Past Medieval Studies Graduate Courses

MVST 5500 R01 (4) Writing Christian History in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages | Bruce and McGowan
W 2:30 - 5:30 | 52365
This graduate seminar introduces students to Christian historiography between the fourth and ninth centuries with a survey of authors writing both providential history (Josephus, Eusebius, Orosius, etc.) and the history of newly converted barbarian peoples (Gregory of Tours, Jordanes, Bede, etc.). Seminar meetings will involve reading samples of these histories in Latin and discussing current scholarship on their meaning and reception. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

THEO 6046 R00 (3) Hebrew Bible and the Lives of Others | Jang
T 9:00 - 11:30 |  52388
What is the Other? Is it something that operates by different rules of life than myself? A being that exists beyond my beliefs? Or something discovered through the disturbance of an encounter? Is there such a thing as an “absolute Other”? Why does the Other often become an object of fear and avoidance? And what does it mean to engage with the Other beyond merely recognizing and identifying somebody or something as the Other? This course explores the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the Other, examining how biblical ideas of the Other are manifested in the lives of marginalized figures and groups—such as foreigners, women, other nations, refugees, and internal others—while interrogating the dynamics of exclusion and visibility. Drawing on close textual analysis, we will investigate how biblical interpretations have been shaped by discourses of the Other, with a focus on minoritized biblical hermeneutics. The course also considers the role of philosophical thinkers such as Appiah, Derrida, Foucault, and Lévinas, as well as historical narratives that have emerged from critical ethnic studies, in shaping our understanding of the Other. We will conclude by reflecting on the futuristic possibilities of engaging with the lives of others in biblical studies.

THEO 6465 R00 (3) Asceticism and Monasticism | Demacopoulous
T 1:00 - 3:30 |  52389
Early Christianity was an ascetic religion, but the practice of asceticism varied greatly. This course explores the ideas, practitioners, and controversies surrounding early Christian asceticism from the New Testament, through the introduction of organized monasticism in the fourth century, up to the advent of Islam. The course will also introduce students to the scholarly debates concerning various dimensions of early Christian asceticism and monasticism, including the impact of Jewish and Greco-Roman ascetic practices and how ascetic practices relate to questions of gender and sexuality in Early Christianity.

HIST 8056 R01 (4) Seminar: Medieval Political Cultures | Paul
T 2:30 - 5:00 |  52364
In the Spring semester, students will spend the semester working on research papers based on the topics identified in the Fall. At class meetings, students will have the opportunity to present their research and to read and critique each others' writing. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 6133 R01 (4) Medieval Religious Institutions| Mueller
M 5:30 - 8:00 |  52362
Today, the Catholic Church appears to as a hierarchical entity united under the supreme leadership of the pope. This is in contrast with the situation in the Middle Ages, when people made careful distintions between monks, nuns, canons, secular priests, minor and major orders, cardinals, lay brothers and sisters, and a multitude of other clerics. Committed to their respective ranks and vocations, churchmen and churchwomen often found themselves competing with one another. In so doing, they were less likely to submit to papal authority than to enlist it for their own purposes. The seminar will examine these groups, their institutional identities, and typical conflicts of interest. The institutions of the medieval church-male and femal monasteries, cathedral chapters, parishes, religious orders, dioceses, the papacy and other bodies-maintianed their own two identities and pursued their own ends. The church they formed was not monolithic: medieval religious institutions were often in competition with one another for reasons both secular and religious; and, unlike modern church, religious institutions played a role in government and were the sole providers of many social services. Through consideration of medieval sources and modern sutdies, the course will examine the institutions that formed the medieval church, their histories, identities and members, their conflicts, and their relations to society. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

PHIL 5010 R01 (3) Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas | Davies
R 4:00 - 6:00 |  47796
This course will be a general introduction to Aquinas's philosophical thinking.We shall pay special attention to his philosophy of God. We shall also turn to what he says about questions such as the scope of human knowledge, the nature of the human being, and the nature and significance of human action. As well as being expository, the course will consider the cogency of Aquinas's position on various topics. It will also try to relate what Aquinas says to what other philosophers, especially modern philosophers, have had to say. The course will not presuppose any previous detailed knowledge of Aquinas on the part of students.

PHIL 6116 R01 (3) After Form: Recovering the Lost Scholastic Notion of Form for Contemporary Use | Klima
F 1:00 - 3:00 |  52369
Scholastic thought is often compared to the architecture of Gothic cathedrals with good reason. The wonderful structural unity of interlocking arches running down on all sides in a Gothic vault are magnificent representations of the structural unity of interlocking concepts pervading all fields of scholastic inquiry. But remove the keystones, and the vault collapses. Remove some central notions, and the cathedral of thought falls into ruin. Such a conceptual keystone, which held in place (and was held in place by) the interlocking notions of meaning (significatio), nature (essentia, quidditas), concept (conceptus, intentio), and Idea (in the sense of an ideal or standard, as a Divine Idea) in scholasticism, was the notion of form. Considered semantically, a form is what a word signifies, constituting its meaning. Metaphysically, a form is a determination of a thing’s being, establishing the thing in its singular existence in its specific kind or nature. Epistemically, it is the form of the thing received in the mind that constitutes the mind’s concept, whereby the mind conceives of the thing signified by the word subordinated to this concept. Finally, axiologically, the true form of the thing, its Divine Idea in the Neo-Platonic-Augustinian sense also serves as the standard that this kind of thing is supposed to “live up to.” The four parts of this class (Semantics, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Axiology) are meant to re-capture the scholastic notion of form in all of these functions and re-inject it into our modern philosophical discourse in the hopes that it can regain its original integrative role in our otherwise desperately fragmented post-modern culture.

