Spring 2026 Undergraduate Courses

The Medieval Studies Program modifies this course list with updates from the courses' home departments whenever new information is provided. Students with questions about what courses will be accepted for credit should contact the program director, Benjamin Saltzman, at saltzman@uchicago.edu. Please also consult departmental listings.

Spring 2026 Medieval Studies Courses:

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales taught by Professor Joe Stadolnik on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:30-12:20, with two options for Friday discussion sections.

This course is an intensive introduction to the Canterbury Tales and to the world of Geoffrey Chaucer, with particular attention to how our historical distance from medieval literary culture shapes the experience of reading Chaucer's poetry today.

Counts for: MDVL 15500, ENGL 15500, ENGL 35500, FNDL 27500

Italian Renaissance: Petrarch, Machiavelli, and the Wars of Popes and Kings taught by Professor Ada Palmer on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30-2:50.

Florence, Rome, and the Italian city-states in the age of plagues and cathedrals, Petrarch and Machiavelli, Medici and Borgia (1250-1600), with a focus on literature, philosophy, primary sources, the revival of antiquity, and the papacy's entanglement with pan-European politics. We will examine humanism, patronage, politics, corruption, assassination, feuds, art, music, magic, censorship, education, science, heresy, and the roots of the Reformation. Writing assignments focus on higher level writing skills, with a creative writing component linked to our in-class role-played reenactment of a Renaissance papal election (LARP). First-year students and non-History majors welcome.

Counts for: MDVL 12203, HIST 12203, HIST 32202, RLST 22203, CLCV 22216, ITAL 16000, SIGN 26034, KNOW 12203, FNDL 22204, RENS 12203

Major Trends in Islamic Mysticism taught by Professor Yousef Casewit on Wednesdays from 10:30-1:20.

This course examines Islamic mysticism, commonly known as Sufism, through an exploration of English translations premodern and contemporary Sufi literature in Arabic and Persian. The goal is to gain firsthand exposure of a broad spectrum of literary expressions of Islamic spirituality in their historical context, and to understand exactly what, how, and why Sufis say what they say. Each of the units will comprise of lectures and close readings of excerpts from the text in Arabic/Persian and English translation.

Counts for: MDVL 24550, RLST 24550, ISLM 32419, SIGN 26068, GLST 24550, NEHC 24550, NEHC 32419

Iberian Literatures and Cultures: Medieval and Early Modern taught by Professor Pablo García Piñar on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30-2:50.

This course explores Spanish language, literature, and culture focusing on premodern Iberian texts and artifacts. We will start by anonymous "Cantar de Mio Cid," the first great vernacular epic in the Middle Ages, and we will end in Maria de Zayas's "Novelas ejemplares," one of the finest expressions of European early modern short story. Between these two literary works we will talk about music, painting, witchcraft, conversion, and the Inquisition as milestones of a five-century span. In this time Spanish consolidates as a written language, while numerous political and religious conflicts mark the struggle for hegemony in the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to enhancing your knowledge of Iberian cultural history and improving your close reading and critical thinking skills, this course is designed to continue building on your linguistic competence in Spanish.

Counts for: MDVL 21705, SPAN 21705

Ekphrasis: Art, Description and Religion taught by Professor Jaś Elsner on Mondays from 9:30-12:20.

This course explores the rich traditions of description - ekphrasis - from Greco-Roman antiquity into the middle ages. It tackles texts (both prose and verse) in order to establish the ramifications of a genre in the European tradition, and its applications in particular to visual culture and religion. There will be opportunity in the final paper to range beyond these into questions of comparative literature, art (history) writing, religious imagination and ekphrasis in all periods or contexts, as well as into the use of images or films as themselves forms of descriptive response. The course is intended for graduates but interested undergraduates are very welcome. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Counts for: MDVL 29004, BIBL 40400, ARTH 40400, CLAS 42600, RLVC 40400, ARTH 21702, CLCV 29600, RLST 29004

Tolkien: Medieval and Modern taught by Professor Rachel Fulton Brown on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-12:20.

J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" is one of the most popular works of imaginative literature of the twentieth century. This course seeks to understand its appeal by situating Tolkien's creation within the context of Tolkien's own work as both artist and scholar alongside its medieval sources and modern parallels. Themes to be addressed include the problem of genre and the uses of tradition; the nature of history and its relationship to place; the activity of creation and its relationship to language, beauty, evil, and power; the role of monsters in imagination and criticism; the twinned challenges of death and immortality, fate and free will; and the interaction between the world of "faerie" and religious belief.

Counts for: MDVL 29902, RLST 22400, FNDL 24901, HIST 29902

Pagans and Christians: Greek Background to Early Christianity taught by Professor David Martinez on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-12:20.

