MEMS Minor courses
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)