ENGL 5135 R01 (3) Paleography | O'Donnell
F 2:30 - 5:00 | 52353

This course offers an in-depth introduction to the history of handwriting and book production (“paleography” and “codicology”) in western and central Europe during the years 400 to 1500—a critical period for the creation of the book as we know it. Students will receive training in the handling and interpretation of rare materials from across the whole medieval period. They will learn how to read and transcribe ancient and medieval writing (a set of skills that will transfer to later periods of handwriting); how to determine the place and date of production of a book based on its script, material, or decoration; and how to interpret the manuscript book as a primary source for the study of society, politics, and culture. Trips to special collections and visits from period experts from a range of disciplines are a feature of the course. Specialists of any historical period are welcome.

MVST 5077 R01 (4) Editing Medieval Texts | Reilly
F 11:30 - 2:15 | 
This is a course in the theory and practice of editing, especially as it relates to medieval texts, with most of the examples coming from Middle English. We'll give attention to documentary, historical, and aesthetic approaches, and we will spend some time exploring digital methods and concerns. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

THEO 6192 R00 (3) The Greco-Roman Context of Christianity | McGowan
R 9:00 - 11:30 | CRN 51544 
This course creates a context for understanding the encounter of early Christianity with Greco-Roman culture by exploring Hellenistic and Roman history, politics, religion, social relations, economics, education, rhetoric, philosophy, literature, and the theatre.

HIST 7110 R01 (4) Proseminar: Medieval Political Cultures | Paul
T 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 51538 
This course, the first part of a two-semester proseminar/seminar sequence, will introduce students to recent debates and different approaches to cultures of power and political processes in Western Europe in the central Middle Ages. Among the many topics we might consider are lordship, status and authority, political assembly and consultation, courtliness and persuasion, rulership and sanctity, and the rise of accountability. Students will become familiar with a wide range of source material, from diplomatic and documentary collections to historical narratives and courtly literature. With this solid foundation in the current historiography and available research tools, students will be expected to identify a suitable topic for a sustained research project. Completing this project will be the objective of the seminar course to be offered in the Spring. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 5203 R01 (4) Medieval Hagiography| Bruce
F 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 51537 
This research seminar introduces students to the challenges and pitfalls of using saints' lives and other hagiographical writings (miracula, furta sacra, etc.) as sources for medieval history. It aims to familiarize students with competing historical approaches to these genres and to provide a practical guide to the scholarly resources necessary to exploit them as historical sources. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

PHIL 5012 R01 (3) Introduction to St. Augustine | Pini
R 1:00 - 3:00 | CRN 48104 
This seminar provides a systematic survey of the main themes of St. Augustine's philosophy and theology. Topics will include faith and reason, divine ideas, time, eternity, and creations, the theology of the Holy Trinity, the nature of the soul, the freedom of the will and divine predestination, good and evil, original sin and divine grace, and the human history as the history of salvation. The unifying theme of the discussion will be a synthetic account of St. Augustine's Neoplatonic Christian anthropology, occasionally contrasted with St. Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian Christian anthropology. The discussion will be organized around student presentations and two term papers on topics other than one's presentation topics. 

PHIL 6114 R01 (3) Neo-platonism in the Middle Ages | Cullen
M 1:00 - 3:00 | CRN 48104 
This seminar provides a systematic survey of the main themes of St. Augustine's philosophy and theology. Topics will include faith and reason, divine ideas, time, eternity, and creations, the theology of the Holy Trinity, the nature of the soul, the freedom of the will and divine predestination, good and evil, original sin and divine grace, and the human history as the history of salvation. The unifying theme of the discussion will be a synthetic account of St. Augustine's Neoplatonic Christian anthropology, occasionally contrasted with St. Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian Christian anthropology. The discussion will be organized around student presentations and two term papers on topics other than one's presentation topics.

ENGL 6235 R01 (3) Embodies Research in Medieval Drama | Albin
T 11:30 - 2:00 | CRN 52098

What did it feel like to hammer nails into Jesus’s hands or to intone judgements at doomsday or to dance with the deadly sins on an open-air stage in the late Middle Ages? How far can we go in reconstructing, practicing, and sharing medieval performance styles today? What kind of knowledge might the evidence of our own bodies afford us in support of our study of the medieval past? In this course, we will tug at this knot of questions through careful reading, writing, discussion, and experimentation across an uncommon collection of sources, including medieval English playtexts and documents; scholarship on medieval drama and its reenactment; theoretical texts in performance studies, theater-making, and embodied technique; and the witness of our own embodied and reflective experience. Relevant research areas include medieval drama, history of the body, history of experience, history of spirituality, critical temporality studies, non-discursive epistemology, affect studies. Primary source readings will include much of the corpus of surviving Middle English drama supplemented by the Records of Early English Drama project; further readings include Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, Augusto Boal, Rob Boddice, Jerzy Grotowski, Andre Lepecki, Lauren Mancia, Mary Overlie, Rebecca Schneider, Matthew Sergi, Mark Smith, Ben Spatz, and others. Course assignments will center close reading, scholarly research, and academic writing, with options for digital humanities and performance-driven research, undertaken independently or collaboratively. Students may also opt into a parallel laboratory in Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints and/or a public performance of medieval drama at the Cloisters Museum in spring 2026. While helpful, no prior knowledge of Middle English or Latin is expected or required.

