The "M" Award is the most highly coveted recognition given to students, faculty, staff, and administrators for service.

Dedman College

DEDMAN COLLEGE
MEDIEVAL STUDIES

www.smu.edu/medievalstudies

Associate Professor Bonnie Wheeler, Director

Ranging from the 4th century A.D. to 1485, from Celtic Britain to Visigothic and Islamic Spain, Byzantium to Persia and the Caliphate, from script to print, from feast to fast, from fine arts to liberal arts, from Augustine to Saladin and beyond; this program offers an intense and condensed liberal education. Studies reveal how the historical shapes, institutional structures, literary visions and artistic forms that emerged from the Middle Ages have colored our concepts of God, society, self, love, individualism and success.

The Medieval Studies Program affords the student an opportunity for a “classically” liberal education within a broad subset of “Western” (Celtic, Franconic, Italic, Germanic, Visigothic) and “non-Western” (Byzantine, Islamic, Persian) contexts. It is appropriate for preprofessional training in multiple fields, ranging from business to religious studies and from biology to music theory and foreign languages and literatures. It can also lead to graduate work in medieval studies or (more usually) in such disciplines as literature, history and art/music history.

The Dallas Medieval Consortium makes it possible for students at SMU, the University of Dallas and the University of Texas-Dallas to enroll in selected medieval studies courses on the other campuses. Through the Consortium, SMU students can elect no more than a total of 15 hours in medieval subject courses at any other Consortium university.

Requirements for the B.A. Degree. Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary major of 30 hours in medieval subjects, and Latin language and literature, distributed over at least three broad subject areas in medieval studies: 1) history, 2) literature, and 3) music and visual arts (art/music history), with no less than six hours in each area. Latin language and literature courses after the second year may, with the approval of the director, count toward hours for the Medieval Studies major. Students are encouraged to take courses in philosophy, religious studies and church history, as they are available. Individual student programs are approved by the Director of Medieval Studies and a committee of two other members of the SMU Medieval Studies faculty.

Requirements for the Minor. A student must complete 15 hours from the courses listed, including at least three interdisciplinary and nine advanced hours. No more than six hours at the introductory (1000 or 2000) level may be counted; some of the MDVL and CF (Cultural Formations) courses listed below are also interdisciplinary. Other courses may satisfy the interdisciplinary component. Individual student programs are approved by the Director of Medieval Studies.

As a model, the following is a typical Medieval Studies major sequence for SMU students:

Sophomore year

Fall term:

MDVL 3351 (CF 3351) The Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture
LATN 1401 Beginning Latin

Spring term:

ENGL 3320 Topics in Medieval Literature
LATN 1402 Beginning Latin

Junior year

Fall term:

ARHS 3320 Medieval Art*
LATN 2311 Second-Year Latin
HIST 3350 Life in the Medieval World, A.D. 306-1095*

Spring term:

MDVL 3329 (ENGL 3329, CF 3302) The World of King Arthur*
HIST 3351 Life in the Medieval World, A.D. 1095-1350*
LATN 2312 Second-Year Latin

Senior year

Fall term:

HIST 4325 Islam to A.D. 1453*
ARHS 3392 Islamic Art and Architecture: The Creation of a New Art*
LATN 3324 Advanced Latin Grammar and Composition*

Spring term:

ARHS 3325 Art of the Crusades*
ENGL 4323 Chaucer
HIST 3352 The Age of the Crusades*

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* Credit toward Medieval Studies major.

Many courses are offered each year; with few exceptions, the remainder are available at least every other year. Consult with the director about offerings and frequency.

