ENGL 320: CHAUCER
Instructor: Leinbaugh
Time: MWF; Spring 2009
This course will focus on the growth and development of Chaucer as an artist. We will read The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Parlement of Foules, Troilus and Criseyde, The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and selections from The Canterbury Tales.
UNC’s Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) announces a series of grants for graduate student development, which are supported with funds awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Graduate students whose research addresses cross-cultural or global issues are especially encouraged to apply. Graduate students may apply to more than one grant simultaneously.
There are three categories of grants:
Only completed applications will be considered. Please review the specific materials required to apply for each of the different MEMS Graduate Grants, including their respective deadlines for application.
ALL grant applications require a MEMS application form: Download & complete the MEMS form(s) for the grant(s) for which you wish to apply (available online at http://mems.unc.edu).
Send your completed application materials to: Prof. Marsha Collins, Director, MEMS, 513 Hamilton Hall, CB #3195, UNC-CH
Applicants should have completed all coursework toward the Ph.D. at the time of application and should have successfully completed their Ph.D. examinations no later than October 2008. Applicants must be working on a dissertation on a medieval or early modern topic. Amount of Award: $10,000 minus tuition and benefits (approx. $7500). The dissertation fellowship may be taken in spring or fall 2009.
Please submit SIX collated copies of the following documentation:
These grants may be used to conduct research at libraries or archives in order to support scholarly projects (either the dissertation or a similar large-scale research project). They may also be used to purchase materials needed to complete research projects (microfilms, etc.). Applications from students working on cross-cultural or global issues are especially encouraged.
Students should have completed their MA degree at the time of application. Applicants must be Ph.D. candidates from any program working on a medieval or early modern topic. Preference will be given to applicants who make a strong case for their need to conduct research beyond UNC (and its library holdings) and who possess the necessary skills to conduct such research.
The amount of the award is up to $4000 (final amount TBD at the selection committee’s discretion and announced to the award recipient at the time of notification).
Please submit SIX collated copies of the following documentation:
Students must already have a paper or papers on a medieval and/or early modern topic accepted for delivery at an academic conference. Applicants must be graduate students working on a medieval or early modern dissertation topic. Amount of Award: up to $1,000 for domestic conferences, $2,000 for international conferences (Students will be reimbursed for actual cost of transportation, lodging, and meals-presentation of receipts will be required, and will determine the final amount awarded to the recipient).
Please submit SIX collated copies of your application, including the following documentation:
A brief (300 word) statement of purpose (double-spaced, 12-point font), including a description of the conference; your role in that conference; and the ways in which participation will contribute to your professionalization.
UNC’s Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) offers a series of grants for faculty development, which are supported with funds awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Faculty whose research addresses cross-cultural or global issues are especially encouraged to apply. Faculty may apply to more than one grant simultaneously. Every effort will be made to divide the awards and fellowships evenly between medievalists and early modernists.
There are three categories of grants:
Applicants must be tenured or tenure-track faculty holding full-time appointments at UNC-CH. Recipients of the semester research leave fellowships may be eligible for salary top-up funds, subject to the limitations established by the College (See the on-line chair’s manual or your department chair).
Only completed applications will be considered. Please review the specific materials required to apply for each of the different MEMS Faculty Grants, including their respective deadlines for application.
ALL grant applications require a MEMS cover sheet or application form: Download & complete the appropriate form for the grant or grants for which you wish to apply (available online at http://mems.unc.edu).
Send your completed application materials to: Prof. Marsha Collins, Director, MEMS, 513 Hamilton Hall, CB #3195, UNC-CH
This fellowship is intended to provide a tenured or tenure-track faculty member with one semester of non-teaching support. The fellowship may be combined with another leave, and there is no residency requirement. Recipients of the fellowship must take it in the academic year 2009-2010.
Please submit SIX collated copies of your application including the following materials:
This grant is intended to reimburse travel costs pertaining to research projects and/or costs for materials required for research or publishing.
Please submit with the completed application form SIX collated copies of the following materials:
DEADLINE: Friday, October 31 at 4:30pm
This grant is intended to reimburse costs for travel, room, board, and registration costs at domestic or international conferences. Applications may be submitted for future conferences or for conferences that have taken place in the last three months (August 1-October 31). Preference will, however, be given to applications to attend future conferences. For international conferences applicants may request up to $2000, for domestic conferences applicants may request up to $1000.
Please submit SIX collated copies of your application.
DEADLINE: Friday, October 31 at 4:30pm
Registration and Coffee
Welcome by the Director of MEMS
Introduction of the First Keynote Speaker
Keynote Address by Professor Karen Kupperman
On Site Lunch
Dani Botsman (History, UNC, Chapel Hill)
“The Question of Slavery in Japan’s Encounter with Early Modern Europe.”
Erica Heinsen-Roach (History, University of Miami)
“Diplomats, Slaves and Gifts: Dutch Diplomacy in North Africa, 1680-1700.”
Daniel Hershenzon (History, University of Michigan)
“Trusting Masters, Faithful Captives: Captivity and Ransom in the Early-Modern Mediterranean.”
Bissera Pentcheva (Art History, Stanford)
“Sinai as the Mediator between East and West in the Wake of the Fourth Crusade.”
Ludovico Geymonat (Art History, University of Iowa)
“Images After 1204: Transmission vs. Cultural Encounters.”
David M. Perry (History, Dominican University)
“Eastern Objects and Venetian Identity: Before and After 1261.”
E. Cihan Yuksel Muslu (University of Texas, Dallas)
“Ottoman-Mamluk Peace Treaty in 1491.”
Ibrahim Kaya Shahin (History, Tulane University)
“The Ottomans and the Safavids in the Early Modern Middle East: Conflict, Confessionalization, and Cultural Exchange.”
Peter A. Coclanis (History/Assoc. Provost for International Affairs, UNC, Chapel Hill)
“The Hidden Dimension: “European” Treaties in Global Perspective, 1500-1800.”
Dorothea Heitsch (Romance Languages, UNC, Chapel Hill)
“Strategic Eloquence and Hybrid Spaces in Gabriel Sagard’s Le grand voyage au Pays des Hurons.”
Kathleen Duval (History, UNC, Chapel Hill)
“Coronado, the Seven Cities, and the Violence of Disillusion.”
Matthew Hunter (Courtauld Institute of Art)
“Global Fantasies and Chemical Ecstasy in Early Modern London.”
Yu Liu (English, Niagara County Community College)
“The Intricacy of Accommodation: Matteo Ricci’s Management of Cultural Conflict.”
Beth Forrest (History, Boston University)
“Cannibals of the Reconquest: the Adoption of Arab Foods and Foodways in Early Modern Spain.”Pablo
Pastrana-Perez (Department of Spanish, Western Michigan University)
“Verbal and material exchanges in the corpus of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s exploration of the River Plate region (1543-1544).”
