Medieval & Early Modern Studies

Major and Minor

Tulane's Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) offers a flexible, multidisciplinary major and minor designed to foster knowledge of the medieval and early modern worlds from the fourth through seventeenth centuries. Crossing national, linguistic, and disciplinary boundaries, MEMS gives students the analytic tools and historical understanding necessary for navigating our own interconnected, globalized world. The program draws on the expertise of faculty members from multiple departments within the School of Liberal Arts (Art History, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, English, French and Italian, Germanic and Slavic Studies, History, Jewish Studies, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Spanish and Portuguese) and encourages students to choose their course of study according to their own interests. Students are also encouraged whenever possible to engage with primary source materials from Tulane's Rare Books Collection, online, or from other libraries.

Current and complete Medieval and Early Modern Studies Major requirements, Medieval and Early Modern Studies Minor requirements, and a list of all Medieval and Early Modern Studies courses can be found in the Tulane University Catalog. 

Requirements

The major consists of 30 credits (ten courses) to be distributed in the following manner:

  1. Three courses each from two of three categories: medieval (300-1499), early modern (1500-1799), and crossover (spanning medieval and early modern).
  2. Any four additional courses listed in the program.

The student may take up to four courses in a single department. Of the ten courses, no more than three courses may be taken below the 300-level, and at least two must be completed at the 400-level or above.

The minor consists of 18 credits (six courses) to be distributed in the following manner:

  1. Two courses each from two of three categories: medieval, early modern, and crossover.
  2. Any two additional courses listed in the program

Category I: Medieval

  • ARHS 1010 Art Survey I: Prehistory to Middle Ages
  • ARHS 3200 Early Christian and Byzantine Art
  • ARHS 3210 Art and Experience in the Middle Ages
  • ARHS 3220 Romanesque and Gothic Art
  • ARHS 6210 Medieval Pilgrimages: Saints, Bones, and Art
  • ARHS 6220 Women and Gender in Medieval Art
  • ARHS 6230 Art and Architecture of Medieval Italy
  • ASTA 3510 Premodern Japanese Culture
  • ENLS 4110 Middle English Literature
  • ENLS 4120 Medieval Literature
  • ENLS 4450 Chaucer
  • ENLS 6070 Introduction to Old English
  • ENLS 6120 Medieval Literature
  • ENLS 6450 Chaucer
  • FREN 4220 Medieval French Literature
  • FREN 6220 Medieval French Literature
  • HISA 1020 The Barbarian West
  • HISA 1030 Medieval Europe, 1100-1450
  • HISA 2030 Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization from Constantine to the Crusades
  • HISA 2310 Medieval England
  • HISA 2350 Medieval Italy
  • HISA 3170 Medieval Spain
  • HISA 3910 Special Topics in Medieval and Ancient History
  • HISA 4140 The Crusades, 1095-1291
  • HISA 4150 The Age of the Vikings
  • HISA 4910 Special Topics in Medieval and Ancient History
  • HISA 6090 Seminar in Select Topics in Byzantine History
  • HISA 6230 Medieval Cities
  • HISA 6270 Women and Gender in the Middle Ages
  • HISM 2200 History of Islam to 1400
  • ITAL 4010 Topics in Origins and Masterpieces of 13th- and 14th-Century Italian Literature
  • JWST 3500 The Golden Age of Spanish Jewry I: Moslem Spain
  • JWST 3520 The Golden Age of Spanish Jewry II: Christian Spain
  • JWST 3530 Jewish Life and Thought in the High Middle Ages
  • JWST 4110 Rabbinic Judaism
  • JWST 4350 Rashi, Halevi, Maimonides: Rabbinic Luminaries of the Middle Ages
  • LATN 4070 Medieval Latin
  • PHIL 3240 Medieval Philosophy
  • SPAN 4420 Introduction to Multicultural Medieval Iberia
  • SPAN 6810 Reading Medieval Iberia