SESSION I

LATN 5090 R01 (4) Latin for Reading | Mcgowan
MW 1:00 - 4:00 | CRN 14870
A course designed for graduate students seeking a reading knowledge of Latin in their discipline. Some prior study of Latin is desirable but not necessary.

ENGL 5213 R01 (3) Studies in Old English Literature | O'Donnell
MW 9:00 - 12:00 | CRN 16464
This course immerses students with a basic knowledge of Old English language and literature in an in-depth study of one of the major Old English codices, its texts, and critical contexts: Vercelli, Junius, Exeter, or the Beowulf (Nowell) Codex.

MVST 5350 L01 (3) Holy Grails: Medieval, Modern, and Digital | Reilly
TR 9:30 - 12:30 | CRN 16500
This seminar explores the medieval Grail legend via a disciplinary triangulation of literary criticism, medievalism, and data science. No knowledge of Old French or programming required. Participants will learn several tools of data science to ask new questions of a vast medieval corpus, which has resonated throughout the centuries. Topics will include: metalepsis and narrative structure; manuscript illuminations; text as data; manuscript image classification; and medievalist rewritings. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

SESSION II

LATN 5093 R01 (4) Ecclesiastical Latin | Mcgowan
MW 1:00 - 4:00 | CRN 15081
This course is a study of the grammatical structure, form, and vocabulary of Church Latin, focusing on the Bible, the Church fathers, and medieval thinkers.

SESSION III

HIST 5205 R01 (4) Fall of the Roman Empire| Bruce
Online Asynchronous | CRN 15789
This graduate seminar introduces students to the historiographical paradigm of the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire and examines modern responses to it. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5064 R01 (4) The Divine Comedy: Poetry, Theology, and the Medieval Imagination | Barsella, Pini
T 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 50917
This seminar offers an in-depth study of the poetic and theological imagination of Dante’s Divine Comedy. We will combine close reading of selected cantos with primary and secondary works illuminating key aspects of Dante’s literary and theological invention. Issues will be discussed within the historical and ideological contexts of the relevant theological and poetic debates in Dante's time. We will consider Dante’s theological influences, such as Augustine, Boethius, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure, and explore theological topics such as medieval Christian practices of pilgrimage, scholastic debates about atonement and the afterlife, cosmology, and the relationship between erotic love and divine union in Christian mystical theology. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

THEO 5230 R01 (3) Advanced Greek: Early Christian Responses to Empire | Fiano
T 9:00 - 11:30 | CRN 44372 
This course includes both a rapid review of Greek grammar and syntax, and also intermediate/advanced readings from Hellenistic and/or early Christian texts.

THEO 6365 R01 (3) Cappadocian Fathers | Demacopoulos
T 1:00 - 3:30 | CRN 50855 
This course is designed to provide a thorough introduction to the writings, interaction, and significance of the Cappadocian fathers. Although we will cover a number of theological, literary, and scholarly themes, we will pay special attention to (and have scholarly debates about) their promotion of asceticism, exegetical style, anthropological/gender constructions, and the promotion of the Nicene cause.

HIST 8110 R01 (4) Seminar: Church Law & Medieval Society | Mueller
M 5:30 - 8:00 | CRN 50915 
This course will consist of a two-semester proseminar/seminar sequence inviting graduate students to formulate and conduct original research projects in the field of medieval church law. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 5423 R01 (4) Religion, Magic, and Science in the Late Medieval and Renaissance World | Myers
T 5:30 - 8:00 | CRN 50913 
Medieval and Renaissance Europeans had a sophisticated, pre-modern understanding of the world and universe around them, from the canyons to the stars. This seminar explores the cosmos as seen from the perspective of Renaissance peoples, moving from the depths of inner earth to the heavens and exploring the creatures that dwelt there, from angels to demons, as well as the connections that bound them and the universe together. In this universe, religion, magic, and science coexisted uneasily and interacted constantly. A central topic will be the decay of this cosmos and its replacement by a universe more familiar to modern peoples. Readings will focus on primary texts and a combination of classic accounts and recent historiography. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction. 

PHIL 5010 R01 (3) Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas | Klima
F 11:45 - 1:45 | CRN 47796 
This course will be a general introduction to Aquinas's philosophical thinking.We shall pay special attention to his philosophy of God. We shall also turn to what he says about questions such as the scope of human knowledge, the nature of the human being, and the nature and significance of human action. As well as being expository, the course will consider the cogency of Aquinas's position on various topics. It will also try to relate what Aquinas says to what other philosophers, especially modern philosophers, have had to say. The course will not presuppose any previous detailed knowledge of Aquinas on the part of students.