J. Javier Puerto (Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky)
“Islam Explained According to Thirteenth-Century Iberian World History.”
Melanie Michailidis (Art History, Carleton College)
“Holding the Fort: The Central Asian Ribat as Defensive Military Architecture.”
Ishan Chakrabarti (Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin)
“Multiple Secularisms and Medieval Islam.”
Lidia Radi (Italian Studies, University of Richmond)
“A Rhetorical Battle: Encountering ‘the Infidels’ in Renaissance France.”
Shayne Aaron Legassie (Comparative Literature, Columbia University)
“The Two Corpses of John Mandeville.”
Geraldine Heng (English, University of Texas, Austin)
“Sex, Lies, and Paradise: how the Nizari Ismailis became the Fabled Assassins of Medieval European Literature.”
Catered Reception at the IAH
Julie Mell (History, NC State)
“Economic Encounters: the Latin Commenda and Jewish Merchants in Mediterranean Sea Trade.”
Jodi Bilinkoff (History, UNC, Greensboro)
“Missionary Lives: Conflict and Identity Construction in Seventeenth-Century Spanish America and French Canada.”
Noell Wilson (History, University of Mississippi)
“Chinese Smugglers and the Emergence of Local Autonomy in Tokugawa Japan: 1680-1730.”
Lauren Arnold (Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco)
“The Heavenly Horse of 1342: How a Gift from a Medieval Pope Came to be Portrayed as a Tribute Horse in a Chinese Painting.”
Diana Y. Chou (Art History, Case Western Reserve University)
“Twelve Astrological Signs in Chinese Paintings.”
Carmen Hsu (Romance Languages, UNC, Chapel Hill)
“Philippe II and the Controversy on the China Mission.”
Adriano Duque (Foreign Languages and Literature, Rider University)
“Sacred Bonding: Mothers and Daughters in the Episode of the Voluntary Martyrs of Cordoba (843-849).”
Nancy Bradley Warren (English, Florida State University)
“Incarnational Piety and International Relations: England, Spain, and the ‘Old Religion’.”
Michael Wintroub (Department of Rhetoric, UC Berkeley)
“Seventeenth-century Parisian Salon and the Empire of Love.”
Luigi Andrea Berto (History, Western Michigan University)
“Non audaces sed fugaces”. The Image of the Byzantines in Early Medieval South Italy.”
Matthew Gabriele (Medieval Studies, Virginia Tech)
“Fight the Muslims (Please?): The Rhetoric of the 1010, 1074, and 1095 Papal Calls to Action.”
Temitope Carleton (History of Science, Harvard University)
“The Power of Places: Ethnogeography in Thirteenth Century Dominican and Franciscan Mission Accounts.”
On-site lunch
Renzo Honores (History, High Point University)
“Colonial Appropriations of Law: Litigating Caciques and Legal Reforms in the Andes, 1550-1650.”
Jane Mangan (History, Davidson College)
“Transatlantic Obligations: Legal and Cultural Constructions of Family in the
Conquest-Era Iberian World.”
Laura Beck Varela (University of Seville)
“From Lyon to Madrid: Law Books for Catholic Europe.”
Timothy May (History, North Georgia College and State University)
“The Mongols and Afghanistan.”
Judith Kolbas (Senior Research Fellow, Macquarie University)
“Ogedai Khan’s Census at Qaraqorum in 635 / 1237.”
Paul D. Buell (Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University)
“Early Mongol Imperial Administration in the Secret History: Putting Fragmentary Information into Context.”
Daniel Franke (History, University of Rochester)
“Neve malum pro malo redderet: Engaging the Turk in German Chronicles of the Third Crusade.”
Sarah Celentano (Art History, University of Texas, Austin)
“The Illusion of Tolerance: the African Saint Maurice in High- to Late-Medieval Germany.”
S. Adam Hindin (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University)
“From Russia with Love: Trade with the Distant East in Hanseatic Germany.”
Tassos Papacosta (King’s College, Byzantine Studies)
“Domes and Medieval Religious Architecture: Cultural Contacts, Parallel Processes across the Mediterranean World.”
Mayassah Alsader (School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin)
“The Cross in Muslim Gardens.”
April L. Najjaj (History, Greensboro College)
“Muhammad V and Pedro I: Rooms for Exchange in 14th Century Spain.”
Introduction of the Second Keynote Speaker
Keynote Address by Professor Alfred J. Andrea
Closing Remarks
Catered reception at the Friday Center
Department of Art
ART 153/ASIA 153: Introduction to South Asian Art
Instructor: Pika Ghosh
Time: MWF 1-1.50
This course examines the production and uses of monuments, manuscripts, gardens, and
cities from the Indus Civilization to the twentieth century in South Asia. Through these
forms, we will explore the cultures that developed in the countries of India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and their interaction with each other through the
transmission of artifacts, ideas and belief systems.
ART/ASIA 154: Introduction to the Art & Architecture of the Islamicate Lands (7th - 16th c. CE)
Instructor: Glaire Anderson
Time: 12:30 -1:45 Tu,Th
Hamilton Hall Rm 0100
This course introduces medieval Islamicate civilization through its rich and diverse art and architectural traditions. Following a chronological framework organized by political dynasty and region, we will begin with the seventh-century establishment of the early empire, which stretched from the Mediterranean to the borders of South Asia, and end with the sixteenth-century expansion of the so-called Gunpowder Empires in present-day Turkey, Iran, and South Asia. By the end of the course students will understand the general socio-historical contexts within which Islamicate art and architecture developed, know the major dynasties of the pre-modern Islamic lands, and be able to identify the canon of Islamic art and architecture. Course requirements include quizzes and three short papers. Basic art historical methods and writing, critical reading, and humanities research skills will be emphasized throughout the term.
ART 450: The City as Monument: Urbanism in the Medieval Islamicate Mediterranean
Instructor: Glaire Anderson
Time: 9:30-10:45 Tu,Th
Hanes Art Center, Rm 218
What is the medieval Mediterranean? How do we define the city? Can we speak about “the” Islamic city? Taking these questions as central issues in the course, we will consider medieval Islamicate cities, with a special focus on those around the Mediterranean. We will emphasize the use of theoretical frameworks along with visual, material, and textual evidence to understand medieval urbanism and social history. We will begin by examining conceptions of the Mediterranean and of urbanism, then use a thematic structure to explore some of the major centers. Cordoba and Qayrawan, Baghdad and Samarra, Cairo and Constantinople, among other major cities, will be the focus of our readings and discussions. Class requirements include weekly reading and writing assignments and participation in discussions, and a research paper.
Department of Asian Studies
CHIN 361: Chinese Traditional Theater.
Instructor: Li-ling Hsiao
Time: 4:30-5:45 MW, fall 2008
This course surveys the history of Chinese traditional theater from its
early days to modern period. The course material will include texts, dance,
and music which are the essential features in traditional operatic theater.
