MEMS Minor courses | Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies

The following courses are approved for the Minor in MEMS. Also, consult the Undergraduate Bulletin for a list of officially approved courses. Other courses, including those offered at Duke University and other institutions, may be eligible for credit toward the minor. For approval, submit a copy of the syllabus and a statement about the course’s engagement with Medieval and Early Modern Studies to Brett Whalen, the Program Director.

You can see a list of our current course offerings here. Past course offerings can be viewed through the links at the bottom of the page.

AMERICAN STUDIES

AMST 054: First-Year Seminar: The Indians’ New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 (ANTH 054)
AMST 110: Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America (HIST 110)

ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH 054: First-Year Seminar: The Indians’ New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 (AMST 054)
ANTH 121: Ancient Cities of the Americas

ART HISTORY

ARTH 054: First-Year Seminar: Art, War, and Revolution
ARTH 151: History of Western Art I
ARTH 154: Introduction to Art and Architecture of Islamic Lands, 8th–16th Centuries CE (ASIA 154)
ARTH 158: Introduction to East Asian Art and Architecture (ASIA 158)
ARTH 251: Art and Architecture in the Age of the Caliphs, 7th–12th Centuries (ASIA 251)
ARTH 258: Chinese Art and Culture: from Han to Tang
ARTH 264: Medieval Art in Western Europe
ARTH 265: Medieval Iconography
ARTH 266: Arts of Early and Medieval India (ASIA 266)
ARTH 270: Early Renaissance Art in Italy
ARTH 271: High Renaissance Art in Italy
ARTH 272: Northern European Art: Van Eyck to Breugel
ARTH 273: Art under the Mughal Dynasty in India (ASIA 273)
ARTH 274: European Baroque Art
ARTH 362: Early Christian Art and Modern Response
ARTH 363: Envisioning Buddhism in Medieval China
ARTH 365: Late Medieval Art
ARTH 450: City as Monument: Cordoba and Urbanism in the Medieval Islamicate Mediterranean
ARTH 458: Islamic Palaces, Gardens and Court Cultures, 8th–16th Centuries CE (ASIA 458)
Cathedrals, Abbeys, Castles: Gothic Art and Architecture, ca. 1130–1500
ARTH 466: History of the Illuminated Book
ARTH 467: Celtic Art and Cultures
ARTH 471: Northern European Art of the 14th and 15th Centuries
ARTH 472: Early Modern Art, 1400–1750
ARTH 490: (based on topic)
ARTH 561: Art and Society in Medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa (ASIA 561)

ASIAN STUDIES

Arabic

ARAB 433: Medieval Arabic Literature in Translation

Asian Studies

ASIA 055: First-Year Seminar: Kung-Fu: The Concept of Heroism in Chinese Culture
ASIA 131: Southeast Asia to the Early 19th Century (HIST 131)
ASIA 135: History and Culture of Hindus and Muslims: South Asia to 1750 (HIST 135)
ASIA 138: History of Muslim Societies to 1500 (HIST 138)
ASIA 154: Introduction to the Art and Architecture of Islamic Lands, 8th–16th Centuries CE (ARTH 154)
ASIA 158: Introduction to East Asian Art and Architecture (ARTH 158)
ASIA 180: Introduction to Islamic Civilization (RELI 180)
ASIA 183: Asian Religions (RELI 183)
ASIA 251: Art and Architecture in the Age of the Caliphs, 7th–12th Centuries (ARTH 251)
ASIA 266: Arts of Early and Medieval India (ARTH 266)
ASIA 273: Arts under the Mughal Dynasty in India (ARTH 273)
ASIA 284:The Buddhist Tradition: East Asia (RELI 284)
ASIA 285: The Buddhist Tradition: Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka (RELI 285)
ASIA 286: Samurai, Peasant, Merchant, and Outcaste: Japan under the Tokugawa, 1550–1850 (HIST 286)
ASIA 300: The Buddhist Tradition: India, Nepal, and Tibet (RELI 283)
ASIA 301: (RELI 288)
ASIA 487: Mountains, Pilgrimages, and Sacred Places in Japan (RELI 487)
ASIA 488: Shinto in Japanese History (RELI 488)
ASIA 489: Animals in Japanese Religion (RELI 489)
ASIA 561: Art and Society in Medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa (ARTH 561)
ASIA 581: Sufism (RELI 581)
ASIA 582: Islam and Islamic Art in South Asia (RELI 582)
ASIA 584: The Qu’ran as Literature (RELI 584)

Arabic

ARAB 433: Medieval Arabic Literature in Translation

Japanese

JAPN 377: Cultural Studies of Early Modern Japan

CLASSICS

Classics

CLAS 259: Pagans and Christians in the Age of Constantine
CLAS 364: Classical Backgrounds to English Literature (CMPL 364)
CLAS 418: Byzantine Civilization

Latin

LATN 205: Medieval Latin
LATN 514: Readings in Latin Literature of Later Antiquity
LATN 530: Introduction to Medieval Latin

ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

English

ENGL 120: British Literature, Medieval to 18th Century
ENGL 223: Middle English Literature—Contemporary Issues
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: Introduction to Medieval English Literature, excluding Chaucer
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 333: 18th-Century Fiction
ENGL 423: 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 621: Arthurian Romance (CMPL 621)
ENGL 630: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
ENGL 660: War in Shakespeare’s Plays (PWAD 660)