PHIL 6110 R01 (3) Philosophy of the Islamic World | Somma
 T 2:30 - 4:30 | CRN 50656 

This course introduces students to philosophy of the Islamic world, covering philosophical developments in both the eastern and western Islamic world. It begins shortly after the Graeco-Arabic translation movement of the eighth to the 10th centuries with the work of al-Kindī and ends with the establishment of post-Avicennan philosophy in the 12th and 13th centuries.

ENGL 5211 R01 (3) Introduction to Old English Language and Literature | O'Donnell
M 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 50752 
This course is an introduction to Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language and literature. Old English was the language of England from the 7th to the 12th centuries, the language in which Beowulf was composed. We will read a representative selection of Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry in the original language, including The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, works by King Alfred and Bede, The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, and The Dream of the Rood. Students will be introduced to Anglo-Saxon palaeography so that they can read the texts from medieval manuscripts as well as from printed editions.

Spring 2024

MVST 5400 R01 (4) Courtly Culture | Hafner, Paul
W 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 49655
Courts, as spaces of political power, intellectual activity, and social influence, have long been a focus of both scholarly inquiry and the popular presentation of the medieval world. Courts across medieval Afro-Eurasia shared literary traditions and cultural forms, exchanging and adapting songs, stories, objects, fashions, and ideas. This course will address some of the central themes of scholarly inquiry into courtly culture including the phenomenon of courtly love, debates about the “civilizing process” of courtly manners, and the evolution and diffusion of courtly themes and literary forms. The course will also evaluate the potential for the study of courtly culture to reshape the field of medieval studies and the wider understanding of the Middle Ages as interconnected, diverse, and truly global. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 5203 R01 (4) Medieval Hagiography | Bruce
F 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 49634 
This research seminar introduces students to the challenges and pitfalls of using saints' lives and other hagiographical writings (miracula, furta sacra, etc.) as sources for medieval history. It aims to familiarize students with competing historical approaches to these genres and to provide a practical guide to the scholarly resources necessary to exploit them as historical sources. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 8024 R01 (4) Seminar: Making Money in the Middle Ages | Comuzzi
T 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 49637 
This is the second half of a two-semester proseminar/seminar course, and is a continuation of HIST 7024. Students will primarily work on their individual original (article or M.A.-thesis length) research projects. Class time will primarily be devoted to discussing and overcoming research problems, and workshopping early findings. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

EN 5135 R01 (3) Paleography | O’Donnell
R 2:30 - 5:00 | CRN 49683 
This course offers an in-depth introduction to the history of handwriting and book production (“paleography” and “codicology”) in western and central Europe during the years 400 to 1500—a critical period for the creation of the book as we know it. Students will receive training in the handling and interpretation of rare materials from across the whole medieval period and will have the option to complete a manuscript description as their final project. Students will learn how to read and transcribe ancient and medieval writing (a set of skills that will transfer to later periods of handwriting); how to determine the place and date of production of a book based on its script, material, or decoration; and how to interpret the manuscript book as a primary source for the study of society, politics, and culture. Trips to special collections and visits from period experts are a feature of the course. No prior knowledge of Latin or another medieval language is required or assumed, and specialists of any historical period are welcome.

PHIL 5010 R01 (3) Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas | Davies
W 6:00 - 8:00 | CRN 47796 
This course will be a general introduction to Aquinas's philosophical thinking.We shall pay special attention to his philosophy of God. We shall also turn to what he says about questions such as the scope of human knowledge, the nature of the human being, and the nature and significance of human action. As well as being expository, the course will consider the cogency of Aquinas's position on various topics. It will also try to relate what Aquinas says to what other philosophers, especially modern philosophers, have had to say. The course will not presuppose any previous detailed knowledge of Aquinas on the part of students. 

THEO 6367 R01 (3) Byzantine Christianity: History and Theology | Demacopoulos
T 4:00 - 6:00 | CRN 49793 
The graduate-level survey course introduces students to the theological ideas and historical transitions that captivated the minds of Eastern Christians from the 8th to the 15th centuries. Through a careful reading of primary sources (in English translation) and the scholarly debates about those sources, we will explore the Iconoclastic controversies, the expansion of Christianity to the Slavs, the experience of Christians living under Islamic authority, and a host of issues related to rupture between Eastern and Western Christianity. In most circumstances, successful completion of this course authorizes doctoral students in Theology to teach the undergraduate cognate course.

Summer 2024

Session 1

HIST 5205 (4) The Fall of the Roman Empire | Bruce
F 10:00-11:00 | CRN: 15789
This graduate seminar introduces students to the historiographical paradigm of the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire and examines modern responses to it. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

LATN 5090 (3) Latin for Reading | McGowan
MW 1:00-4:00 | CRN: 15080
A course designed for graduate students seeking a reading knowledge of Latin in their discipline. Some prior study of Latin is desirable but not necessary.

Session 2

LATN 5093 (3) Ecclesiastical Latin | McGowan
MW 1:00-4:00 | CRN: 15081
This course is a study of the grammatical structure, form, and vocabulary of Church Latin, focusing on the Bible, the Church fathers, and medieval thinkers.

