) in the spring semester of either their sophomore or junior year. In their senior year, they will take a two-semester Senior Seminar that will introduce more advanced methodologies of doing research in Medieval Studies and result in a required Senior Thesis (MVST 348 and 349). In addition, each student must complete 8 other electives drawn from disciplines related to the program. These courses should be planned in consultation with the director of Medieval Studies.
- II. Honors Medieval Studies
- For the Honors track, students must complete the requirements under I. above above. In addition, they must also achieve competence in Medieval Latin, normally demonstrated by completing or testing out of Classics (CLSL) 001, 101, and by taking a one-semester course in Medieval Latin texts (Classics 109). Finally, their Senior Thesis Project must earn an A- or better.
- Requirements for the Minor:
- For a minor in Medieval Studies, students in the College are required to take "Introduction to Medieval Studies: The Age of Dante" (MVST 201) and five additional electives approved by the director. Latin is not a requirement for the minor.
- Certificate in the School of Foreign Service:
- The School of Foreign Service has recently (October 2000) approved a Medieval Studies Certificate in SFS. SFS students are required to take "Introduction to Medieval Studies: The Age of Dante" (MVST 201) and five additional electives approved by the director. They must also write a thesis, in conjunction with MVST 349 Thesis Seminar, under the direction of faculty approved by the director. For more details, consult Dean Maura Gregory in the School of Foreign Service or the director.
CONTACT US For more information, please contact the Director, Prof. Carol Dover, French Department. Her office is ICC 421A, her phone number is 687-8260 and her e-mail is doverc@georgetown.edu.
