Sometimes used as shorthand in popular culture for the violent antecedent to modern civilization, the Middle Ages nonetheless inform our own world in many ways, starting with the University, a quintessentially medieval institution. “Going medieval” will mean visiting a number of medieval “places”, including the university, the landscape, the city, and the book, extending from Europe to Asia, and across the centuries from the fall of the Roman Empire to the advent of modernity. This lecture course will feature an array of University of Michigan professors representing a wide range of disciplines — medieval art, architecture, literature, law, religion, science, philosophy, history and political thought — all thinking about the medieval past and its multiform legacy in our day. In going to all these medieval “places” we will ultimately aim to recognize the Middle Ages in our own present place.

Course Requirements:

Evaluation will be on the basis of contributions to an online collaborative timeline and map, active in-class participation, four brief syntheses, and a final project analyzing an object or phenomenon at the University or in its environs that represents or speaks to the medieval past.

Intended Audience:

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Class Format:

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