Category II: Cross-Over

  • AHST 3300 Islamic Architecture
  • ARHS 3310 Art of the Early Renaissance in Italy
  • ARHS 6020P Art and Belief in the Western Tradition
  • ENLS 2010 Introduction to British Literature I
  • ENLS 4490 Early Major Authors
  • ENLS 5010 Seminar in British Literature to 1800
  • ENLS 6050 History of the English Language
  • ENLS 6490 Early Major Authors
  • FREN 4210 History of the French Language
  • FREN 6210 History of the French Language
  • GERM 3660 Love, Death, and Sexuality from the Middle Ages to the Baroque
  • GERM 3670 Grimm Reckonings: The Development of the German Fairy Tal
  • HISE 1210 Europe and the Wider World: From the Renaissance to 1789
  • HISE 2240 Russian History from the 9th to the Mid-19th Centuries
  • HISE 2410 Spain, 1369-1716
  • HISM 6140 Islam and the Western Mediterranean World, 1000-1900
  • MUSC 1410 History of European Music to 1750
  • RUSS 3030 Masterpieces of Russian Literature I
  • RUSS 3530 Survey of Russian Art
  • SPAN 4060 Pre-20th Century Readings in Spanish
  • SPAN 6510 History of the Spanish Language

Category III: Early Modern

  • ARHS 3230 Visual Culture of Golden Age Spain
  • ARHS 3320 16th-Century Italian Art
  • ARHS 3330 Italian Renaissance Architecture
  • ARHS 3360 Art and Desire at the Renaissance Courts
  • ARHS 3410 Theatres of the Baroque
  • ARHS 3420 Baroque Art
  • ARHS 3430 Rubens to Rembrandt
  • ARHS 3440 Italian Baroque Art
  • ARHS 3710 Colonial Art of Latin America
  • ENLS 3230 Shakespeare Select Plays
  • ENLS 3750 American Life in American Literature, 1620-1864
  • ENLS 4130 Renaissance Literature
  • ENLS 4140 17th-Century Literature
  • ENLS 4150 Early Modern Theater
  • ENLS 4170 18th-Century Novel
  • ENLS 4190 Restoration and 18th-Century Literature
  • ENLS 4310 American Literature to 1820
  • ENLS 4460, 4470Shakespeare I and II
  • ENLS 4480 Milton
  • ENLS 5310 Seminar in American Literature to 1820
  • ENLS 6130 Renaissance Literature
  • ENLS 6170 18th Century Literature
  • ENLS 6190 Restoration and 18th Century Literature
  • ENLS 6460, 6470 Shakespeare
  • ENLS 6480 Milton
  • FREN 4320 Renaissance Literature
  • FREN 4410 17th-Century French Literature
  • FREN 4420 17th-Century Drama
  • FREN 4520 18th-Century Literature
  • FREN 6320 Renaissance Prose
  • FREN 6410 17th-Century Literature
  • FREN 6520 18th-Century Literature
  • HISB 4250 The Atlantic Slave Trade
  • HISE 2160 Europe in the 18th Century
  • HISE 2320 Early Modern England
  • HISE 2420 The Age of Reformation
  • HISE 3300 Death, Disease, Destitution and Despair in Early Modern Europe
  • HISE 3140 Household, Gender, and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe
  • HISE 6050 The Italian Renaissance
  • HISE 6100 Renaissance and Reformation, 1450-1660
  • HISE 6330 Imperial Spain, 1469-1716
  • HISE 6350 Crime and Punishment in Hanoverian England
  • HISE 6360 English Civil War
  • HISE 6370 Seminar in Early Modern England
  • HISL 1710 Introduction to Latin American History
  • HISL 2760 Colonial Mexico
  • HISL 2810 Colonial Brazil
  • HISL 3710 Seminar: The Colonial Heritage of Latin America
  • HISU 2400 Women and Gender in U.S. History to 1830
  • HISU 2510 Atlantic World 1450-1800
  • HISU 2520 Early America to 1800
  • ITAL 4020 Topics in Renaissance Literature
  • ITAL 4030 Topics in 17th- and 18th-Century Italian Literature
  • JWST 3540 Jewish Life & Thought from the Renaissance to the Age of Reason
  • MUSC 6230 Keyboard Literature 1600-1750
  • PHIL 2020 History of Modern Philosophy
  • PHIL 2120 Classics of Ancient Political Philosophy II
  • SPAN 3450 Don Quijote in Translation
  • SPAN 4140 Introduction to Colonial Letters
  • SPAN 4230 Visual Culture of Golden Age Spain
  • SPAN 4430 Literature of the Golden Age
  • SPAN 6110 Foundations of Colonial Spanish American Literature (1492-1830)
  • SPAN 6330 Spanish Prose of the Golden Age
  • SPAN 6410 Don Quijote
  • SPAN 6430 Drama of the Golden Age
  • SPAN 6440 Poetry of the Golden Age