Mar 28, 2024  
Undergraduate Record 2012-2013 
    
Undergraduate Record 2012-2013 [ARCHIVED RECORD]

Medieval Studies


Return to: College of Arts & Sciences: Departments/Programs 


235 Nau Hall
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400180
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4180
www.virginia.edu/medievalstudies
 
Program/Course: Medieval Studies 

Overview The University of Virginia’s Program in Medieval Studies provides an interdisciplinary and transhistorical framework for the study, teaching, and learning of pre-modern world civilizations, from the first centuries of the Common Era through to the fifteenth century.

Faculty At the University of Virginia, there has been a strong and active program for many years in teaching and research based on significant holdings of printed works in the primary and secondary sources in the university libraries. There are now more than thirty faculty members who offer courses on medieval topics in the departments of History, Classics, Religious Studies, Philosophy, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Middle Eastern Studies, Art History, Architecture, Music and Government.

Students The Medieval Studies Major provides a way of pursuing medieval studies free of existing departmental requirements, a program of language study within the field, a sound training for graduate work, and a chance to share knowledge and opinions with other students across the disciplines with shared interest in the medieval past. It is is open to all qualified students in the College of Arts and Sciences who have demonstrated competence in a foreign language through the 2000 level, or its equivalent, which is appropriate to their work in the program By its comprehensive structure, it promotes cordiality, collegiality, and an exchange of views across departmental lines. The Major in Medieval Studies, because it helps to develop and refine powers of criticism and imagination, and because it encourages, through practice, the ability to think and write with clarity and precision, furnishes skills useful in a wide variety of vocational fields.

The potential problems inherent in an interdisciplinary major which relate to the sources and methods in different fields, and to the development of a program from a vast array of courses, can be dealt with to large extent by fitting the program to each student’s abilities and needs. This is done through individual consultation, work in small classes, and careful supervision of the senior essay.