Comparative Literature

CMPL 120: Great Books I: Epic and Lyric Traditions
CMPL 121: Great Books I: Romancing the World
CMPL 122: Great Books I: Visual Arts and Literature from Antiquity to 1750
CMPL 123: Great Books I: Literature and Politics from Classical Antiquity to 1750
CMPL 124: Great Books I: Literature and Science, Antiquity through 1750
CMPL 223: Middle English Literature—Contemporary Issues (ENGL 223)
CMPL 268: The Medieval Frame Tale: Chaucer, Boccaccio, and the Arabian Nights
CMPL 277: Myth, Fable, Novella: The Long History of the Short Story
CMPL 321: Medieval and Modern Arthurian Romance (ENGL 321)
CMPL 364: Classical Backgrounds to English Literature (CLAS 364)
CMPL 365: Cervantes’ Don Quixote and the Birth of the Imagination
CMPL 452: The Middle Ages
CMPL 453: The Erotic 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 473: Drama, Pageantry, and Spectacle in Medieval Europe
CMPL 474: Cannibals, Kings, and Holy Men: Ethnography and Early European Literature
CMPL 478: The Medieval Frame Tale: Chaucer, Boccaccio, and the Arabian Nights
CMPL 558: The Lives and Times of Medieval Corpses
CMPL 621: Arthurian Romance (ENGL 621)
CMPL 622: Medieval Cosmopolitanisms

GERMANIC AND SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES:

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 220)
GERM 225: Popular and Pious: Early Modern Jewish Literature
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

Slavic

SLAV 463: Medieval Slavic Culture (RELI 465)
SLAV 500: Old Church Slavonic

HISTORY

HIST 107: Medieval History
HIST 110: Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America (AMST 110)
HIST 127: United States History to 1865
HIST 131: Southeast Asia to the Early 19th Century (ASIA 131)
HIST 135: History and Culture of Hindus and Muslims: South Asia to 1750 (ASIA 135)
HIST 138: History of Muslim Societies to 1500 (ASIA 138)
HIST 142: Latin America Under Colonial Rule
HIST 151: European History to 1650
HIST 156: English History to 1688
HIST 177H: 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 (WMST 258)
HIST 280: Women and Gender in Latin American History (WMST 280)
HIST 351: Global History of Warfare (PWAD 351)
HIST 398: (based on topic)
HIST 431: The Medieval Church
HIST 432: The Crusades
HIST 434: Medieval England
HIST 435: The Medieval University
HIST 436: Medieval Theology and the Body
HIST 437: Aristocratic Culture in the Central Middle Ages
HIST 452: The Renaissance: Italy, Birthplace of the Renaissance, 1300–1550
HIST 453: Mediterranean Societies and Economics in the Renaissance World
HIST 454: The Reformation (RELI 454)
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, 1484–1660
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

Peace, War, & Defense

PWAD 254: War and Society in Early Modern Europe (HIST 254)
PWAD 351: Global History of Warfare (HIST 351)
PWAD 660: War in Shakespeare’s Plays (ENGL 660)

PHILOSOPHY

PHIL 215: Medieval Philosophy
PHIL 220: Modern Philosophy: Descartes to Hume
PHIL 415: Topics in Medieval Philosophy
PHIL 421: Empiricism
PHIL 422: Rationalism
PHIL 470: Political Philosophy from Hobbes to Rousseau

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

RELI 064: First-Year Seminar: Reintroducing Islam
RELI 161: Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions
RELI 165: Mysticism
RELI 180: Introduction to Islamic Civilization (ASIA 180)
RELI 183: Asian Religions (ASIA 183)
RELI 199: Traditional Jewish Writings
RELI 283: The Buddhist Tradition: India, Nepal, and Tibet (ASIA 300)
RELI 284: The Buddhist Tradition: East Asia (ASIA 284)
RELI 285: The Buddhist Tradition: Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka (ASIA 285)
RELI 286: Pre-Modern Japanese Religions (ASIA 301)
RELI 288: Chinese Religions (ASIA 303)
RELI 362: Mary in the Christian Tradition
RELI 366: Medieval Religious Texts
RELI 367: The Art of Devotion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
RELI 371: Women Mystics (WMST 371)
RELI 450: Sexuality and Marriage in Jewish Tradition and History
RELI 454: The Reformation (HIST 454)
RELI 463: Medieval Slavic Culture (SLAV 463)
RELI 487: Mountains, Pilgrimage, and Sacred Places in Japan (ASIA 487)
RELI 488: Shinto in Japanese History (ASIA 488)
RELI 489: Animals in Japanese Religion (ASIA 489)
RELI 525: Jews and the Medieval Bible
RELI 566: Jewish Legal Literature
RELI 581: Sufism (ASIA 581)
RELI 582: Islam and Islamic Art in South Asia (ASIA 582)
RELI 584: The Qur’an as Literature (ASIA 584)
RELI 586: Women and Gender in Japanese Religions

ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

French

FREN 370: Survey of French Literature I
FREN 371: Survey of French Literature II
FREN 387: Paris/Versailles: The Court and the City in the Seventeenth Century
FREN 594: Writing the Mediterranean: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Early Modern World

Italian

ITAL 240: Dante in English Translation
ITAL 241: Italian Renaissance Literature in Translation
ITAL 357: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio in English
ITAL 370: Survey of Italian Literature I
ITAL 511: Survey of Italian Literature and Culture I (to 1600)

Portuguese

PORT 501: Survey of Portuguese Literature I

Spanish

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 and the Quijote
SPAN 650: The Spanish Comedia of the Golden Age

WOMEN’S and Gender STUDIES

WMST 220: Women in the Middle Ages (GERM 220)
WMST 258: Women in Europe Before 1750 (HIST 258)
WMST 294: Courtship and Courtliness
WMST 371: Women Mystics (RELI 371)

Past Course Offerings: