Overview

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.