MVST 5071 (4) Sources, Archives, and Materials for Medievalists | Paul
T 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 52125
This course will introduce students to many of the most important sources for the study of the medieval world. Drawing on the diversity of expertise among Fordham’s faculty and the rich resources of New York City, the course will introduce students to a variety of handwritten sources (including manuscripts and other documents), as well as coins and seals, and the specialized skills used to understand and interpret these sources. The course will also feature discussions of the processes whereby libraries and archives were developed and maintained, and how scholars use these sources in the digital era. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 6077 (4)  The Angevin EmpireI | Paul
R 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 51537
From the Middle of the twelfth until the first quarter of the thirteenth centuries, one dynasty, the house of Anjou, were the effective rulers of an enormous agglomeration of kingdoms and principalities which stretched from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and encompassed England, large parts of Ireland, Wales, and nearly half of the territory which today constitutes modern France. Following a wave of renewed scholarly interest in the politics and culture of this period, this class will explore this short-lived but powerful empire, its lands, peoples and rulers. Together we will explore the lives of dynamic individuals within the Angevin court; Angevin court culture, the governance of a medieval "empire"; dynastic politics and diplomacy; the Third Crusade; and England and France after the loss of Normandy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction. 

HIST 7110 (4) PROSEM: Church Law and Medieval Society | Mueller
M 5:30-8:00 | CRN: 51538
This course will consist of a two-semester proseminar/seminar sequence inviting graduate students to formulate and conduct original research projects in the field of medieval church law. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

PHIL 5012 (3) Introduction to St. Augustine | Cullen
M 1:00-3:00 | CRN: 48104
This seminar provides a systematic survey of the main themes of St. Augustine's philosophy and theology. Topics will include faith and reason, divine ideas, time, eternity, and creations, the theology of the Holy Trinity, the nature of the soul, the freedom of the will and divine predestination, good and evil, original sin and divine grace, and the human history as the history of salvation. The unifying theme of the discussion will be a synthetic account of St. Augustine's Neoplatonic Christian anthropology, occasionally contrasted with St. Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian Christian anthropology. The discussion will be organized around student presentations and two term papers on topics other than one's presentation topics.

ENGL 6235 (3) Medieval Travel Narratives | Yeager
T 11:30-2:00 | CRN: 52098
Some of the most engaging questions about the Middle Ages have to do with the narratives of cultures in contact. Join me and other scholars who work on the medieval travel genre, finding in its discourses productive sites for exploration of premodern race, gender, religion, and more. This course will focus on a range of traditions, including crusade romances, such as "Richard, Coeur de Lion" in light of contemporary chronicler, Roger of Howden’s, "Chronica." Pilgrim and merchant narratives, from Egeria to Margery Kempe, and Mandeville to Marco Polo, will provide a contrast to romance and chronicle modes. We will also study the accounts by European missionaries who left extensive records of their interactions with Mongols. This course is designed to contextualize travel within the medieval world as we read and discuss those narratives as they relate to cultural projects of salvation, conquest, and conversion.

THEO 6026 (3) Ancient Judaism | Hogan
W 6:00-8:30 | CRN: 51544
This course provides a survey of the literature and history of both Palestinian and Diaspora Judaism, including late biblical texts, apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, the Qumran Scrolls, Philo, and Josephus.

Spring 2023

GERM 5002 | Graduate Reading in German 2 | Hafner                                         
TR 11:30-12:45 | CRN: 17960

HIST 6155 | Medieval Towns: Urbanization and Urban Life in Medieval Europe | Comuzzi
T 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 48040
This course surveys the historiography of European towns from c. 700 to c. 1500. Subjects covered will include the growth of urban centers/urbanization, towns as commercial and artisanal centers, space and the urban environment, the development of municipal governments, guilds and artisanal labor, the structures of urban society, social inequality, the urban family, and social conflict. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 8026 | Classics in the Middle Ages | Bruce 
R 11:30-2:00 | CRN: 47928 
This seminar deals primarily with the transmission and reception in western Europe of classical Greek and Latin texts written before 525 CE, with a focus on the Latin tradition. The overarching aim of the seminar is to highlight the achievement of the Latin Middle Ages in preserving the ancient classics and appropriating them for new uses in a Christian civilization. It highlights the most influential authors in the medieval schools (Virgil, Horace, and Ovid), as well as the persistence of the most prominent genres of classical literature, including didactic poetry, drama, elegy, encyclopedic works, epic poetry, epigram, grammatical works, historical writings, legal works, literary criticism, lyric poetry, oratory, philosophical writings, prose fiction, and satire. Lastly, the seminar also considers centers of transmission, book collections, and the medieval commentary tradition. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5300 | Occitania: Language and Power  | O'Donnell & Paul
F 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 47976 
This course introduces students to the cultural world of a medieval “south”: Occitania. Texts in Old Occitan include documentary writing, historical narrative, and the poetry of the troubadours. Topics include urban/rural communities, gender and power, the Albigensian crusade and its aftermath and the beginning of vernacular book production. 

PHIL 5010 | Introduction to Thomas Aquinas | Davies
M 5:00-7:00 | CRN: 47796 
This course will be a general introduction to Aquinas's philosophical thinking.We shall pay special attention to his philosophy of God. We shall also turn to what he says about questions such as the scope of human knowledge, the nature of the human being, and the nature and significance of human action. As well as being expository, the course will consider the cogency of Aquinas's position on various topics. It will also try to relate what Aquinas says to what other philosophers, especially modern philosophers, have had to say. The course will not presuppose any previous detailed knowledge of Aquinas on the part of students

THEO 5230 | Advanced Greek: Early Christian Responses to Empire  | Welborn
R 9:00-11:30 | CRN: 44372 
This course includes both a rapid review of Greek grammar and syntax, and also intermediate/advanced readings from Hellenistic and/or early Christian texts.

