Medieval Studies
http://www.swarthmore.edu/cc_medieval.xml
Coordinator:
Committee:
CRAIG WILLIAMSON (English Literature)
TARIQ AL-JAMIL (Religion)
STEPHEN P. BENSCH (History)
MICHAEL W. COTHREN (Art History)
STEVEN HOPKINS (Religion)
MICHAEL MARISSEN (Music)
ROSARIA V. MUNSON (Classics)
ELLEN M. ROSS (Religion)
WILLIAM TURPIN (Classics)
Swarthmore’s Medieval Studies Program offers students the opportunity to study in an interdisciplinary
and cross-cultural fashion a variety of often interrelated medieval civilizations—European,
Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Islamic, South and West Asian—from the 4th to the 15th centuries. The
program draws upon a variety of critical and cross-disciplinary approaches to explore medieval cultures,
their distinctive qualities and historical connections, their material and spiritual productions, their
artistic creations, and their relation to earlier and later cultures. The medieval period is best understood
through an interdisciplinary approach, which includes Art, Classics, Literature, History, Music, and
Religion.
Overview of Curriculum
The Program offers a wide range of courses from Old English to Medieval Latin, from Chaucer to Dante, from
Medieval Towns to Christian Mysticism, from the Barbarian North to Chivalric Society, from Gothic Architecture to
The Religion of Islam, from Sanskrit and Tamil Poetry to The Power of Images: Icons and Iconoclasts. Many courses
are organized around interdisciplinary themes such as Friars, Heretics, and Female Mystics: Religious Turmoil in the
Middle Ages; Prophets and Visionaries: Christian Mysticism Through the Ages; and Holy War, Martyrdom, and
Suicide in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. There are also courses that explore the relationship of medieval artistic
and cultural traditions to those of other periods such as Medieval and Renaissance Music; Religion and Literature:
From the Song of Songs to the Hindu Saints; and Tolkien and Pullman and Their Literary Roots. Courses in
Medieval Studies are also available at Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College as part of the Tri-College Program
and at the University of Pennsylvania (a thirty-minute commute in each case by college van or Septa train). These
courses include such offerings as Arthurian Legends, The Early Medieval World, and Grotesque Bodies and
Medieval Romance.
Faculty in the Medieval Studies Program at Swarthmore regularly visit one another’s classes to engage in
discussion of topics of mutual interest. English and History professors might debate the relationship between the
historical feuds and the portrayal of monsters in Beowulf. Art History and Religion professors might discuss the
traditions at work in Islamic narrative painting. Music and Literature professors might take up the relation
between chanted poetic norms in Anglo-Saxon oral tradition and the tonal modalities of medieval church music.
Faculty also give brief presentations of their work at luncheon meetings to which majors and minors are invited.
Application Process Notes for the Major or the Minor
Students may major or minor in Medieval Studies in either the Course or Honors Program. Students must take
work in a variety of medieval subjects to be drawn from Art History, History, Literature, Music, Religion, and
Philosophy. Majors often do research abroad on college-sponsored fellowships during the summer of their junior
year and then write a thesis which they present as seniors to an interdisciplinary Medieval Studies Committee.
The heart of the Medieval Studies program is its interdisciplinary approach. The faculty and students in this
program believe that the Medieval period, its history, languages and literatures, art and architecture, religion and
philosophy, music and meaning, are best studied from a variety of critical perspectives in which discipline and
dialogue go hand in hand, where each person’s knowledge is tested and expanded by another’s approach, and
where we come together in the words of Chaucer’s Clerk to “gladly lerne and gladly teche.”
Requirements
Distribution Requirements: All students who major or minor in Medieval Studies, either in Honors or Course, must
fulfill the program’s distribution requirements by taking medieval courses from the following distribution areas: 1.
Art History 2. History 3. Literature (English, Classics, etc.) 4. Music 5. Religion or Philosophy. Students should
check the college catalog under Medieval Studies to see which courses in these departments are currently listed as
fulfilling the medieval rubric (though some recent courses may not yet be listed in the catalog). The list of
Swarthmore Medieval Studies courses as well as medieval courses at Bryn Mawr and Haverford will be available on
the Swarthmore Medieval Studies website by the spring of 2011. The website is currently under construction.
Course Major: Options and Requirements
Course Majors must take at least 8 credits in medieval subjects, including at least one medieval course in four of
the five distribution areas (must include history), and pass a senior comprehensive which includes a written and
oral exam given by the student’s instructors in her or his medieval courses. These examinations are intended to be
a culminating exercise to facilitate the review and integration of the various subjects and methods involved in the
interdisciplinary field of medieval studies.
Honors Major: Options and Requirements
Honors Majors must take at least one medieval course in four of the five distribution areas (must include history).
The Honors program itself will include four double-credit preparations in medieval subjects which reflect the
interdisciplinary nature of the major and must include work in at least three of the distribution areas. The
preparations may be constituted by some combination of the following: seminars, preapproved two-course
combinations, courses with attachments, or a thesis. Senior Honors Study for Honors majors in Medieval Studies
will follow the policies of the individual departmental preparations used in the program. Honors majors will have a
90- to 120-minute oral panel examination with all four examiners present. These examinations are intended to be
a culminating exercise to facilitate the review and integration of the various subjects and methods involved in the
interdisciplinary field of medieval studies. Honors major normally do not have a separate minor as part of their
Medieval Studies Honors program, but they may apply one of their four Honors preparations toward an Honors
minor. In such a case, a student must fulfill all the requirements set by the relevant department or program of that
Honors minor.
Course Minor: Options and Requirements
Course Minors must take 5 credits in medieval subjects in at least three distribution areas. Only one of these
credits can also be in the department of the student’s major.
Honors Minor: Options and Requirements
Honors Minors must take 5 credits in medieval subjects in at least three distribution areas. The Honors
preparation in a medieval subject should reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the minor and may be satisfied by
one of the following: a seminar, a preapproved two-course combination, a course with an attachment, or in
special cases a thesis. The minor preparation must be in a department distinct from the student’s major. Senior
Honors Study and written and oral Honors exams will follow the pattern of the department in which the
preparation is offered.
Courses and seminars in the various departments which are counted as Medieval Studies courses are listed on the
college catalog and will shortly be posted online. Students may also take medieval courses at Bryn Mawr or
Haverford as part of their program.
Course Listings for: MEDIEVAL STUDIES
Course Code
Course Title
Fall
11
Spring
12
Fall
12
ARTH
45
Gothic Art and Architecture
ARTH
147
Visual Narrative in Medieval Art
Y
CLAS
60
Dante and the Classical Tradition
Y
ENGL
14
Old English/History of the Language
Y
ENGL
16
Chaucer
ENGL
46
Tolkien and Pullman and Their Literary Roots
ENGL
102
Chaucer and Medieval Literature
Y
HIST
1A
The Barbarian North
Y
Y
HIST
2A
Medieval Europe
Y
Y
HIST
6A
The Formation of the Islamic Near East
Y
Y
HIST
12
Chivalric Society
HIST
15
Medieval Towns
HIST
111
Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Medieval
Mediterranean
Y
RELG
11B
The Religion of Islam: The Islamic Humanities W
Course
Y
RELG
20B
Christian Mysticism Through the Ages
RELG
30B
The Power of Images: Icons and Iconoclasts
RELG
53
Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Islam
RELG
100
Holy War, Martyrdom, and Suicide in Christianity,
Judaism, and Islam
RELG
114
Love and Religion
RELG
127
Secrecy and Heresy
Spring
13
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y