The traditional theater of China represents a crucial intersection of many
elements within the culture. Theatrical texts include prose, poetry, and
illustration, while performance is enlivened by music and dance. During the
Ming era especially, drama culture reached beyond the theatre to embrace a
huge constituency of readers, importantly influencing the development of the
publishing industry. We thus need to draw together poetry, prose, criticism,
music, dance, art, and history to develop a clear picture of traditional
Chinese drama. In class we will examine performance footage, visual art and
dramatic texts. Knowledge of the Chinese language is not a requirement. VP,
WB, BN. [A&S Aesthetic perspective.]
Department of English and Comparative Literatures
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 121: Romancing the World
Instructor: Professor Marsha S. Collins
Time: MW 12:00 (plus recitation section on Th or F), 116 Murphey Hall
What do Heliodorus’ Ethiopica, Chretien de Troyes’ Yvain, Murasaki’s Tale of Genji, Cervantes’ Don Quijote, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and the Star Wars movies all have in common? The all bear the indelible, lasting imprint of romance. In this course, we will explore the enduring, diverse, and surprisingly complex literary world of romance. We will examine the conventions typical of romance-adventures, marvels, wonders, exotic lands, and the remarkable heroes and heroines who inhabit these fictional worlds-from classical antiquity to the present. We will also see how these conventions change within different sociohistorical contexts, and how authors revitalize romance traditions for a variety of purposes and effects. Our course will also focus on how the literary mode of romance is tied to changing representations of the “exotic” or the “foreign” in both the European and non-European literary traditions.
Texts will be selected from among the following:
Homer, The Odyssey
Herodotus, Histories
Heliodorus, Ethiopica
The Acts of the Apostles
Chretien de Troyes, Yvain
Murasaki, Tale of Genji
Marco Polo, Travel Journals
Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered
Wu Cheng’en, Journey to the West
Shakespeare, The Tempest
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Part 1 or Exemplary Tales
Voltaire, Candide
Richardson, Pamela
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 490: The Arts in Court Culture
Instructor: Professor Marsha S. Collins
Time: T 2-4:30 pm, 313 Dey Hall
The great courts of Early Modern Europe were lively centers of cultural activity and social interaction. This course focuses on literature and the visual arts produced in and around the Spanish Hapsburg courts of the 16th and 17th centuries as a paradigm of courtly cultural production, and as a paradigm of the close relationship between the verbal and the visual at the time. Art and literature of other Early Modern European courts (in Italy, England, etc.) will form an integral part of course study as well. Two visits to the “El Greco to Velázquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III” exhibit at Duke’s Nasher Museum will form a springboard for class activity, as will a visit to the Ackland Museum and to the Rare Book Room in Wilson Library. Students will gain experience in comparative studies involving different artistic media while studying major works of art and literature of Early Modern Europe. Such topics as the system of patronage, imitation of classical models, debates over imaginative literature, the establishment of academies, and the competition between the sister arts will be discussed. Please note that this course meets once a week, Tuesday 2:00-4:30 pm.
Texts will be selected from works by the following authors, among others: Ariosto, Tasso, Castiglione, Garcilaso, Cervantes, Lope, Calderón, Góngora, Zayas, Quevedo, More, Erasmus, Sydney, Raleigh, Shakespeare, Spenser
ENGL 320: Chaucer
Instructor: Wittig
Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Section 001
In this course we will read a representative cross-secion of Chaucer’s most important poetry: Troilus and Criseyde, The Parliament of Fowels, and much of The Canterbury Tales. We will read these works in the original Middle English (and students will be expected to give this their best shot). But the emphasis will be “literary,” not linguistic, concentrating on what Chaucer has to say and on understanding him in his historical, intellectual and literary context. Class attendance is expected. Teaching mithor: lecture and discussion. Requirements: Midterm and final exam; weekly modernization quizzes; one term paper. Syllabus (Fall 07) will be online at: http://www.unc.edu/~jwittig/320/en320.htm
Texts:
(required)
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales Complete. Benson, Larry D., ed. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395978238
Troilus and Criseyde. Barney, Stephen A., ed. Norton. ISBN 0393927555
(for the above may substitute The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd. ed. Houghton Mifflin: 1987 ISBN 0395290317)
(recommended)
Chaucer Glossary. Norman Davis, ed. (Oxford UP: 1979) ISBN 0198111711
Chaucer, Troilus & Criseyde. [a modern English translation] (Oxford UP: 1998) ISBN 0192832905
ENGL 719: OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
Instructor: Leinbaugh
Time: TuTh 12:30-1:45pm; Fall 2008
In this course we will learn to read Old English, the vernacular Germanic language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons in Britain from about the middle of the fifth century until the time of the Norman Conquest. Our primary texts will include Beowulf, The Battle of Brunanburh, Caedmon’s Hymn, The Seafarer, biblical excerpts, and selections from the writings of King Alfred the Great and Aelfric. We will note in passing the influence these texts exerted on writers such as Milton, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ezra Pound, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Seamus Heaney. And, in order to place these literary works into a broader cultural and historical context, we will briefly explore the history and material culture of the Anglo-Saxon era by studying Tacitus, Bede, and objects ranging from the treasures discovered at the Sutton Hoo ship-burial site to the richly illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels. Our textbooks will include Bright’s Old English Grammar and Reader and Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf. We will collaborate on a class project that will result in a web publication. There will be quizzes, translations, a mid-term, and a final. Open to graduate students and, by permission of the instructor, to undergraduates.
ENGL 723
Instructor: Don Kennedy
Time: 3-4:15 MW GL 318
The study of medieval authors and genres of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: authors include Gower, the English Chaucerians Lydgate and Hoccleve, the Scottish Chaucerians Henryson and Dunbar, Margery Kempe, Caxton, and as time permits, English and Scottish chroniclers and drama. Most texts read in Middle English. Texts will include a Middle English reader, and the first part of the course will be devoted to reading late Middle English and Middle Scots. Course open by permission to undergraduates who have taken ENGL 320 (Chaucer).
Department of History
HISTORY 286 /ASIA 286: Samurai, Peasant, Merchant and Outcaste: Japan under the Tokugawa 1550-1850
Instructor: Daniel Botsman
Time: MWF 10-10:50am (MU 104)
This class offers an introduction to the history of the Japanese archipelago in the age of the Tokugawa shoguns (warrior lords). Sometimes referred to as Japan early modern era, it was in
this period that samurai rule reached its highest level of sophistication, the workings of a dynamic commercial economy began to permeate all aspects of society, and much of what we now think of as traditional Japanese culture was created. Journeying along the great highways of the period to communities ranging in size from small villages to the largest cities in the pre-industrial world, students will be introduced to men and women from all stations of life, and
encouraged to develop their own view of the structures, tensions, and events that shaped Japanese society over these three centuries. Specific topics will include: the bloody battles of the warring states period; the changing role of samurai in an era of peace; persecution of Christianity; womens place in society; the rise of great merchant houses, such as Mitsui and Sumitomo; the vibrant world of Tokugawa popular culture; crime and punishment under samurai rule; patterns of discrimination and the situation of social outcastes; peasant rebellion and resistance; and the rich legacy of social and political thought generated by Tokugawa-era thinkers.
