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MVGA 0910 Maintenance-Medieval 0 Credits (Staff) Call # 12862
MVGA 8500 Independent Research 2 Credits (Staff) Call # 12863
MVGA 8501 Independent Research 1
Credit (Staff) Call #12864
MVGA 5200 (4) Medieval
Iberian Literature and Society (Gyug/Jimenez-Belmonte) Call # 12816 W 4:45-7:15
The
religious, linguistic and political pluralism of medieval Iberian society is
reflected in its literature, rhetoric and social accommodations. Despite
debates about the role of pluralism in forming Iberian identities, pluralism
provides models—whether of convivencia or conflict—that now dominate
discussions of western medieval culture in general. In the course, Iberian
pluralism will be considered through discussion of works and studies on the
literature and societies of the
ENGA 5217 (3) Medieval Rhetoric (Ramsey)
Call # 12404 R
5:30-7:30
We will explore the Christianization of the classical rhetorical
tradition in the West, reading translations of medieval treatises on rhetoric
and translations of works that exemplify medieval rhetorical theory in
practice; we will also read secondary works that analyze and contextualize
those older texts, demonstrating their importance in shaping the medieval world
view.
ENGA 7100 (3) Medieval Literature & Politics of
Conversion (Yeager) Call # 12923 M
2:00-4:00
This course explores medieval conversion narratives,
ranging from religious conversions exemplified in hagiographical literature, to
gender transitions as seen in the Roman de Silence. While examining the shared patterns behind
such texts, we will move across genres including religious vitae, such
as the Life of St. Cristopher, along with other texts that highlight
conversions, simulations, and disguises of all kinds. In reading the romances The King of Tars,
Sir Gowther, and the late-medieval poem, The Testament of Cresseid,
we will encounter aspects of somatic transition, and gender and spiritual
conversion, and we will study the historical context and political desires
underlying such portrayals. By moving
among such texts, we will also address larger issues such as truth-claims in
medieval society, the fashioning of identity, and the performance of self.
HSGA 6065 (4) The Crusades
(Paul)
Call # 12921 T 4:45-7:15
Few areas of medieval
scholarship have received as much attention in recent decades as have the
crusades. These efforts have resulted in a total reassessment of the wars waged
by Latin Christians against their perceived enemies both within Europe and
beyond its frontiers and have generated new debates about what defined a
crusade, what motivated participants, and about the place of the crusades in
the making of Europe as a geographic and political entity. This course will
address the methodology and findings of historians who have worked on these
topics and others including the origins of the crusade, the often violent
relationships between crusaders and Jews, the contributions of the military
orders, and the perspectives of those who were the targets of crusades. Central
to our approach will be the understanding that the crusades were shaped by, and
in turn helped to shape, many aspects of the medieval world; its economy,
society, religion, culture, and politics.
HSGA 8150 (4) Seminar: Medieval
Students continue to work on the research project
they defined in the Proseminar to this course.
They also learn to design and use a computer database that includes data
gathered in the course of research on the final paper, participate in seminars
to improve their academic writing and public speaking skills, and familiarize
themselves with professional standards for writing a scholarly article, giving
a talk at an academic conference, and writing an academic curriculum vitae.
They complete the seminar by giving a 20-minute conference paper
on their research project and writing a thesis-length original research paper
that could be published as a scholarly article.
PHGA
5010 (3) Introduction
to Aquinas (Klima)
Call# 12067 F
3:30-5:30
This course
provides a systematic, introductory survey of Aquinas's philosophical thought.
After briefly placing his life and works in their narrower as well as broader
historical context, we shall start the systematic survey of Aquinas's
philosophy with taking stock of the basic concepts and principles of his
hylomorphist metaphysics. On this basis, we can move on to his philosophy of
God, and philosophy of human nature (including his philosophy of mind and
epistemology), which will provide the metaphysical foundations for a brief
discussion of his ethics and philosophy of law. Throughout these discussions,
we are going to confront Aquinas's ideas with criticisms coming from medieval
as well as modern philosophers.
PHGA 5012
(3) Introduction to
This course will provide a survey of the main works and themes of
PHGA 6359
(3) Nominalism (Klima)
Call #12908 T 4:30-3:30
Nominalism,
according to the common understanding of the term, is a position on the
ontological status of universal, which claims that it is primarily (or even
exclusively) words that are universals, as opposed to the two competing
theoretical alternatives, namely, conceptualism, according to which the primary
universals are concepts, and realism, according to which the primary universals
are things. Both historically and theoretically, there are a number of problems
with this simple scheme. The analysis of these problems through the works of
the most prominent medieval nominalists (in particular, Ockham, Buridan, Albert
of Saxony and Peter of Ailly) contrasted with some late-medieval realists
(Cajetan, Soto and Suarez) shows that nominalism is not so much a distinctive
ontological position (although nominalists as a rule are indeed committed to
relatively parsimonious ontologies) as a distinctive way of construing the
fundamental relationships between words, concepts and things. Issues covered
will include: the problem of universals, common natures and individuation,
being and essence, the univocity vs. analogy of being; signification,
connotation, supposition, ampliation and ontological commitment; mental
language and cognitive attitudes, the semantics of propositions, the objects of
knowledge and belief.
PHGA 7066
(3) Aquinas: Set Texts (Davies)
Call #12073 M 7:00-9:00
In this course we shall aim
to understand and comment on what Aquinas teaches about the existence and
nature of God in Summa Theologiae Ia, 1-26. For much of the time I
shall lecture on the texts. But students shall also be asked to give brief
expository and critical presentations of various passages from Ia, 1-26 leading
to class discussion. The required text
for the course is: Brian Davies and Brian Leftow (ed.), Aquinas, Summa
Theologiae, Questions on God (Cambridge UP, 2006).
RSGA 6370 (3) Saint Maximus the Confessor (Behr) Call # 12916 T 1:00-3:00 St Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662) stands
at the highpoint of the Greek patristic tradition, summing up the earlier
strands of theological reflection - the exegetical tradition of the
Alexandrians, the Christology of Chalcedon and the neo-Chalcedonians, the
apophaticism and cosmic vision of Dionysius, and the spiritual writings of
Evagrius, Macarius and Diadochus - into a remarkable synthesis, unsurpased in
later Byzantine theology, and only beginning to be appreciated again in recent
decades. After an introduction to his background, each week will be devoted to
a different text of Maximus, covering a variety of genres and topics. The class
will be held in Seminar format, with each student expected to lead discussions,
to write a book review of a major study of Maximus, and a research paper on a
topic of interest. A knowledge of Greek is desirable, but not essential (texts
will be read in translation).
RSGA 6466
(3) Hagiography (Tilley)
Call #12914 T 1:00-3:00
This course
surveys methods for researching and writing about as well as evaluating the
religious functions of stories of holy people. Examples are primarily from late
antiquity and the Middle Ages.
FRGA 5090 (0) French
for
GEGA 5002 (0) German
for
Advance Notice of Summer 2007 courses
MVGA
5800 (4) Women in Medieval
Religious Life (Oliva) Summer Session I: TR 1:00-4:00
LAGA
5090 (0) Latin
for
LAGA 5093 (3) Ecclesiastical
Latin
(
Study
of the grammatical structure, form, and vocabulary of Church Latin, focusing on
the Bible, the Church Fathers, and medieval thinkers.
FRGA 5090 (0) French
for Reading
(Staff)
Summer Session I: TR afternoons
ITGA 5090 (0) Italian
for
Last modified: November 6, 2006
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