2025-2026 Courses

ENGLISH

Professor Martin Foys, Engl/Medieval 427 Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (T-Th 11:00am-12:15pm, Van Vleck B313)

Study of the most famous and influential medieval English poet through his best-known work and its playful, profound and at times problematic responses to some of the most pressing literary, social, political, and spiritual issues of his time. Chaucer’s writings are some of the funniest, raunchiest, most socially scathing and radically experimental literature ever written in English. You would be surprised. You will be surprised. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is also one of the best literary bridges we have to understand how and why our modern world remains vitally connected to its own medieval past. Through a slow and careful reading and discussion that allows us to take our time with each work we study, the literary, cultural and political issues important to Chaucer will be revealed, as will his medieval wit, humor, and literary avant-gardism– along with a few seriously NSFW passages. We’ll also explore how Chaucer became a literary superstar (complete with his own fan fiction) after he died, and screen the modern film A Knight’s Tale (2001), to figure out why Chaucer, surprisingly and alarmingly, shows up as a wandering and naked gambling addict. Readings will be in modernized Middle English – but no prior experience with the language is required (it’s easier than you think – and will also teach you a lot about modern English along the way!).

*Professor Martin Foys, Engl/Medieval 520 Really Old English (T-Th 2:30-3:45pm, HUM 2637)

Old English is the earliest form of English – over 1,000 years old, it is the language of Beowulf and Grendel, of saints and sinners, of farmers, seafarers, and a surprising number of animals and objects that can talk. It is a language that is uncannily strange, alien, yet at the same time the backbone, the muscle, of modern English. This course will teach you an awful lot about the language we use every day: in the first half of the semester, we will study basic pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, with short translation exercises due in most class meetings; in the second half, we will put the skills you’ve learned to work, reading Old English texts and poems in the original — a rare opportunity. Because this is a principally a language class, no research papers will be required. Instead, there will be translation exercises, quizzes, a midterm exam, and final translation projects. No previous experience required, though some familiarity with studying another language at any level can be helpful.

Professor Jordan Zweck, English 241: Literature and Culture 1: To the 18th Century (MW 11:00am-11:50am, Science 180)

This course provides an introduction to literature in English from the Middle Ages to the early eighteenth century. Together with English 242, it provides an introduction to British literary history, and its primary goals include familiarizing students with the canon of English literature and preparing students for more specialized study in advanced courses in the major. The course spans roughly 1000 years, from the origins of English literature to the rise of the novel. Along the way, we will examine how literature engaged with topics as disparate as love, religion, and science, and we will read everything from elegant descriptions of angelic beings to six-hundred-year-old fart jokes. To focus our discussions, we will concentrate on questions of form and genre, including the epic, fabliau, romance, sonnet, lyric, and novel. Emphasis will be on close reading and literary analysis, but we will also pay close attention to the social, cultural, and political contexts from which each text emerged. This course also develops skills for writing clearly and critically that are essential to majors and non-majors alike.

Professor Jordan Zweck, English/Medieval Studies 423: Topic in Medieval Literature and Culture: Medieval Senses (MW 2:30pm-3:45pm, Education 151)

How does medieval literature represent sounds, noise, and silence? How can we listen to sounds from the past, especially before the invention of sound recording technologies c. 1900? Is it even possible to “know” what the past sounds like? In this course we will examine the representation of the medieval senses, but especially sound, in literary texts in medieval England. No previous experience with premodern literature, music, or sound studies is required.

HISTORY

Professor Elizabeth Lapina, Hist115-Medieval Europe 410-1500 (Lecture, Mo/We 8:00am-9:15am, Humanities 1651)

We will begin this class with a discussion of the rise of Christianity and the role of Christianity in forging the new medieval civilization. We will continue with the relations between Romans and barbarians and with the fall (or “fall”?) of Rome. We will then move on to major heirs of the Roman Empire, both in Western Europe and in the Middle East. After dealing with the Vikings – and, hopefully, dispelling a myth or two about them – we will move on to a major episode in the history of relations between Church and State, the Investiture Controversy. In the last few weeks of class, we will discuss what is known as the age of castles and cathedrals. Some of the features of this period were the founding of first universities, the appearance of the new chivalric culture, the expansion of Latin Europe into the Middle East during the crusades, and the rise – and brutal suppression – of heresy.