HISTORY 490: Research in Japanese History
Instructor: Daniel Botsman
Time: Tu 3-30-6:20pm (DE 204)
This class aims to provide students with an introduction to the challenges and pleasures of exploring pre-20th century Japanese history using Japanese reference works and original sources. At the beginning of the semester we will concentrate on learning how to use
various kinds of basic reference works, including historical dictionaries, collections of historical maps, guides to place names, and language dictionaries that can help students read older Japanese materials. After this we will gradually move on to the more challenging task of reading historical documents in Japanese. By the end of the semester it is hoped that students will be ready to begin grappling with documents written in the so-called epistolary style, which is particularly important for studying the social history of Japan in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods (17th-19th centuries). Students with interests in particular topics will also be encouraged to try and find materials to read that are relevant to those topics.
HIST 697: Myth and History (a capstone course)
Instructor: Prof. M. Bullard
Time: Tues. 3:30-6:20
This interdisciplinary capstone seminar seeks to explore, define, and advance our understanding of the relationship between myth and history,–how myth and legend have become incorporated into historical narratives, and how historical elements are molded into narratives of belief. We will look at how heroes are born, how posthumous images continue to evolve, and how the intangible factors of memory and belief help shape history. Case studies include medieval legends of the Holy Grail and other foundation stories. We will use a variety of approaches drawn from the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, religion, history, rhetoric, and literary criticism. Students are encouraged to select research topics that accord with their major interests.
Department of Music
MUSC 390H: Hildegard of Bingen
Instructor: Hana Vlhová-Wörner
TR 9:30-10:45
Hill Hall 207
Hildegard of Bingen, the famous medieval German mystic, poet, scientist and reformer, was an extremely influential woman during her lifetime. As a Benedictine nun who spent several decades in strict monastic enclosure, she later raised her voice for the moral renewal of the church, and became an advisor to many influential personalities. In her newly founded monastery, where she invited only daughters from rich noble families, she advocated religious life in contemplation, love, and ‘heavenly joy.’
In this seminar, we will focus on Hildegard’s musical-poetical works (chants for the liturgy, the mystical play Ordo virtutum) and try to understand her unique compositions by reading her letters, mystical and scientific writings (Scivias, Physica), as well as studying remarkable depictions related to her mystical visions. All texts are available in English translations. The ability to read music and knowledge of the Latin language are not required.
Textbook: Barbara Newman: Voice of the Living Light. Hildegard of Bingen and Her World. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998.
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
GERM 515: Old Norse II
Instructor: Roberge
Time: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 3.30-4.45pm
Reading and linguistic analysis of Old Norse texts, including the first book (”Gylfaginning”) of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda. Review of phonology, morphology, and syntax; comparison with other older dialects of Germanic. Prerequisite: Old Norse I or equivalent. (Graduate students interested in entry-level Old Norse should contact the instructor.)
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
FREN 370: Survey of French Literature, Medieval and Renaissance
Instructor: Dr. Dorothea Heitsch
MWF 9:00-9:50
Dey Hall 210
In this course we will read French texts from the twelfth to the sixteenth century and discuss what it means to read and write literature. Different genres, such as chanson de geste, fabliau, roman, essai, sonnet will be analysed in their socio-historical context and important concepts such as crusade, nationalism, courtly love, gender, scholasticism, humanism, and scepticism will be defined. Whenever possible, visual aids will be integrated in our analysis. Works will include the =93Chanson de Roland, Aucassin et Nicolette,Contes et fabliaux du Moyen Age, and authors
will include Christine de Pisan, Franois Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Louise Lab, and Michel de Montaigne. Dr. Dorothea Heitsch dheitsch@email.unc.edu
FRE 830: Cultural Diversity in Medieval France (Fall 2008)
Instructor: Professor Sahar Amer
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00-12:15 in New West 103
This course will introduce you to medieval French literature by focusing on French interactions with the Arab Islamicate world from the 11th to the 13th centuries. We will begin by addressing theoretical and critical issues essential to studying the medieval period in general and multiculturalism in the Middle Ages in particular. We will then turn our attention to a variety of literary genres (epic, romance, lais, lyric poetry) in order better to understand the complex dynamics of power and seduction between the East and the West, between Islam and Christianity, as well as the cultural and literary hybridity of medieval French textuality. As we analyze medieval French texts, we will juxtapose them to medieval Arabic cultural and literary material. This comparative, cross-cultural analysis will help you grasp the process of literary and cultural transmission from the Arab Islamicate world to the West. All texts will be available in either modern French or English translation, and no previous knowledge of Old French or Arabic is required. (However, those who have the linguistic ability will be encouraged to read the texts in the original).
There are two main objectives in this class: One (as the title of the course indicates) is to read and analyze medieval texts in their inherently intertextual and multicultural context; second to develop both a methodology to read medieval literary texts and to learn about the tools of research available to study the Middle Ages from a cross-cultural perspective.
Required Readings:
1. The Song of Roland (Lettres Gothiques)
2. Guillaume d’Orange: Four Twelfth-Century Epics, ed. Joan Ferrante (Columbia UP)
3. Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor (Champion)
4. Marie de France, Lais (Lettres Gothiques)
5. Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain ou le chevalier au lion (Lettres Gothiques)
6. Jean Renart, L’Escoufle (Champion)
7. Husain Haddawy, trans. Arabian Nights II (The Story of Qamar al-Zaman and Princess Boudour and the Story of Ni`ma and Nu`am)
ITAL 241: Italian Renaissance Literature in Translation
Instructor: RAO, E
Time: TR 11:00AM-12:15PM DE 0302
This course is designed to give students an introduction to the Renaissance period of literary production in Italy, with particular attention paid to the historical and social context in which the works were created. Readings from Petrarch, Boccaccio, Alberti, Pico della Mirandola, Leonardo da Vinci, Castiglione, Machiavelli and Ariosto.
ITAL 357: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio
Instructor: Professor Dino Cervigni
Time: TR 03:30PM-04:45PM
Dey 303
ITAL 534 (134 ): Petrarch & Lyric Tradition
Instructor: Professor Dino Cervigni
Time: M 03:30PM-06:00PM
Dey 102
A reading of Petrarch’s /Canzoniere/ within the context of ancient and biblical love poetry and previous lyric traditions (Provençal, Sicilian School, /dolce stil nuovo/, Dante). According to their own interests, students will be guided to investigate Petrarch’s influence upon lyric poetry throughout Europe (Petrarchism in Italy, France, Spain, and England). All texts will be in their original language and in English translation; discussion in English.
