You may download a list of all these offerings here.
Many of these courses are already approved as counting toward the Interdisciplinary Major and Minor in Medieval Studies. Those not yet included on that list can be substituted for credit toward those requirements -- please contact Carol Symes (symes@illinois.edu) if you have any questions.
200-level courses
Prof. Carson Koepke
ENGL 202/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
ENGL 216/MDVL 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 Darthur. The second half of the semester focuses on post-medieval adaptations of Arthurian legends: we'll read Mark Twain's satirical Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), Susan Cooper's mythic Grey King (1975), Tracy Deonn's Afrofuturist Legendborn (2020), and Nicola Griffith's genderbent Spear (2022). We will even watch George A. Romero’s 1981 Knightriders, starring 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 two exams.
Prof. Kalani Craig
HIST 247/MDVL 247 Medieval Europe
From the fragmentation of the Roman Empire to the formation of territorial monarchies, this course surveys the events, innovations, crises, and movements that shaped western Europe in a pivotal era known as "the Middle Ages." Topics will include the spread of Christianity, the migration of peoples, fundamental changes in economic and social structures, the development of political institutions, the role of women, and the cultural achievements of different communities (the monastery, the town, the court).
Prof. Eleanora Stoppino
ITAL/MDVL 240 Italy in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: The Foul and the Fragrant 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. In English.
Prof. Walker Horsfall
MDVL/SCAN 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 223 The Qur'an (Koran)
Introduction to the Qur'an (Koran), the holy scripture of Islam, examining its major doctrines, thematic development, literary style, and its relationship to pre-Qur'anic, especially Biblical, traditions. Special attention is given to various methods Muslims have used to interpret the Qur'an.
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.
300-level courses
Prof. Marcus Keller
FR 301 Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Overview of French literature from the Middle Ages to the Revolution in its historical context. Taught in French.
Prof. Craig Koslofksy
HIST/REL 347 The Protestant and Catholic Reformations
New sources of secular power and spiritual authority define the age of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. In this advanced European history course students expand their knowledge of the people, events, and ideas of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries while deepening their understanding of a wide range of primary sources created by theologians and peasants, nuns and monarchs, and artists and rebels. Key works by Luther, Calvin, and Loyola are placed in their intellectual and social contexts.
Prof. Ralph Mathisen
HIST 399 From Script to Print: Medieval Manuscripts from Then until Now
This class will introduce students to medieval manuscript culture and early (15th-16th century) printed book production. Along the way, students will be exposed to manuscript palaeography and codicology, with special attention to liturgical manuscripts; to ways of studying and understanding manuscript materiality; and to the ways in which the production of manuscripts morphed seamlessly into the production of printed books, with no clear dichotomy between the two methods of book production. The class will meet on Mondays from 3:00-4:30, in 446K Gregory. Undergrads can get registration authorization from Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies Stefan Djordjevic in the History Department Office (309 Gregory). Please contact ralphwm@illinois.edu for more information.
Tuesday, 3:00-4:30, in 446K Gregory. Please contact ralphwm@illinois.edu for more information.
Prof. D. Fairchild Ruggles
LA 387 (DFR) Environmental Materialism
From new materialism, posthumanism, actor-network theory, and deep ecology, the seminar asks how the human body and the environment—the world from which we are apart and of which we are a part—are simultaneously material and social.
400-level courses
Prof. Heather Grossman
ARCH/ARTH 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.
Dr. Katie Menendez
ENGL 407 Introduction to Old English
Introduction to the forms of English spoken and written prior to about AD 1100. Exploring concepts of cultural, historical, and linguistic change, students will learn to read Old English texts in the original, and to use tools like dictionaries and grammars to assist their engagement with the texts. Readings include examples from the prose tradition (e.g., Bede's story of the poet Cædmon and Ælfric's Colloquy) as well as poetic texts (e.g., The Dream of the Rood and The Wanderer). No knowledge of other languages, medieval history, or linguistics expected.
Prof. Joy Reeber
LAT 460 Medieval Latin
Literary and historical texts in prose and poetry will be read in the original; the course will also cover patristic writings.
Prof. Richard Layton
REL/MDVL 440 Early Christian Thought
Study of major developments in early Christian thought (first four centuries) through discussion of primary texts in translation.
500-level courses
Prof. Hollie Buttery
ARTH 531/MDVL 540 Sex and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe: Seminar in Northern Renaissance Art
Around 1500, a profound transformation began in Europe: sex increasingly became an object of public representation and consumption. In paintings, frescoes, prints, and sculpture, the boundaries of what could and should be shown were challenged by developments such as the printing press, medical innovation, and religious upheaval. Sex had always been present in art, but its visual codes now proliferated. The satyr, the nude, the garden, and the grotesque became charged with erotic and sexual meaning. Drawing upon art history, the history of sexuality, gender studies, and social history, the course asks how sexuality was visualized, regulated, concealed, and performed in early modern art and culture.
Prof. Bonnie Mak
IS 583 (HB) 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 studies.
Prof. Ralph Mathisen
HIST 597 From Script to Print: Medieval Manuscripts from Then until Now
This class will introduce students to medieval manuscript culture and early (15th-16th century) printed book production. Along the way, students will be exposed to manuscript palaeography and codicology, with special attention to liturgical manuscripts; to ways of studying and understanding manuscript materiality; and to the ways in which the production of manuscripts morphed seamlessly into the production of printed books, with no clear dichotomy between the two methods of book production. The class will meet on Mondays from 3:00-4:30, in 446K Gregory. Undergrads can get registration authorization from Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies Stefan Djordjevic in the History Department Office (309 Gregory). Please contact ralphwm@illinois.edu for more information.
Prof. D. Fairchild Ruggles
LA 587 (DFR) Environmental Materialism
From new materialism, posthumanism, actor-network theory, and deep ecology, the seminar asks how the human body and the environment—the world from which we are apart and of which we are a part—are simultaneously material and social.
Prof. Adam Newman
REL 520 Hindu Pilgrimage. Power, and Place
This course undertakes a critical examination of the nature and practices of Hindu pilgrims, pilgrimages, and pilgrimage sites. We will examine central beliefs and practices of lived religion in the Hindu tradition and situate Hindu pilgrimage within the broader context of pilgrimage and related discussions of power and place.