If you're interested in the unfamiliar past, medieval and early modern studies may be for you. In a historical journey from the fall of Rome through the 18th century, you will encounter vast wealth alongside extreme poverty, deep piety alongside brutal religious conflict, intense creativity alongside the ravages of plague and warfare. You will engage with texts, architecture, and art that may seem foreign to most people today but which continue to inform—for good and ill—the way we engage with important issues ranging from religion to gender and power.

Why Medieval & early modern Studies at Sewanee?

The Medieval and Early Modern Studies program at Sewanee is designed to offer both a cross-disciplinary overview (history, literature, art, philosophy, language) and an opportunity to focus on the disciplinary approach that most appeals to you. The major culminates in a substantial independent research project—both a challenge and an opportunity to experience research as professional scholars do.

We encourage our majors and minors to take advantage of a range of study abroad opportunities, including a longstanding relationship with the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Oxford.

Sewanee offers an opportunity unique among small liberal arts colleges in that it hosts an annual conference, the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. The colloquium is held in the spring and brings scholars from throughout the country (and beyond) to campus; student attendance at all of the events is welcomed and participation by majors and minors is encouraged.

A Sampling of Courses

Medieval & Early Modern Studies

Programs of Study

Requirements for the Major & Minor in Medieval & Early Modern Studies

Meet some professors

Contact

James Ross Macdonald
Associate Professor of English

jrmacdon@sewanee.edu

Gailor Hall 129, ext. 1338