THEO 6490 | Christianity and Violence | Demacopoulos                                           
W 9:00-11:30 | CRN: 47793
This course explores the often ambivalent relationship between Christianity and violence in the pre-modern world. Readings include a broad range of primary sources including martyr acts, liturgical hymns, canon law, and Crusader chronicles as well as influential scholarly assessments of the history of Christianity and violence.

Summer 2023

HIST 5204 (4) Medieval Environmental History | Bruce 
Session III, Online, F 10:00-12:00 | CRN: 15066
This seminar is intended to familiarize graduate students with current themes and trends in medieval environmental history. Weekly reading assignments comprise historical monographs and scholarly articles in English. 

MVST 5311 (4) Arthurian Literature | Hafner
Session II, TR 1:00-4:00 | CRN: 15053
This seminar will provide an overview of Arthurian romance themes and adaptations in Europe. Chrétien de Troyes may not have written the very first chivalric romance, but he was the pioneer who defined the genre and created the texts which would set the standard for centuries to come. The central role which Chrétien’s œuvre occupied in the French-speaking world is reflected in a wave of adaptations into many other vernacular languages, set off almost instantly and covering all of medieval Europe. In this class, we will focus on three literary traditions: the Yvain, Tristan, and Perceval stories in their early Old French versions as well as their Middle High German, Middle English, and Old Norse adaptations. The degree to which these translations try to recreate their sources’ original content varies greatly and is determined by a nexus of cultural, political, and social factors which we will examine in some detail. Students are expected to read the Middle English versions in well-annotated editions. All other texts can be prepared in English translation while some of the class time will be dedicated to closely reading some crucial passages in the original vernacular languages. Additional texts in other languages (Italian, Latin), in post-medieval renditions (e.g., T.S. Eliot’s "Wasteland" or Richard Wagner’s "Parsifal"), other media (films, opera, musicals), and material culture (frescoes, tapestries, book illuminations, etc) will be determined based on the interest of the seminar participants. In addition, we will make use of the rich resources New York City has to offer and explore some of the spectacular Arthurian artifacts housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, and the J. P. Morgan Museum and Library—online if necessary, on site if possible. 

LATN 5090 (0) Latin for Reading | McGowan 
Session I, MW 1:00-4:00 | CRN: 15080
A course designed for graduate students seeking a reading knowledge of Latin in their discipline. Some prior study of Latin is desirable but not necessary. 

LATN 5083 (3) Ecclesiastical Latin | McGowan 
Session II, MW 1:00-4:00 | CRN: 15081
A study of the grammatical structure, form, and vocabulary of Church Latin, focussing on the Bible, the Church Fathers, and medieval thinkers. 

ENGL 5203 (3) The Postcolonial Middle Ages | Yeager
T 11:00-1:30 | CRN: 50690
Postcolonial study has been a productive scholarly approach for decades. The accuracy of the term, “postcolonial,” with reference to premodern literature, has been an ongoing subject of debate. According to accepted, critical definitions, postcolonial literatures are products of colonizing communities and previously colonized cultures, rising in the wake of periods of industrial colonization; moreover, postcolonial study has been linked to modern European communities which formed global empires. These expectations and others have made the “postcolonial” Middle Ages appear controversial. In spite of these controversies, productive understanding of premodern culture has emerged from research under the postcolonial lens, encouraging the study of diverse premodern cultures, displaced or subjugated voices within the medieval period, the production and performance of identity, and the ways in which communities define, remember, and perpetuate themselves. This course is global in its scope, and will focus on medieval texts produced in Africa, Asia, England, France, and the Levant under changing premodern regimes, and will explore the varied literary responses to colonization, diaspora, and displacement that occurred long before the Age of Empire.

GERM 5001 (0) Graduate Reading for German I | Hafner
TF 11:30-12:45 | CRN: 15446
This seminar is intended to familiarize graduate students with current themes and trends in medieval environmental history. Weekly reading assignments comprise historical monographs and scholarly articles in English. 

HIST 6078 (4) The Crusader States: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099-1291 | Paul
M 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 50106
This course charts the social, political, and cultural history of the feudal principalities that were established by Latin Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the First Crusade. Students will be introduced to the narrative and documentary sources through which the history of the Latin Kingdom has been constructed, as well as the archaeology and art of the Levant during the period of Frankish occupation and settlement. In addition, we will engage with the major historiographical debates concerning the constitutional organization of the Latin kingdom, the relationship between the Frankish crusaders and Muslim and eastern Christian populations over whom they ruled, and the "colonial" character of the Latin settlements. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

HIST 7024 (4) Proseminar: Making Money in the Middle Ages | Comuzzi
F 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 50107
This is the first half of a two-semester proseminar/seminar course in which graduate students will formulate and produce original (article or M.A.-thesis length) research projects that touch on medieval social and economic history. Topics discussed may include coinage and money, commerce and trade, merchants and artisans, labor, credit, religious and cultural attitudes to usury and profit, wealth and poverty, social mobility, and overall economic development during the European middle ages. In this proseminar, we will read and discuss relevant works, while students work on formulating and laying the groundwork for their research projects. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

MVST 5077 (4) Editing Medieval Texts | Reilly
W 2:30-5:00 | CRN: 50096
This is a course in the theory and practice of editing, especially as it relates to medieval texts, with most of the examples coming from Middle English. We'll give attention to documentary, historical, and aesthetic approaches, and we will spend some time exploring digital methods and concerns.