This course will examine some of the ancient Greek roots of early Christianity. We will focus on affinities between Christianity and the classical tradition as well as ways in which the Christian faith may be considered radically different from it. Some of the more important issues that we will analyze are: "The spell of Homer." How the Homeric poems exerted immeasurable influence on the religious attitudes and practices of the Greeks. The theme of creation in Greek and Roman authors such as Hesiod and Ovid. The Orphic account of human origins. The early Christian theme of Christ as Creator/Savior. Greek, specifically Homeric conceptions of the afterlife. The response to the Homeric orientation in the form of the great mystery cults of Demeter, Dionysus, and Orpheus. The views of the philosophers (esp. Plato) of the immortality of the soul compared with the New Testament conception of resurrection of the body. Ancient Greek conceptions of sacrifice and the crucifixion of Christ as archetypal sacrifice. The attempted synthesis of Jewish and Greek philosophic thought by Philo of Alexandria and its importance for early Christianity. 

Counts for: MDVL 20505, RLST 20505, CLCV 26216

Ancient Mediterranean World III: Late Antiquity taught by Professor Erin Walsh on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-10:50 or Professor Jeremy Simmons on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30-1:50.

Part III examines late antiquity, a period of paradox. The later Roman emperors established the most intensive, pervasive state structures of the ancient Mediterranean, yet yielded their northern and western territories to Goths, Huns, Vandals, and, ultimately, their Middle Eastern core to the Arab Muslims. Imperial Christianity united the populations of the Roman Mediterranean in the service of one God, but simultaneously divided them into competing sectarian factions. A novel culture of Christian asceticism coexisted with the consolidation of an aristocratic ruling class notable for its insatiable appetite for gold. The course will address these apparent contradictions while charting the profound transformations of the cultures, societies, economies, and political orders of the Mediterranean from the conversion of Constantine to the rise of Islam.

Counts for: MDVL 16900, CLCV 20900, HIST 16900, SOSC 27910, RLST 20690

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle Ages taught by Professor John Miller on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00-3:20.

The field of gender and sexuality in medieval Western Europe is both familiar and exotic. Medieval poetry is fascinated by the paradoxical inner workings of desire, and poetic, theological, and philosophical texts develop sophisticated terms for analyzing it. Feminine agency is at once essential to figurations of sexual difference and a scandal to them. Ethical self-realization gets associated both with abstinence and with orgasmic rapture. This course will examine these and other topics in medieval gender and sexuality through reading a range of materials including poetry, theology, gynecological treatises, hagiography, and mystical writing.

Counts for: ENGL 25700, GNSE 20159, ENGL 35700, GNSE 35700

Travel and Exploration in the Global Middle Ages taught by Professor Pamela Klasova on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30-5:50.

This course explores travel and exploration in the medieval Middle East, presenting the region as a central crossroads of the Global Middle Ages. Through the accounts of pilgrims, merchants, diplomats, scholars, and adventurers, students will follow routes that connected the Islamic world with Africa, Asia, and Europe. Reading travel narratives, maps, and material evidence, the course asks how movement shaped knowledge, identity, power, and cultural exchange-questions that resonate in today's world of migration, globalization, and unequal mobility. By foregrounding the Middle East as a hub rather than a periphery, the course offers a historically grounded way to think about connection, difference, and belonging in a global age. This course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. This course participates in the Languages Across the Curriculum (LxC) program for Arabic. The course is conducted fully in English, and students with no prior knowledge of Arabic are very welcome. Students with some Arabic may choose, through the LAC program, to read short texts in Arabic.

Counts for: NEHC 20036, NEHC 30036

Medieval Indian Cities taught by Professor Mohit Manohar on Tuesdays from 2:00-4:50.

This seminar examines the fascinating, surprising, and confounding ways in which cities developed in “medieval” South Asia—a millennium long period comprising roughly ca. 500 to 1500 CE. Some of these cities, such as Delhi, have grown to become modern metropolises. Some others, such as Hampi (one of the largest cities on earth at the height of their fame), have become abandoned archaeological towns. What social, political, religious, and mercantile networks shaped their development? How did people—the elites and the so-called subalterns—live in these cities? And what can a serious study of this distant period tell us about the pressures that shaped medieval built environments and that continue to affect cities today? Among the cities to be discussed are Delhi, Surat, Thanjavur, Hampi (Vijayanagara), Warangal, Daulatabad, and Gwalior. Final assignment could take the shape of an academic paper, or, in consultation with the instructor, a creative assignment that imagines an aspect of urban life in a medieval Indian city. Seminar is directed towards students with interests in medieval history, religious history, South Asian history, urban history, and architectural history.

Counts for: ARCH 21014, ARTH 21014, ARTH 31014

Later and Early Medieval Intermediate Latin II taught by Professor Michael Allen on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:30-10:20.

The course continues to consolidate the foundations extended in the autumn course based on readings from Cicero. We shall cover a variety of poetry and prose from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, including selections from Boethius, Bede, Lupus of Ferrières, Nithard, and others. The authors chosen will all be significant for their efforts to reflect the highest classical standards. 

Counts for: LATN 20324