ITAL 751: Italian Renaissance Literature II - Cinquecento
Instructor: Rao, E
Time: TR 09:30AM-10:45AM DE 0202
A survey of 16th-century Italian literature, with close readings of Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, Machiavelli’s Il principe, and Castiglione’s Il cortegiano.
SPAN 371: Survey of Spanish Literature to 1700
Instructor: Professor Carmen Hsu
Time: TTH 11-12:15
An inquiry into the development of Spanish literature in its social-historical context from the Middle Ages to the 1680s. Based on close reading and discussion of some most representative works and authors, the primary goal of the course is twofold: 1) to give students a basic knowledge of and appreciation for the literature of the period proposed; 2) to improve students’ ability to read literature in Spanish, to talk about it, to think about it, to analyze it as well as to write coherent short papers about specific topics. The course will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
SPAN 702: The Trastamara Dynasty: 1369 TO 1504/1516 (3).
Instructor: Frank A. Dominguez
Time: TTh 11:00AM-12:15PM, Dey 210
The final shaping of Castile, the beginning of the Spanish nation, and its early American expansion studied through a variety of texts (chronicles, books of chivalry, travel, and novels, lyric and narrative poems). All texts will be in their original language and provided
through the course website.
SPAN 714 : Golden Age Poetry
Instructor: Professor Carmen Hsu
Time: TTH 12:30-1:45
A comprehensive study of the major developments in Spanish poetry over the course of nearly two centuries from the 1500s to the 1645s through the study of some most representative poets of the period. Based on close reading and analysis of selected poems, the course will examine their cultural, ideological, theoretical, and literary contexts of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. This graduate seminar will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Beginning with the earliest Islamic monument, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the course introduces the art and architecture of the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid dynasties. We will examine the major artistic monuments (primarily architecture, but also calligraphy, painting, ceramics, and other objects) produced around the Mediterranean, in Iraq, and in North Africa. The course uses a combination of lectures and group discussion to emphasize the socio-historical contexts within which the art and architecture of the Islamic lands developed. Required readings, a term research project, and short writing assignments (one based on direct analysis of an object in the Ackland Museum collection) provide an introduction to the major themes and regional variations characteristic of this period, and the opportunity to explore specific issues in greater depth than is possible in the general survey of Islamic art. The course fulfills the VP, BN and WB slots in the General Education curriculum.
This seminar focuses on the conventions and historiography of Orientalism, and the means by which ideology shapes representation. Adopting a flexible thematic framework, our discussions will begin with the critical and theoretical foundations (Said, Foucault) and explore the contours of Orientalism as it has developed as an art historical discourse informed by post-colonial studies and cultural criticism.
We will consider constructs of Otherness as revealed by moments of encounter between Europe and the “Orient†from Antiquity to the present: for example: pre-modern travel literature about the Islamic lands; European and American Orientalist painting and literature; recreations of Islamic architecture in the 19th West; as well as contemporary issues, such as the clash of civilizations, identity, multiculturalism, and hybridity, that shape the ways we see and interpret the world around us today.
Requirements include weekly reading and writing assignments and active participation in discussions. Students will be asked to introduce readings and to post discussion questions to the class Blackboard site. A final research paper will be presented in class before being submitted at the end of the term. CLAS 418/418H:
A study of women’s roles and influence in the Late Ancient and Byzantine world of the 4th to the 14th century, based primarily on literature and art.
While the medieval culture of Byzantium was dominated by men in the realms of politics, administration and the military, women were active in important areas of culture and society. We will read and discuss a number of contemporary Byzantine texts written by or about women. These and other, secondary sources shed light on issues, such as the options open to Byzantine women, their rights under the law, female asceticism and piety, women’s roles in religious life and communities, domestic life, and the gender roles assigned to ordinary women. Representations of women in art serve as testimony to their creative roles as donatrixes, patterns of life, styles of dress and adornment, and, of course, their actual appearance. Our study will enable us to know and “observe†these culturally remote but fascinating women who shared and contributed to one of the world’s great civilizations.
Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote of La Mancha (1605, 1615) is widely known as the first modern novel, and one could say that every novel written since Don Quijote establishes a creative dialogue with Cervantes’ masterpiece. Don Quijote’s influence in revolutionizing our concept of the imagination, and its role in life and literature, is perhaps just as important, but has received far less attention. In this course we will read and analyze Don Quijote, considering this work as a product of its time and culture, as the first modern novel, and as literature that has reshaped our notion of the human imagination. We will consider Don Quijote’s engagement with literary genres current in the 16th century, Cervantes’ experimentation with fictional form, the author’s staging of debates about the imagination and imaginative literature, and the changing reception of Don Quijote in different times and countries, along with the changing critical conceptions of this work. We will also view and discuss illustrations of Cervantes’ novel, and changing visual representations through the centuries. What is the legacy of Don Quijote for the modern novel and the modern concept of the imagination?
A survey of British literature from the beginnings to the age of Pope and Sam Johnson. The focus will be on narrative and lyric poetry, but we will also read some drama and some prose. (Syllabus from Spring 2007 will be available at: http://www.unc.edu/~jwittig/120/en120.htm); “guest†login to this semester’s version of the course should be available on Blackboard (English 120, Section 1).
Fills requirement for majors. Class attendance is expected. Teaching methods: Lecture and discussion. Requirements: Midterm and final exam. Two short (c. 5 page) interpretative papers.
In this course we will read a selection of Old English and Middle English literature, with hard texts read in modern English translation but with regular exposure to samples in the original. We will look at some of the most famous texts from the medieval period (Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, versions of King Arthur’s story) and some of the best known medieval genres (for example, Old English battle poetry, elegies and riddles; Middle English fabliaux, romances, animal tales, lyrics, writings by and for women). We both read them as literary “entertainment†and try to understand something of their historical and cultural context. The course will be taught as lecture and discussion.
We will have a midterm and final exam, quizzes (as needed), and two short papers. Class attendance is expected, as is participation in the class Blackboard Discussion Forum. For the syllabus and other information still available on the web from a previous version of this course (Spring 2006, under the “old†number of English 51), see: http://www.unc.edu/~jwittig/51/en51.htm
What do our feelings today have to do with emotions represented in historical sources? To what extent does social context govern emotional display? What is the relationship between the performance of emotions and their feeling? In this graduate seminar we will draw on a wide range of readings on emotion from diverse disciplinary fields to explore these and other questions. Our readings will help us to develop an understanding of emotion theory and issues of historical specificity. In addition we will read several important German medieval literary texts including Eilhart’s Tristan, Gottfried’s Tristan, Wolfram’s Willehalm, Hartmann’s Iwein, and the Nibelungenlied.
Prerequisite: Graduate-Level or permission of Instructor.
