(Departments of English, Romance Languages, History, Politics, Philosophy, Music, Classics, Art History, Religion, German, Humanities, Art History)

Overview

This certificate is designed to allow students in English to both broaden their knowledge of and focus their studies on the medieval and early modern periods. The program provides pragmatic interdisciplinary coursework, training in the technical skills of medieval studies, linguistic preparation, and a variety of subject areas for specialization. The program offers students a competitive advantage in admission to doctoral programs. Students may enroll in the program by permission of the director upon admission or anytime during their first year.

Courses satisfying the certificate may overlap with program requirements but requires some coursework beyond that of the Master of Arts degree.

The certificate generally does not require more time to complete than the Master of Arts program in English. Students are strongly encouraged to apply for extramural fellowships to study one or more summers at the international sites where a medieval studies curriculum is available (e.g., We are aligned with the St. Peter’s College, Oxford summer program in Medieval and Environmental Studies [see the medieval studies minor in the Wake Forest University Undergraduate Bulletin for details]). Students may apply two of the courses taken for the Master of Arts degree toward the certificate program with approval of the director.

Activities and opportunities include the medieval studies workshop and lecture series; the paper contest that awards winners with funding to the International Congress of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University; the Gordon A. Melson Graduate Student Award in Medieval Studies, specifically awarded to an outstanding graduate student to attend the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University; the medieval studies summer program at St. Peter’s College, Oxford; the medieval section of the department’s library in the Archie Ammons English Department Faculty Lounge; and the establishment of an internship with the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program Director.
 

Students are required to take a minimum of 12 credit hours with a medieval or early modern focus; these courses should represent two different disciplinary fields in addition to that of the student’s home department. In consultation with the program director, one or more of these additional courses may be taken as directed reading or as medieval language courses. The graduate thesis must have a medieval focus, and the MA thesis committee should have at least two participating departments represented. The minimum GPA required for completion is 3.0.

Program Director Gale Sigal
Professors Stewart Carter, Gale Sigal, Herman Rapaport, Sol Miquel-Prendes, Monique O'Connell, Jeff Soloman, Jefferson Holdridge
Associate Professors Olga Valbuena-Hanson, Chanchal Dadlani, Tina Boyer
Assistant Professors Amy Clark
Visiting Assistant Professor Clara Wild, Patrick Kozenyi, Cesar Gutierrez
Teaching Professor John Smart
External Associate Professors Charles Wuest, Alison Gulley
Emeritiae Gillian Overing, Ulrike Wiethaus