Medieval Studies

ARHS 3320 Medieval Art
ARHS 3321 Age of the Crusades
ARHS 3322 Art and the Italian Commune
ARHS 3323 Romanesque Art and Architecture
ARHS 3324 Art and Cultures of Medieval Spain
ARHS 3325 The Gothic Cathedral
ARHS 3328 Byzantine Art
ARHS 3329 Paris Art and Architecture I (SMU-in-Paris)
ARHS 3392 (CFA 3313) Islamic Art and Architecture
ARHS 3399 Medieval Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Art & Text
ARHS 4320 Seminar in Medieval Art
ARHS 4321 Word and Image: Seminar in Early Middle Ages
ENGL 1320 Chivalry
ENGL 3320 Topics in Medieval Literature
ENGL 3371 (HIST 3357, CF 3363) Joan of Arc in History, Literature and Film
ENGL 3389 Directed Studies
ENGL 4320 Medieval Writers
ENGL 4323 Chaucer
FL 3365 Special Topics: French Literature in Translation (When applicable)
FL 3366 Special Topics: French Literature in Translation (When applicable)
FL 3393 Dante’s Poetic Vision
FL 3391 Special Topics: Italian Literature in Translation (When applicable)
FL 3392 Special Topics: Italian Literature in Translation (When applicable)
FREN 5320 Literary Periods (When applicable)
FREN 5321 Literary Periods (When applicable)
FREN 5334 Genre Studies (When applicable)
FREN 5335 Genre Studies (When applicable)
HIST 2321 Philosophical and Religious Thought in the Medieval West
HIST 3332 Ancient and Medieval France
HIST 3344 (CF 3394) The Oxford Landscape: From the Stone Age to the Tudors (SMU-in-Oxford)
HIST 3345 England in Medieval and Early Modern Times (SMU-in-Oxford)
HIST 3350 Life in the Medieval World, A.D. 306-1095
HIST 3351 Life in the Medieval World, A.D. 1095-1350
HIST 3352 Age of the Crusades
HIST 3357 (ENGL 3371, CF 3363) Joan of Arc: History, Literature and Film
HIST 4320 Medieval Europe I
HIST 4321 Medieval Europe II
HIST 4322 Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England
HIST 4323 History of Ireland
HIST 4324 Medieval Spirituality
HIST 4325 Islam to A.D. 1453
HIST 4326 Anglo-Saxon England to A.D. 1160
HIST 4380 History of Spain to 1492
HIST 4384 Early and Medieval England from the Beginning to 1485
HIST 5364 The City of God: Utopias in The Christian Tradition
HIST 5378 Medieval Renaissances
HIST 5392 Seminar in European History Autobiographical Tradition (when applicable)
LATN 3324 Advanced Latin Grammar and Composition
LATN 3335 Medieval Latin
MDVL 3321 (CF 3321) The Birth of the Individual
MDVL 3323 Tales of Wales
MDVL 3327 The Unicorn: Understanding Varieties of the Truth in the Middle Ages
MDVL 3329 (ENGL 3329, CF 3302) The World of King Arthur
MDVL 3351 (CF 3351) The Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture
MDVL 3352 (CF 3352) Ideas and Ideals of Gender in the Middle Ages
MDVL 3353 (CF 3353) Medieval Ideas
MDVL 3398 Directed Studies
MDVL 3399 Directed Studies
MDVL 4371 Special Topics
MDVL 5301 Independent Studies
MDVL 5302 Independent Studies
MDVL 5398 Independent Studies
MDVL 5399 Independent Studies
MUHI 3301 Survey of Music History I
MUHI 4301 Research Project in Music History (when applicable)
MUHI 4392 Directed Studies in Music History: The Middle Ages
MUHI 6309 Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Sources and Styles
PERE 3075 Collegium Musicum
PERE 3175 Collegium Musicum
PHIL 3351 History of Western Philosophy (Ancient)
PLSC 4361 Political Regimes: Understandings of Rome
PLSC 4362 Medieval Political Philosophy
RELI 3326 Introduction to the New Testament
RELI 3349 Early Christianity
SPAN 5310 Spanish Literature Before 1700

The Courses (MDVL)

3321. The Birth of the Individual. Examines several basic notions pertaining to selfhood, including consciousness, cognition, motivation, personal identity and decision, as found in medieval texts.

3323. Tales of Wales. Survey of native Welsh literature (in translation) from the sixth to the 20th century. Primary focus is on medieval and Arthurian texts and their influence on the British and European literary imagination.

3327. The Unicorn: Understanding Varieties of the Truth in the Middle Ages. Investigates the question of how history and fiction were perceived in the Middle Ages.

3329. The World of King Arthur. Investigates Britain’s greatest native hero and one of the world’s most compelling story stocks: the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table, and the early Arthurian materials and the later romance, epic and artistic traditions.

3351. The Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture. An exploration of the medieval world through one of its own literal and metaphorical images, moving from Jerusalem to the empire of New Rome, to Rome itself and across Europe on the pilgrimage roads of the Middle Ages.

3352. Ideas and Ideals of Gender in the Middle Ages. Focuses on the status of women in the Middle Ages and the impact of ideas regarding the feminine on the development of (mostly) Western thought.

3353. Medieval Ideas. Presents some of the classic achievements of the medieval mind. While the main focus will be on Medieval Europe and the adjacent Muslim world, wherever possible students’ attention will be drawn to developments in other cultures.

3398, 3399. Directed Study.

5301, 5302, 5398, 5399. Research and writing in medieval fields on special topics at the forefront of current intellectual interest.