Readings Available in German or English
This course provides an introduction to the history of Europe and the Mediterranean world during the Middle Ages (ca. 300-1500), beginning with the transformations of the Roman world in late antiquity and concluding with the origins of the modern era. As a survey course, the class will explore events and developments in political, social and economic life. Special attention, however, will be paid to topics in religious and cultural history, including the authority of the Roman papacy, the crusades, the problem of heresy and trends in late medieval spirituality. In addition to covering the basic narrative and structures of medieval European history, this course will introduce students to some of the basic skills employed by historians (e.g. how to primary sources; identify and critique scholarly arguments; develop written arguments).
Would men and women be resurrected complete with their sexual identities? Did martyrs feel pain? Could women act as legitimate sources of divine revelation? “Between Flesh and Spirit: Gender, the Body and the Holy in Medieval Christianity†will explore the response to questions such as these from late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages. Students will explore the gendered language and logic of theological tracts, hagiographies, exegesis, illuminated manuscripts and other materials as they relate to problems of the body and sanctity, including the resurrection of the flesh at the end of time, the act of martyrdom, the cult of relics, the judicial ordeal and claims of spiritual revelation. This class is intended for advanced sophomores, juniors and seniors. Anticipated enrollment will be around 15 students. As a history course, students will be expected to analyze primary source materials (more on this class) and interpret them as part of their broader political, social and cultural context. Although the class will incorporate some formal lecture, the burden will be on the students to participate actively in discussion of the shared readings and to carry out other class-related assignments. Although not required, it is highly suggested that students take one of the following course before enrolling: Introduction to Medieval Europe, Gender and Sexuality in the Western Christian Tradition, or Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions.
War has occurred throughout recorded history, and war is a factor in many of Shakespeare’s plays. In some it permeates the action; in others it is secondary but significant. In Hamlet, for example, the prince’s familial conflicts are matched by Norway’s warlike designs on Denmark: our focus will be on the latter, not on Hamlet’s problems with his parents and girlfriend.
Like the work of other great artists who have long creative careers, Shakespeare’s changed over time. We therefore usually take up his plays in the order he wrote them. For some of them, selected readings essential for this course will be announced as we proceed.
Prerequisites, SPAN 260 and 300 or equivalent. The literature of Spain through 1700. Representative authors of Spanish literature from the medieval, Renaissance, and Golden Age.
An inquiry into the development of Spanish literature in its social and historical context from the Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century.
Prerequisites for undergraduates SPAN 371 and 372 or 373. A comprehensive study of the most representative plays of the Golden Age Spanish theater from its Renaissance beginnings through the seventeenth century.
To make a gift online to MEMS using your credit card you may go to the Arts & Sciences Foundation “Make a Gift Now” page:
2) *IMPORTANT * On the next page, “2. Make a Gift,†first fill out the information under “Gift Designation 1.â€
a) under “ Select a University Designation â€
CHOOSE “ College of Arts and Sciences †from the drop down list.
b) under the next “ then, Select a University Fund â€:
CHOOSE “ Other (Designate in `Other Instruction’ Box, below) †from the drop-down list
c) in the immediately following box, “ Other Instructions â€
TYPE Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Program
d) under Enter An Amount enter your intended gift.
Then complete the personal information requested on the lower part of the page.
If you prefer to make a donation by check, please contact the Arts & Sciences Foundation, Campus Box 6115, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-6115. If you’re interested in making a gift of stock, or want information on making a planned gift, please call the Foundation at (919) 962-0108.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Click on the links below for information about faculty and graduate student grants and awards:
Please check back soon for a long-term calendar of MEMS events.
Description
The Undergraduate Minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies provides students with a broad, humanities-based approach to the rich and fascinating cultures that flourished from around 500CE to 1800CE globally. This challenging, interdisciplinary minor cuts across departments and disciplines and encourages students to discover connections among diverse aspects of medieval and early modern culture. Currently there are twelve departments and over one hundred and fifty departmental offerings from among which students may create their minors — an amazingly rich pool of resources!
Advising
The advising of minors will be conducted by members of the MEMS faculty. Students will work with the MEMS minor supervisor (Professor Brett Whalen, History, bwhalen@email.unc.edu) to select an advisor whose interests generally match their own. The advisors for the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Minor interview and correspond with students individually at an initial stage, help them formulate their minor curriculum, and then track their progress and needs until graduation. The most important role of the advisor is to work out a coherent theme and scheme of courses to be taken for the minor in conference with each student. The course selection is meant to represent a definable facet of medieval and/or early modern culture that can be seen from different disciplinary perspectives. A work sheet is used to set out the structure of each student’s minor and is kept on file in the MEMS office. The advisor adds names of new minors to the listserv for the Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, so that they are apprised of receptions, lectures, brown bag lunches, and films and other events sponsored by MEMS. Approval by the advisor of each student’s minor curriculum is required by the College of Arts and Sciences before credit will be given and the minor entered on the student’s transcript at graduation. Advising is crucial in helping the student work out a coherent and interdisciplinary group of courses.
Coursework
Five courses are taken for the minor. They are distributed over three departments. One of these courses is a core course, and at least one is at the advanced, 300-level. There are currently six core courses:
ART 264: Medieval Art in Western Europe
ART 154: Introduction to the Art & Architecture of the Islamic Lands
HIST 107: Introduction to Medieval History
HIST 158: Early Modern European History, 1450-1815
ENGL 319: Introduction to Medieval English Literature
ENGL 327 Renaissance Literature and Its Intellectual Contexts
These core courses and intended to provide an overview of medieval or early modern culture in that discipline and to provide a foundation for broader interdisciplinary study. Substitutions are permitted as student and advisor work out the theme and rationale for each individual curriculum. Additional advising comes in conjunction with the student’s choice of a core course, as he or she works with the professor in charge of the core course to further develop a strategy for a meaningful integration of the minor into the rest of the student’s curriculum or career plans. It is usually recommended that the second course in the core department be an advanced course, or above the 300-level. Three more courses are distributed between two departments. Courses may not be counted for both the major and the minor (i.e. double counted), however a student may use up to two courses taken in the department of his or her declared major toward the minor. A student who has taken one of the above listed core courses that counts for his or her major may be exempt from taking an additional core course but must still take five MEMS courses (up to two of which may be in the major department).
