Medieval Studies

Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary program that explores the many cultures of the European and Middle Eastern Middle Ages from the viewpoints of history, literature, religious studies, drama, art, and music.

(see also the Medieval Studies homepage)

Undergraduate Program

Students build individual programs drawing on several different subject fields. In addition, cross-listed courses in the Medieval Studies Program put students in touch with medievalists both at UCSB and in the larger scholarly community. Each year one upper-division course from a participating department that fulfills the requirements of the medieval studies major is cross-listed as Medieval Studies 100 (A-Z). The instructor from that course invites faculty from other UCSB departments to guest teach classes. The students in the Medieval Studies 100 (A-Z) are also invited to attend the medieval Colloquium Series.

Graduate Program

With three tenured specialists in medieval European history (Blumenthal, Farmer, Lansing), one tenured specialist in the pre-modern Middle East (Sabra), and regular offerings in medieval Latin, paleography and diplomatics by the Executive Director of Medieval Studies (English), UCSB boasts one of the strongest graduate programs in medieval history in the US. Areas of specialization include France, Italy, Iberia, and Egypt; medieval women, gender and sexualities; cross cultural exchange in the medieval Mediterranean; and the culture of elites. Recent graduate students have received prestigious extra-mural funding from the Fulbright, Chateaubriand and Borchard Foundations and from the Huntington Library. Recent PhDs have been highly successful in job placements (Smith College, UC Irvine, University of Northern Colorado, University of Purdue at Calumet) and in receiving prestigious post-doctoral fellowships from the ACLS and Mellon Foundations as well as the Rome Prize.

For information on recent dissertation topics, the annual medieval colloquia and graduate student conferences, and guest speakers, consult the Medieval Studies website: http://medievalstudies.ucsb.edu/.

The following faculty are in this field

The following courses are in this field

  • History 200E Historical Literature: Europe
  • History 201E Advanced Historical Literature: Europe
  • History 215A Seminar in Medieval History
  • History 215B Seminar in Medieval History
  • History 215E Research Seminar in Medieval Social History
  • History 215F Research Seminar in Medieval Social History