PHIL 5012 (3) Introduction to St. Augustine | Klima
F 12:00-2:00 | CRN: 48104
This seminar provides a systematic survey of the main themes of St. Augustine's philosophy and theology. Topics will include faith and reason, divine ideas, time, eternity, and creations, the theology of the Holy Trinity, the nature of the soul, the freedom of the will and divine predestination, good and evil, original sin and divine grace, and the human history as the history of salvation. The unifying theme of the discussion will be a synthetic account of St. Augustine's Neoplatonic Christian anthropology, occasionally contrasted with St. Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian Christian anthropology. The discussion will be organized around student presentations and two term papers on topics other than one's presentation topics.

THEO 5075 (3) Syriac Language and Literature I | Fiano
T 4:00-6:30 | CRN: 49791
This course is the first of a two-semester introduction to Syriac, a dialect belonging to the Aramaic language branch. The first semester will introduce the Estrangela and the Serto scripts, cover grammatical foundations, and expose students from early on to the reading of texts. The second semester will be mostly spent reading Syriac literature, but some time will be devoted to select special topics in Syriac grammar.

THEO 6192 (3) The Greco-Roman Context of Early Christianity | Welborn
T 9:00-11:30 | CRN: 49793
This course creates a context for understanding the encounter of early Christianity with Greco-Roman culture by exploring Hellenistic and Roman history, politics, religion, social relations, economics, education, rhetoric, philosophy, literature, and the theatre.

THEO 6661 (3) Ritual Contexts of the New Testament | Peppard
W 9:00-11:30 | CRN: 49792

ENGL 511 (3) Race, Religion, and Monstrosity | Yeager
The medieval taste for the exotic has introduced may audiences to a range of monstrous beings, from ferocious giants and dog-headed men to the peace-loving sciapod. Medieval studies of monstrosity have often been linked solely to theorize the different human "races" found there. Yet the medievael language of monstrosity was not always liited to travel narrative, nor to the pejorative, for it was used ot describe heroes, saints, even the Christian deity in far more familiar contexts than many would imagine. In this course we will examine the discourse of monsrosity as a complex critical lens through which premodern writers asked important questions of race, religion, civic virtue, and human morality. We will read from Pliny, Augustine, the Beowulf Manuscript, medieval romance, and Mandeville's account. 

HIST 6077 (4) Angevin Empire | Paul 
From the middle of the twelfth- untill the first quarter of the thirteenth centuries, one dynasty, the house of Anjou, were the effective rulers of an enormous agglomeration of kingdoms and principalities which stretched from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and encompassed England, large parts of Ireland, Wales, and nearly half of the territory which today constitutes modern France. Following a wave of renewed scholarly interest in the politics and culture of this period, this class will explore this short-lived but powerful empire, its lands, peoples and rulers. Together we will explore the lives of dynamic individuals within the Angevin court; Angevin court culture, the governance of a medieval "empire"; dynastic politics and diplomacy; the Third Crusade; and England and France after the loss of Normandy. 

HIST 7026 (4) Classics in the Middle Ages | Bruce 
This seminar deals primarily with the transmission and reception in western Europe of classical Greek and Latin texts written before 525 CE, with a focus on the Latin tradition. The overarching aim of the seminar is to highlight the achievement of the Latin Middle Ages in preserving the ancient classics and appropriating them for new uses in a Christian civilization. It treats the most influential authors in the medieval schools (Virgil, Horace, and Ovid), as well as the persistence of the most prominent genres of classical literature, including didactic poetry, drama, elegy, encyclopedic works, epic poetry, epigram, grammatical works, historical writings, legal works, literary criticism, lyric poetry, oratory, philosophical writings, prose fiction, and satire. Lastly, the seminar also considers centers of transmission, book collections, and the medieval commentary tradition. 

MVST 5071 (4) Archives & Materials | Comuzzi 
This course will introduce students to many of the most important sources for the study of the medieval world. Drawing on the diversity of expertise among Fordham's faculty and the rich resources of New York City, the course will introduce students to a variety of handwritten sources (including manuscripts and other documents), as well as coins and seals, and the specialized skills used to understand and interpret these sources. The course will also feature discussions of the processes whereby libraries and archives were developed and maintained, and how scholars use these sources in the digital era.

PHIL 5012 (3) Introduction to Augustine | Cullen 
This seminaro provides a systematic survey of the main themes of St. Augustine's philosophy and theology. Topics will include faith and reason, divine ideas, time, eternity, and creations, the theology of the Holy Trinity, the nature of the soul, the freedom of hte will and divine predestination, good and evil, original sin and divine grace, and the human history as the history of salvation. The unifying theme of the discussion will be a synthetic account of St. Augustine's Neoplatonic Christian anthropology, occasionally contrasted with St. Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian Christian anthropology. The discussion will be organized aorund student presentations and two term papers on topics other than one's presentation topics. 