*Professor Elizabeth Lapina, Hist 600-Middle Ages in Film (Seminar, Tue 11:00am – 12:55pm, Humanities 5257)

In this course we will watch, read about and discuss a series of films on various medieval subjects. Some of these films will be blockbusters, but most will be films that are little known to the general public. Some of them will be recent, but most will date from the middle to late 20th century. Some of them will be American, the rest European and Asian. We will gain an awareness of medieval realities and medieval texts on which these films are based. However, we will move beyond simply noting whether each film is offering a faithful or an unfaithful representation of historical events and will attempt to understand what attracted modern filmmakers to medieval history in the first place and what concerns – be they artistic, political, social, religious, etc. – made them represent it in the ways that they did. Two topics in particular will be at the center of our discussion: violence and gender. The students will have to choose a film, a cluster of films, or a topic that runs across a series of films, which they will analyze in their essays and oral presentations.

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Professor Samuel England, International Studies 266: Introduction to the Middle East (TR 9:30 – 10:45 AM, Ingraham 214)

In this course we study the history of people living in the Middle East from about 5000 BC to the present, with a focus on modernity. We survey the material in loosely chronological order, starting with cultural life in the earliest cities of Mesopotamia and northeastern Africa—ancient sites that we’ll find, in some cases, still support communities now. For the purposes of the course, “the Middle East” encompasses the land and water bodies between Tunisia and eastern Iran.

ITALIAN

Professor Jelena Todorovic, LitTrans/Medieval 255, Black Death and Medieval Life Through Boccaccio’s Decameron.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live during the Black Death? Were our medieval and early-modern ancestors different from us, or are we challenged with similar problems? What can we learn from their lives? And, if we could, what could we teach each other? Discuss these topics while reading one of the world’s greatest literary classics, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, a text that will make us both laugh and cry. Through reading the Decameron, investigate medicine, art, culture, music, politics, religion, interpersonal and transcultural relations, warfare, fashion, gender and gender roles, as well as everyday life in the Middle Ages and early modernity. Also examines medieval written documents, twentieth-century feminist responses to the Decameron and filmic renditions of it, medieval frescoes, historical descriptions of the plague, and modern descriptions of, and reactions to, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Jelena Todorovic, Italian 659, Dante’s Divina Commedia

This is a discussion-based course that will investigate thoroughly a selection from Dante’s masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. From close readings of the selected cantos, we will branch out to discuss the literary, historical, political, social, and theological contexts behind this text.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES/SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES

Professor Scott A. Mellor, Folklore/Medieval/ ReligSt/ScandSt 342: Nordic Mythology (TuTh 2:30-3:45, Van Hise 494)

Nordic Mythology will introduce you to the belief systems of early and medieval Nordic region in a European Context and take a look at the literary works written by Christian Scandinavians about their former Religion. We will look at the Kalevala, the mythological and heroic poetry of the Edda and the Icelandic legendary sagas, as well as a few early Christian texts.

SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES

*Professor Kirsten Wolf, 410 Introduction to Scandinavian Linguistics (Tue/Thur 9:30-10:45am, 487 Van Hise Hall)

The course is intended to give students an overview of the development of the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese) from Proto-Germanic to modern times, focussing on phonological and morphological changes. The emphasis will be on Proto Scandinavian (ca. 200-ca. 600), Common Scandinavian (ca. 600-ca. 1050), and Old Scandinavian (ca. 1050-1350). The course is a combination of lecture and seminar. Following a general introduction to and a brief survey of the various methods of study, the development from Indo-European to Proto-Germanic will be considered. By the end of the semester, students will have a good overview of the development of the Scandinavian languages and understand the main differences between East Norse (Danish and Swedish) and West Norse (Faroese, Norwegian, and Icelandic).

*Professor Kirsten Wolf, 511 Paleography and Philology – Old Norse (Tue/Thur 11:00am-12:15pm, 483 Van Hise Hall)

This is a history of writing in Iceland ca. 1150-ca. 1700 on the basis of manuscripts as principal sources for Old Norse-Icelandic. The course builds on 407 Old Norse I and 408 Old Norse II and must be regarded as a continuation of the two courses. It provides a survey of the development of the Icelandic language from the 12th century until a couple of centuries after the Reformation and introduces students to the field of codicology. The history of writing and writing materials are treated in detail. The development of writing in Iceland and Norway from the introduction of Christianity (1000) until around 1700 will be examined on the basis of exercices in transcribing medieval manuscripts. Students will be trained in dating manuscripts on the basis of paleographic and orthographic features and introduced to the methods and principles of editing a medieval text. By the end of the course, students will be able to transcribe an Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript and present both a diplomatic and normalized edition.