Fall 2025 Courses in Medieval Studies

Prof. Mauro Nobili

HIST 111 History of Africa to 1800

Survey of African history to 1800, or rather African "histories." Along with historical knowledge, it seeks to give students a basic familiarity with the geography of the continent, as well as to provide an overview of African languages. Through the analysis of secondary as well as of primary sources, students will be introduced to and further examine the development of pre-colonial African societies.

Prof. Carol Symes

HIST 141 Western Worlds: Ancient and Medieval Societies from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe

A survey of societies from antiquity to the early modern age in western Asia, North Africa, and Europe; with an emphasis on cultural exchange, migration, and the transmission of knowledge, ideas, technologies, and arts. Topics include the formation of the earliest civilizations; the political and intellectual experiments of the Greek and Roman worlds; the emergence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; the military, commercial, social, and educational revolutions of the Middle Ages; the rise of independent cities and territorial monarchies; religious upheavals and violent aftermaths on the eve of the modern age.

Prof. Christopher Callahan

EALC 225 Japanese Religions: Thought and Practice

Introduces the history and development of the varieties of Japanese religious thought, practice and cultural expression. Focus is primarily on the major traditions of Japan: Shinto and Buddhism, with some attention to Confucianism, Christianity and New Religions. Read alongside secondary literature for context and interpretation, a number of primary materials in translation, such as historical documents, Shinto mythical narratives, Buddhist philosophical treatises, ritual manuals, Nō dramas, folk tales, a novel, political tracts, and several films will be examined.

Dr. Yuji Pu

EALC 240 Chinese Civilization

An introduction to the historical development of Chinese civilization. Emphasis will be on broad themes and the connections among cultural values, women and gender, social institutions, political structures, and contacts with outsiders. Visual and literary evidence will be stressed.

Yating Li

EALC 275 Masterpieces of Asian Literature 

A wide-ranging introduction to the literatures of traditional China, Korea, and Japan. Selections from novels, plays, and poems are studied to gain insight into the cultures that produced them and to hone skills in textual analyses. Explores how influential texts have been repackaged and reinterpreted for modern audiences in media such as film and manga. No knowledge of Chinese or Japanese language required.

Prof. Curtis Perry

ENGL 218 Introduction to Shakespeare

Representative readings of Shakespeare's drama and poetry in the context of his age, with emphasis on major plays; selections vary from section to section.

Prof. Carson Koepke

MDVL 201 Medieval Literature and Culture

Have you ever wondered what stories people were reading for fun a thousand years ago? Together, we will explore the literary and cultural diversity of the Middle Ages by reading and analyzing narrative texts from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Mesoamerica that were being told in or around the year 1000. By focusing on a cross section of world literature from turn of the first millennium CE, we will experience how medieval peoples thought about physical and spiritual travel, how they retold epic myths, legends, and origin stories, and how the genre of the medieval romance laid the foundations for the modern novel. Readings in Modern English translation will be sourced from a wide variety of languages, including Old English, Latin, Arabic, Coptic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, and Mayan, composed by practitioners of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and other prominent religious traditions. As we read, we will work to place narratives like "Beowulf" and "The Tale of Genji" within their wider cultural contexts while also thinking critically about what features and practices unite literature across geographies. The texts will be both weird and wonderful and they will leave you wanting more.

Prof. Robert Barrett

MDV 216 Legends of King Arthur

 In this introduction to Arthurian literature, we’ll spend the first half of the semester following King Arthur as he and his court emerge from the twelfth-century Welsh borderlands (Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain) and make their way across the Channel to France (the chivalric romances of Chrétien de Troyes and Heldris of Cornwall). We’ll then return to England for the close of the Middle Ages and Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century Morte D'Arthur. The second half of the semester focuses on post-medieval Arthuriana, beginning with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), Mark Twain’s satire of Southern nostalgia and Northern industrialization, and ending with Spear (2022), Nicola Griffith’s genderbent take on the Grail legend. In between, we’ll read The Crystal Cave (1970), Mary Stewart’s historically-minded reimagining of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Merlin, and Legendborn (2020), Tracy Deonn’s meditation on the Round Table’s complicity in racial trauma. We may even spend some time watching and discussing George A. Romero’s 1981 film Knightriders, which stars a very young Ed Harris as the King Arthur analog in a Ren Faire motorcycle jousting show. Writing assignments will include short reading responses as well as a longer project asking students to research and present on a modern Arthurian text that isn’t included on the course reading list. There will also be at least one exam.

