The Medieval Studies Program

The study of the Middle Ages is by its very nature interdisciplinary and multicultural because it covers the history and culture of Europe (and often other regions as well) from late antiquity through the fifteenth century. Medieval Studies thus provides a basis for far-ranging interdisciplinary study of the art, history, literature, languages, philosophy, religion, and science through a thousand years of European history. Although the medieval period is sometimes dismissed as an era of cultural stasis or decline, medieval Europe laid the foundations of modern science and constitutional government, developed the first universities, established the nation-state and the system of trial by jury, launched the crusades, and contributed in many other ways to the world that today's students have inherited and need to understand. Hence the study of this period plays an important role in a liberal arts education--a role recognized by its prominent place in numerous curricula at this university, including Integrated Liberal Studies and many departmental majors, and also by its perennial appeal as a subject for seminars and short courses in the Division of Continuing Studies.

As a completely interdepartmental, interdisciplinary program, Medieval Studies at the UW-Madison has no budgeted faculty members of its own. The Program's Chair and Steering Committee are all recruited from the faculty of participating departments. To fulfill its mission to the University community and beyond, the Program relies primarily on 28 faculty members in the following departments and programs: African Languages, Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, Folklore, French and Italian, German, History, History of Science, Languages and Cultures of Asia, Linguistics, Medical History, Music, Religious Studies, Scandinavian Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Women's Studies. Another 14 members of the current Madison faculty have an interest in medieval studies and occasionally teach courses that touch on the medieval period, and a number of distinguished emeritus professors continue to participate in our activities. While benefitting from the research activities of those faculty and academic staff associated with it, Medieval Studies is primarily a teaching program and a unit that organizes and coordinates medieval events on campus and various outreach activities.

Although the Medieval Studies Program itself does not have degree-granting authority, many graduate students take an interdisciplinary selection of medieval courses to fulfill the Option B minor for the Ph.D. degree, and one student has successfully completed the M.A. in Medieval Studies under the auspices of the Special Committee Degree option. A few undergraduates have completed the B.A. degree in Medieval Studies under the Individual Major option of the College of Letters and Science, and many others have completed our long-established certificate program. Further information about both that certificate and the new Honors certificate in Medieval Studies can be found elsewhere on this website, as can lists of current and upcoming medieval course offerings.

Since its formal establishment some thirty-five years ago, Wisconsin's Medieval Studies Program has maintained an excellent reputation in North America for the variety and range of its courses, the expertise and diversity of its faculty, and the number and scope of its activities. It maintains a strong relationship with the Medieval Academy of America and through CARA (= Centers and Regional Associations, a standing committee of the Medieval Academy) with other medieval programs in North America. It also participates actively in the Worldwide University Network (WUN), sharing resources with other major medieval programs in Europe as well as North America through video seminars, conferences, and other scholarly activities.

In recent years the Program and its participating faculty have hosted the annual meeting of the Medieval Association of the Midwest (September 2001), the Eleventh Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society (August 2004), and a number of major conferences on specific topics, including "Giovanni Boccaccio and Fourteenth-Century Italian Culture" (April 2006), "Medieval Multilingualism in England, France and Italy" (September 2006), "Dante Alighieri and Medieval Cultural Traditions" (March 2007), "Word, Text, and Print: A Conference [mostly on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts] in Honor of A.N. Doane (May 2007), "Al-Andalus: Cultural Diffusion and Hybridity in Iberia, 1000-1600" (October 2007), and "Crossing Boundaries in Medieval Universities" (May 2008). In addition to such conferences and symposia, the Program fulfills its outreach mission through the sponsorship of public lectures every semester and through faculty participation in activities organized by the Division of Continuing Studies, including international seminars and a perennially popular series of short evening courses.

The strengths of the Program are directly proportional to the resources available to it on the Madison campus. Although we have no faculty or staff lines of our own, we are fortunate to have a large and committed group of medievalists who regularly contribute to the program by teaching courses on medieval subjects, helping to organize medieval lectures and symposia, and participating in our other projects. We are also fortunate to have a vast wealth of resources for medieval research in Memorial Library, ranging from manuscripts and rare printed books to the most important new on-line reference sources. The Program has also received substantial assistance over the years from the University Lectures Committee, the Anonymous Fund, the Knapp Bequest, and the Brittingham Trust to sponsor conferences, symposia, exhibits, and individual lectures for the benefit of the Madison campus and the larger community, and has cooperated on certain projects with the Institute for Research in the Humanities and with the Center for the Humanities.