THEO 6014 (3) Ancient Theological Controversies | Fiano 
This course will aim at providing students with a historical understanding of the ancient development of Trinitarian and Christological doctrine while also reflecting on the ancient and modern historiographic constructions of the controversies that surrounded those topics through theoretical and methodological readings in intellectual history, the sociology of scientific knowledge, and discourse analysis. After a syrvey of some early understandings of Christ's identity and of crucial early disputes, the seminar will focus on the Trinitarian, Christological, and anthropomorphic controversies. Emphasis will be placed on the philosophical underpinnings of the various theological postures, on the late ancient emergence of theological discourse as a field of knowledge sustained by a new set of intellectual practices, and on the link between theological debates and imperial power. Whenever possible, particular attention will be devoted to Syriac and Coptic sources for the controversies under examination. 

Summer 2022

HIST 5204 (4) Medieval Environmental History | Bruce 
This seminar is intended to familiarize graduate students with current themes and trends in medieval environmental history. Weekly reading assignments comprise historical monographs and scholarly articles in English. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction

LAT 5090 (0) Latin For Reading | McGowan
A course designed for graduate students seeking a reading knowledge of Latin in their discipline. Some prior study of Latin is desirable but not necessary.

LAT  5093 (3) Ecclesiastical Reading | McGowan 
A study of the grammatical structure, form, and vocabulary of Church Latin, focussing on the Bible, the Church Fathers, and medieval thinkers.

MVST 5013 (3) Reading Richard Rolle's World | Albin
Richard Rolle of Hampole was perhaps the most influential and widely read English author of the late Middle Ages. Exceeded in testamentary bequests only by biblical and liturgical books, Rolle’s writings exercised immense influence over the literary, mystical, and devotional cultures of late medieval and early modern England. The hermit penned meditations on Christ’s passion, lyrics that would shape devotional poetry for a generation, popular books of instruction for female religious, an English translation and commentary on the Psalter, and experimental Latin prose works teetering on alliterative chaos. His corpus captures the devotional spirit of fourteenth-century England. In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will survey Rolle’s writings and explore their literary, theological, affective, heremeneutic, and theoretical innovations. We will also glance backwards at the sources from which Rolle draws, and forwards to his impact on future authors of spiritual literatures.  

Spring 2022

ENGL 5121 (3) Medieval Paleography | Gyug
Reading handwritten sources—records, chronicles, treatises, Bibles, works of literature, and many other genres and types—is fundamental for primary source research, especially in premodern periods, and for understanding the basis for many secondary works. In this course, we will develop our ability to decipher and understand handwritten sources by considering the history of medieval handwriting. Weekly exercises will ask students to transcribe (not translate!) medieval sources from a range of genres, in Latin and European vernaculars. No prior knowledge of Latin or medieval vernaculars is required or assumed. We will consider the purposes, preparation, transmission, and preservation of the materials contained in each type of source, with an emphasis on the use of these sources in our scholarship and the tools important for their study.

HIST 5203 (4) Medieval Hagiography | Bruce
This research seminar introduces students to the challenges and pitfalls of using saints' lives and other hagiographical writings (miracula, furta sacra, etc.) as sources for medieval history. It aims to familiarize students with competing historical approaches to these genres and to provide a practical guide to the scholarly resources necessary to exploit them as historical sources.

GERM 5002 (0) Graduate Reading in German II | Hafner
Second semester of the not for credit German reading course.

HIST 8110 (4) PSM: Church Law and Medieval Society | Mueller
This course will consist of a two-semester proseminar/seminar sequence inviting graduate students to formulate and conduct original research projects in the field of medieval church law. 

MVST 6225 (4) Old French in the Medieval World: Language Contact, Conquest, and Difference | O’Donnell & Reilly
This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to the cultural history of French language and literature during the Middle Ages. Before it was the national language of France, French was a language of empires in England, Italy, Cyprus, and Greece; a tongue of invaders and reformers; and an idiom spread by immigrants, scholars, merchants, sailors, artisans, poets, and romancers. We will explore the diversity of old French, its connections to political power and ideologies, its manuscript contexts, and its contact with other medieval languages and works of literature, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, old English, middle Welsh, and old Occitan. In addition to interdisciplinary seminar topics and readings, weekly language instruction and fully supported readings from Chrétien de Troyes's "Story of the Grail" will allow students to gain competence in a primary language for research at the graduate level in several disciplines and perhaps the key to eternal life. Previous experience of old French is not expected; basic reading or speaking of modern French is not required but may be helpful; experience with other older languages is welcome.

THEO 6026 (3) Ancient Judaism | Hogan
This course provides a survey of the literature and history of both Palestinian and Diaspora Judaism, including late biblical texts, apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, the Qumran Scrolls, Philo, and Josephus.

THEO 5230 (3) Advanced Greek: Early Christian Responses to Empire | Peppard
This course includes both a rapid review of Greek grammar and syntax, and also intermediate/advanced readings from Hellenistic and/or early Christian texts.

PHIL 5209 (3) Ancient Philosophy | Tress
This course studies major figures at the foundation of Western philosophy, reflecting on the questions the philosophers posed and the teachings they developed in response. Pre-Socratics, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, as well as Stoics and Epicureans are among those to be examined. There will be opportunities to connect the ideas of Greek and Roman antiquity with early Eastern philosophies as well as later Western philosophies.