Prof. Eleanora Stoppino 

MDVL 240 Italy on the Middle Ages and Renaissance 

This course will provide an introduction to the medieval and early renaissance literature of Italy from the point of view of education: we will explore topics such as the formation of manners, the creation of ideals of civility, the representation of chivalric behaviors. We will focus on the education of the perfect poet, the perfect wife and the perfect nun; on the upbringing of the perfect lady and the perfect courtier, the care and grooming of the courtly body, and the rejection of the lower bodily functions. 

Prof. Walker Horsfall

MDVL 251 Viking Mythology

Studies pre-Christian beliefs of the Germanic peoples as reflected primarily in medieval Icelandic prose and poetry (in translation).

Prof. Mukhtar Ali

REL 260 Mystics and Saints in Islam

Examines mystical concepts and practices in Islam through the ages, through the lives and writings of important mystics and Sufi holy men and women, as well as the integration of mysticism and the Sufi Orders into Muslim society and Islamic orthodoxy.

Prof. Dov Weiss

REL 283 Jewish Sacred Literature

Literary study of the major post-biblical sacred texts of Judaism; includes readings in translation from Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmudim, midrashim, piyyutim, and mystical treatises. Emphasizes nature, history, function, and development of literary patterns and forms and the relationships between form and content in these texts.

Prof. Gian Piero Persiani

EALC 398 Global and Local in Premodern East Asia

Premodern Asia was a world connected by diplomacy, trade, religious missions, and texts. Chinese texts enjoyed wide circulation and were enshrined as the authoritative canon in many local polities, while the shared use of written Sinitic allowed communication across borders. At the same time, exposure to a powerful outside culture fueled efforts to define and develop vibrant local cultures with distinct identities. Straddling literary studies, religion, cultural geography and intellectual history, this interdisciplinary course explores the interplay of localizing and globalizing forces in East Asia between 600 and 1900 CE, and its role in shaping ethnic and linguistic identities.

Prof. Javier Irigoyen-García

SPAN 310 Premodern Spanish Literatures and Cultures

A critical analysis of selected texts and authors representative of the Medieval and Early Modern periods in the context of Iberian cultures. Particular emphasis on the relationship between cultural practices and the construction of national identities prior to 1700, as well as on the plurality of cultures that shaped what is now Spain. Specific sections may emphasize critical topics such as gender, ideology, literary form, nationalisms, race, and sexuality, among others. Instruction in Spanish unless otherwise noted.

Prof. Hermann von Hesse

ARTH 491 Africa and the Museum

This course examines the relevance of the museum in contemporary African and African diaspora consciousness, as well as considering decolonial museum practices. We will consider how national museums became important symbols of postcolonial nationhood, while also sometimes reproducing Western-held ideas about the continent. Despite the museum's embroilment in European colonial projects, colonial and postcolonial African leaders appropriated the museum to showcase “authentic” African culture.

Prof. James Pilgrim

ARTH 495A Seminar in Art History

 Printmaking: History, Technique, Meaning: Coinciding with the exhibition “Imagination, Faith, and Desire: Art and Agency in European Prints, 1475-1800” at the Krannert Art Museum, this seminar will chart 1) the development of printmaking in Europe during the late medieval and early modern periods and 2) the global diffusion of European printed images. Themes addressed will include technical innovation, reproducibility and reproduction, invention and transmission, the ontology of the printed image, prints and global capitalism, and the representation of race in printed images. 

Prof. Heather Grossman

MDVL 412 Medieval Architecture

Introduces the architecture, monumental arts, and urbanism of Byzantium and medieval western Europe from c. 300-1500, using a comparative approach. We will learn about Byzantium’s domed churches and robust cities, Europe’s Romanesque monasteries and pilgrimage destinations, and its soaring Gothic cathedrals, fortresses, and cities. It integrates architecture with the study of the roles of secular and ecclesiastical authority, design and technological developments, religious performance and observance, warfare and trade between regions, and developing urbanism. 