Courses that may count toward the Minor in MEMS:
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH 054 FYS: The Indians’ New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800
ANTH 121 Ancient Cities of the Americas
ART HISTORY
ART 54 Introduction to the Art & Architecture of the Islamic Lands
ART 90 Art & Architecture in the Age of the CaliphsART 151 History of Western Art
ART 264 Medieval Survey
ART 265 Medieval Iconography
ART 266 Early and Modern Indian Art (ASIA 266)
ART 270 Early Renaissance in Italy
ART 271 High Renaissance in Italy
ART 273 Art under the Mughal Dynasty (ASIA 273)
ART 274 European Baroque Art
ART 362 Early Christian Art & Modern Response
ART 450 City as Monument: Cordoba and urbanism in the medieval Islamicate Mediterranean
ART 458 Islamic Palaces, Gardens and Court Cultures
ART 467 Celtic Art and Cultures
ART 471 Northern European Art
ART 472 Early Modern Western Art
ART 561 Architecture and Society in Medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa
ART 956 Graduate Seminar in Islamic Art
ART 961 Seminar in Medieval Art
ASIAN STUDIES
ASIA 131 Southeast Asia to the Early 19th Century (HIST 131)
ASIA 135 South Asian History to 1750 (HIST 135)
ASIA 138 Introduction to Islamic Civilization (HIST 138)
ASIA 180 Introduction to Islamic Civilization (RELI 180)
ASIA 266 Arts of Early and Medieval India (ART 266)
ASIA 273 Arts under the Mughal Dynasty in India (ART 273)
ASIA 286 Samurai, Peasant, Merchant, and Outcaste: Japan under the Tokugawa, 1550-1850 (HIST 286)
ARAB 433 Medieval Arabic Literature in Translation
JAPN 377 Cultural Studies of Early Modern Japan
CLASSICS
CLAS 259 Pagans and Christians in the Age of Constantine
CLAS 418 Byzantine Civilization
LAT 205 Medieval Latin
LAT 514 Readings in Latin Literature of Later Antiquity
LAT 530 Introduction to Medieval Latin
ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
ENGL 120 British Literature, Chaucer to Pope
ENGL 225 Shakespeare
ENGL 226 Renaissance Drama
ENGL 227 Literature of the Earlier Renaissance
ENGL 228 Literature of the Later Renaissance
ENGL 229 Renaissance Women Writers
ENGL 230 Milton
ENGL 319 Intro to Medieval English Literature
ENGL 320 Chaucer
ENGL 321 Medieval and Modern Arthurian Romance (CMPL 321)
ENGL 322 Medieval England and Its Literary Neighbors
ENGL 325 Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
ENGL 326 Renaissance Genres
ENGL 327 Renaissance Literature and Its Intellectual Contexts
ENGL 328 Renaissance Authors
ENGL 330 Perspectives on the Renaissance
ENGL 331 18th-Century Literature
ENGL 332 18th-Century Drama
ENGL 418 Old English Literature-Contemporary Issues
ENGL 424 Middle English Literature-Contemporary Issues
ENGL 430 Renaissance Literature-Contemporary Issues
ENGL 525 Senior Seminar in Renaissance Literature
ENGL 660 War in Shakespeare’s Plays
CMPL 120 Epic and Lyric Traditions
CMPL 121 Romancing the World
CMPL 122 Literary and Visual Traditions from Antiquity to 1700
CMPL 123 Literature and Politics from Classical Antiquity to 1750
CMPL 124 Literature and Science, Antiquity through 1750
CMPL 321 Medieval and Modern Arthurian Romance
CMPL 364 Classical Backgrounds to English Literature
CMPL 452 The Middle Ages
CMPL 454 Literature of the Continental Renaissance in translation
CMPL 456 The 18th-Century Novel
CMPL 458 Sense, Sensibility, Sensuality 1740-1810
CMPL 535 Boccaccio and European Narrative
CMPL 621 Arthurian Romance
GERMAN
GERM 053 First-Year Seminar: Early Germanic Culture: Myth, Magic, Murder and Mayhem
GERM 058 First-Year Seminar: Love in the Middle Ages
GERM 210 Getting Medieval: Knights, Violence and Romance in the Middle Ages and Today
GERM 216 The Viking Age
GERM 220 Women in the Middle Ages (WMST 212)
GERM 310 Höfische Kultur/Courtly Culture
GERM 311 The Crusades
GERM 500 History of the German Language
GERM 502 Middle High German
GERM 505 Early New High German
GERM 508 Old High German
GERM 511 Old Saxon
GERM 514 Old Norse I (Old Icelandic)
GERM 515 Old Norse II (Old Icelandic)
GERM 517 Gothic
GERM 615 History of German Literature I
HISTORY
HIST 107 Introduction to Medieval History
HIST 110 Native North America (AMST 110)
HIST 127 United States History to 1865
HIST 138 Introduction to Islamic Civilization
HIST 142 Latin America Under Colonial Rule
HIST 151 History of Western Civilization to 1650
HIST 156English History to 1688
HIST 177 The Apocalypse in the Christian Middle Ages (Honors Seminar)
HIST 228 The Medieval Expansion of Europe
HIST 254 War and Society in Early Modern Europe (PWAD 254)
HIST 255 Manor to Machine: The Economic Shaping of Europe
HIST 258 Women in Europe Before 1750
HIST 259 Women in Europe Since 1750
HIST 280 Women and Gender in Latin American History (WMST 80)
HIST 286 Samurai, Peasant, Merchant and Outcaste: Japan Under the Tokugawa, 1550-1850
HIST 351 Global History of Warfare
HIST 391 Medieval Europe & the Crusading Experience
HIST 391 Florence, Cradle of the Renaissance
HIST 391 Luther and the German Reformation
HIST 395 Cultural Identities in Colonial North America
HIST 395 Violence in the Early Modern Western World
HIST 397 The History of Race in Latin America
HIST 431 The Medieval Church
HIST 436 Between Flesh and Spirit: Gender, the Body and the Holy in the Middle Ages
HIST 452 The Renaissance
HIST 453 Mediterranean Societies and Economies in the Renaissance World
HIST 454 The Reformation
HIST 456 France in the Age of Enlightenment, 1715-1787
HIST 457 The French Revolution, 1787-1815
HIST 459 France in the Age of Monarchy, 1337-1715
HIST 460 Late Medieval and Reformation Germany
HIST 461 Early Modern Germany, 1600-1815
HIST 467 Society and Family in Early Modern Europe
HIST 473 Tudor and Stuart England, 1485-1660
HIST 490 Gender and Japanese History
HIST 490 Race in Early America
HIST 561 The American Colonial Experience
HIST 574 Spanish Borderlands in North America
HIST 697 Myth and History
MUSIC
MUSC 251 Studies in Music History to 1650
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
RELI 64 Introduction to Islam
RELI 180 Introduction to Islamic Civilization
RELI 283 The Buddhist Tradition: India, Nepal, and Tibet
RELI 284 The Buddhist Tradition: East Asia
RELI 285 The Buddhist Tradition: Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka
RELI 286 Pre-Modern Japanese Religions
RELI 288 Chinese Religions
RELI 366 Medieval Religious Texts
RELI 367 The Art of Devotion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
RELI 371 Women Mystics
RELI 454 The Reformation
RELI 463 Medieval Slavic Culture
RELI 488 Shinto in Japanese History
RELI 581 Sufism
RELI 582 Islam and Islamic Art in South Asia
RELI 584 The Qur’an as Literature
ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
FREN 370 Survey of French Literature I
FREN 371 Survey of French Literature II
ITAL 240 Dante in English Translation
ITAL 241 Italian Renaissance Literature in Translation
ITAL 357 The World of Petrarch and Boccaccio
ITAL 370 Survey of Italian Literature I
ITAL 511 Survey of Italian Literature and Culture I (to 1600)
PORT 501 Survey of Portuguese Literature I
SPAN 280 Cervantes in English Translation
SPAN 371 Survey of Spanish Literature to 1700
SPAN 383 Medieval Spanish Literature
SPAN 384 Spanish Literature of the Renaissance
SPAN 617 Cervantes
SPAN 650 The Spanish Comedia of the Golden Age
SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES:
SLAV 463 Medieval Slavic Culture (RELI 465)
SLAV 500 Old Church Slavonic
WOMEN’S STUDIES
WMST 220 Women in the Middle Ages (GERM 220)
WMST 258 Women in Europe Before 1750 (HIST 258)
WMST 294 Courtship and Courtliness
The new Program in MEMS (Medieval and Early Modern Studies) at UNC, Chapel Hill, will host an interdisciplinary conference on topics of cultural mediation, interchange, and conflict in the premodern world. Areas of geographical concentration will include Europe, the Atlantic world, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Key-note addresses will be offered by Professor Karen Ordhal Kupperman (Silver Professor of History at New York University), and Professor Alfred J. Andrea (Professor Emeritus of History, University of Vermont).