Prof. Eleanora Stoppino 

MDVL 430 Masterpieces of Renaissance Literature

The Non/Human Italian Renaissance: The course explores the boundaries between human and non human animals as they emerge from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century in Italy and Southern Europe. Reading literary texts such as Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, Moderata Fonte’s Floridoro, Luigi Pulci’s Morgante and medical texts such as Girolamo Fracastoro’s On Contagion, we will trace the formation of distinctions between species. The categories we will use to investigate the distinctions between humans and non humans include metamorphosis, contagion, education, taxonomy, subjugation, hunting, representation, anthropomorphism and zoomorphism, wilderness, misogyny, and promiscuity. Taught in English. Readings in Italian for Italian Majors and graduate students in Italian Studies.

Prof. Carlos Ramírez

MUS 414 Music and Society

Urban Soundscapes: The Sound of the City from the Middle Ages to the Present: This course explores the sonic life of cities from medieval Europe to contemporary global metropolises, analyzing how sound structures urban space, social relations, and power. Cities are not only visual landscapes—they are constructed through sound: church bells regulate time, markets hum with commerce, colonial plazas impose hierarchies of governance, and modern noise ordinances shape urban life. This course examines the built environment as an acoustic space, considering how soundscapes evolve through technological, social, and political transformations. Drawing on sound studies, urban history, musicology, and media theory, students will engage with key concepts while analyzing historical and contemporary soundscapes.

Prof. Dov Weiss

REL 418 Afterlife in Early Judaism

Examines Israelite and Jewish attitudes to death and the afterlife from Ancient Israelite belief until the rise of Islam. Topics include death, divine judgement, immortality of the soul, resurrection, and hell. We will also selectively compare Jewish afterlife traditions to those found in early Christianity. Particular attention will be paid to the transformations of belief over time, and to the changing contexts that gave rise to new Jewish soteriologies and eschatologies.

Prof. Gian Piero Persiani

EALC 550 Global and Local in Premodern East Asia

Premodern Asia was a world connected by diplomacy, trade, religious missions, and texts. Chinese texts enjoyed wide circulation and were enshrined as the authoritative canon in many local polities, while the shared use of written Sinitic allowed communication across borders. At the same time, exposure to a powerful outside culture fueled efforts to define and develop vibrant local cultures with distinct identities. Straddling literary studies, religion, cultural geography and intellectual history, this interdisciplinary course explores the interplay of localizing and globalizing forces in East Asia between 600 and 1900 CE, and its role in shaping ethnic and linguistic identities.

Prof. Bonnie Mak

IS 583B History of the Book 
Explores the role of the book in the production and transmission of knowledge through time. Major themes include the design, materiality, and performance of reading and writing technologies. Particular attention will be paid to the graphic representation and visualization of information across media. Students will examine different approaches to the study of books and documents, including those of palaeography, diplomatics, bibliography, art history, musicology, textual criticism, digital humanities, and new media.

Prof. Ralph Mathisen

MDVL 542 Problems in Medieval History

Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a methodological approach from modern sociology that uses network and graph theories to determine degrees of social connectedness among individuals based on the documented nature of their interactions. Growing out of non-visual network analysis, SNA expands on traditional methods of examining how people interact in groups, such as prosopography, by adding the ability to create diagrams, or “sociograms” representing degrees of connecte-ness. It visualizes social connections in terms of nodes (individual actors, people, or things within the network) that are connected by ties, links, or edges (relationships or interactions). In recent years, the coverage of the “social network” approach has been broadened to incorporate not only populations and social groups at any period of history but also other forms of recurrent data, such as geographical connections.

Prof. Carlos Ramírez

MUS 523 Seminar in Musicology

Sonic Materialities: Power, Media, and the Politics of Musical Objects: 

This seminar explores the intersections between sound and power, moving beyond music to This seminar explores the material dimensions of sound—from instruments and recording media to infrastructures and digital platforms—through the lens of media theory, materiality, organology, and power. Sound is always embedded in—and created through—materials, and technologies that shape its production, circulation, and reception. This seminar examines how these materialities are governed, contested, and repurposed across historical and contemporary contexts. A written research project that engages with the seminar’s theoretical framework will be required. This seminar does not require fluency in western musical notation or the ability to play an instrument. Students interested in sound, music, and media from any discipline/major/department are welcome to register.