This conference is supported by the College of Arts and Sciences; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Program for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at UNC; the Associate Provost for International Affairs, UNC; and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Duke University.
Please click here for a provisional program of the conference presentations.
The conference will be held at the UNC Friday Center. Lunch will be provided on site for registered participants on both Friday and Saturday. Registered participants are also invited to a catered wine reception both on Friday evening (held at the Institute for Arts and Humanities on the UNC main campus) and on Saturday evening (held at the Friday Center).
Click here for the registration form. Advance registration fees (including lunches and receptions) are $40 or faculty and other guests; $25 for graduate students. Payment can made by check or international money order, made out to MEMS, UNC, Global Encounters Committee. Please send the registration form and fee to the Global Encounters Organizing Committee, c/o Professor Brett Whalen, CB 3195, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.
Advance registration will be open until October 1. On-site registration will cost $55/$40.
Participants are responsible for arranging and funding their airfare and lodgings. The nearest airport to Chapel Hill is Raleigh-Durham (RDU). During certain hours, transportation by bus will be available between the airport, approved hotels (see below), and downtown Chapel Hill. Rooms at a reduced rate have been blocked out at the following hotels (reduced rates available until 10/01/08):
The Hampton Inn Suites ($89 per night) and Holiday Inn Express ($83 per night), near I-40, a short drive or bus ride from the Friday Center: to book at the Hampton Inn, log into www.hampton-inn.com/hi/chapelhillsuites; the group code is GEM. Or, call the hotel directly at 919-403-8700 (please provide the event name). To book at the Holiday Inn Express, log into www.hiexpress.com/chapelhillnc; the group code is GEM. Or, call the hotel directly at 919-489-7555 (please provide the event name).
The Courtyard by Marriott ($139 per night) across the street from the Friday Center): to book log into www.marriott.com/rduch; the group code is either GLOGLOA-King Room or GLOGLOA-Queen Room. Or, call the hotel directly at 1-919-883-0700; 1-800-321-2211 (please provide the event name).
The Franklin Hotel ($159-$172 per night), downtown Chapel Hill, a short drive or bus ride from the Friday Center: to book, please call the hotel directly at 919-442-9000 and identify yourself as a participant in the Global Encounters conference.
Further questions should be directed to Professor Brett Whalen at bwhalen@email.unc.edu.
The inaugural lecture of the Crossroads Lecture Series was delivered on March 18, 2008, by Prof. David Abulafia (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University). Professor Abulafia, who has done extensive scholarly work on the economic, social, and political history of the Mediterranean lands in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, spoke on “The First Atlantic Slaves, 1350-1520: Conquest, Slavery, and the Opening of the Atlantic.”
This fascinating lecture was the first in a series of talks, free and open to the public, designed to address issues of cultural exchange in the medieval and early modern periods. The purpose of the Crossroads Lecture Series, sponsored by the newly-established Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) at UNC, is to foster new and innovative perspectives on medieval and early modern studies within a broad geographic and cultural scope, focusing in particular on relations between Byzantium, the Muslim world, and the Christian west.
Professor Abulafia’s extensive research into the interaction of the three religions in medieval Spain and Sicily, including the problem of Jewish (and Muslim) ’servitude,’.made him a particularly apt speaker to launch the series. One of his major interests is the opening of the eastern and western Atlantic in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with particular emphasis on the encounter of Europeans with native peoples.
In his lecture on March 18, Professor Abulafia demonstrated how an Atlantic slave trade developed out of the much older Mediterranean slave trade; how it came to encompass first the Canary Islands and then West Africa; how it then became extended to the first areas of the New World to be visited by Europeans; and finally how a slave trade came to link Africa to the New World, as labor shortages in the first Spanish colonies created demand for the slaves sold by the Portuguese. The Crossroads Lecture Committee looks forward to hosting one or two lectures annually.
Event Sponsors: UNC College of Arts and Sciences, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS).
Click here for a Pdf of the recent MEMS Newsletter (2007-2008), which includes information on past talks, faculty hires, grant recipents and more MEMS activities at Carolina.
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
Fill out the form below to receive announcements about MEMS related events.
The Program in MEMS at UNC-Chapel Hill supports scholarly work that expands the traditional focus of Medieval and Early Modern studies. Of particular interest are cultural contacts and exchanges within and beyond Europe, to Byzantine and Islamic lands, to Africa, China, Southeast Asia, and Japan, and to the New World of the Caribbean and the Americas.
MEMS thereby offers a global approach to Medieval and Early Modern studies, one that highlights the profound impact of intellectual, cultural, and economic commerce both within and beyond the traditional borders of the European world. In their teaching and research, Carolina faculty recognize medieval and early modern culture to be defined in large measure by that culture’s tendency to explore, analyze, and incorporate ideas and influences from other cultures - from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires in the near East, to China and Japan in the far East, to the northern and Western reaches of Europe (Iceland, Russia, Ireland), to the Caribbean, Latin American, and North American territories of the New World.
Currently, more than 60 faculty members across 10 departments in the humanities and fine arts teach and conduct research about the period, which stretches in its European context from the fall of the Roman Empire through the 18th century. Their work spans an impressively broad historical and geographical spectrum, ranging from late antiquity through the end of the seventeenth century and from Christian, Jewish and Islamic cultures of the middle ages, to Northern Germanic, Nordic, and Celtic art and culture, to the intellectual and economic commerce between Europe and Africa, the Far East, and the New World. In addition to expanding the traditional geographical boundaries of Medieval and Early Modern studies, the MEMS program at Carolina is especially rich in faculty and resources devoted to the cultural transmission and translation of texts and ideas across both time and space. The MEMS program thus gives our existing strengths in medieval and early modern studies a new impetus and global reach.
