MEMS is an interdisciplinary program, with students and faculty from many departments and degree programs across the university. Among similar programs nationally and internationally, the University of Michigan’s program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies is distinctive because of its global conception—embracing work on the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas as well as Europe, the traditional focus of MEMS scholarship. We cover a similarly broad temporal range, from ca. 500 CE to 1800 CE, that is, late antiquity through the Industrial Revolution (in the European context) and encourage exploration of the cultural range of this period in and across other geographic regions. Within this historical period, MEMS affiliates study history, the history of art and architecture, archaeology, history, literature, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, music, and the history of science and technology. The MEMS program organizes the University’s extraordinarily rich resources in medieval and early modern studies into an interdisciplinary and often collaborative community where we can share work, information, and interests.
MEMS offers graduate students a number of opportunities: a Graduate Certificate Program, funding for travel and research, ongoing colloquia and interdisciplinary workshops, the MEMS lecture series, and several conferences each year. Graduate students with MEMS interests are always welcome to participate in our various programs, and we make a point to arrange opportunities for conversation and intellectual exchange between our graduate students and visiting scholars. Since MEMS is a voluntary affiliation, you need not be formally admitted to the Graduate Certificate Program to participate in our events or be eligible for MEMS funding. Your interest is the only requirement! To get on our mailing list, receive announcements, and keep up with current happenings, contact Terre Fisher (telf@umich.edu).
The Graduate Certificate Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Any graduate student enrolled in a graduate degree program in the Rackham School of Graduate Studies is eligible to apply for the Graduate Certificate Program in MEMS. We have rolling admissions, so you may apply at any time. For requirements and how to apply, follow the Graduate Certificate Program link.
The Proseminar
The centerpiece of the Graduate Certificate Program is the MEMS proseminar, which is a team-taught comparative and/or interdisciplinary course that brings together faculty and students from a wide array of our constituent areas. Visiting lectures, colloquiua, and conferences are often coordinated to bear upon the topic of a given term’s proseminar. This course is offered under two or more departments (appropriate to the topic and disciplinary approach) and welcomes both Certificate students and other interested upper level students. For more information, follow the Proseminar link.
MEMS 898: Interdisciplinary Dissertation Colloquium
The MEMS proseminar is usually our students’ first experience in creating an interdisciplinary intellectual community. At the other end of the graduate student experience, MEMS 898 offers a similar model of interdisciplinary work for students at the dissertation-writing stage. The Dissertation Colloquium provides advanced students in MEMS an opportunity to present their work to one another in a seminar that brings together doctoral candidates from potentially all the MEMS disciplines. The work one presents may be dissertation chapters (or parts thereof), conference papers, or scholarly articles to be submitted for publication. In addition to reading and responding to one another’s work, the seminar will also consider methodological and disciplinary issues of common interest to members of the seminar. MEMS 898 counts toward the requirements of the Certificate in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, but you do not need to be admitted to the Certificate Program to take the course. The Dissertation Colloquium may be repeated for up to six credits. This is the only MEMS colloquium you can also take for graduate course credit.
The Premodern Colloquium
The Premodern Colloquium is a reading group in medieval and early modern studies. The Colloquium has been meeting for more than twenty-five years in the home of Tom Green (Law School, History Department) by whom it was founded as a forum for discussion of new work in the history of law. In recent years it has evolved into a wide-ranging multi-disciplinary reading group dedicated to medieval and early modern studies in History, History of Art, History of Law, European Literature and Languages, and other fields. The groups has recently read current journal articles and book chapters, but typically discussions focus on works-in-progress by local and visiting scholars, or dissertation chapters presented by our own students. We would especially like to increase the participation of graduate students in our regular meetings, both as discussants and as presenters of dissertation work in progress. Our discussions tend to be intense and lively, but people who present their own work also find the experience to be friendly and helpful. Suggestions for future readings, including advanced dissertation chapters, are most welcome, as are the names of interesting scholars we might invite locally or try to draw in from further away. Readings for each month are decided in consultation with a sub-group of regular participants. If you have suggestions or questions about The Premodern Colloquium please write to Tom Green (tagreen@umich.edu) or to Tom Willette (willette@umich.edu).
Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshops
Since 2003 Rackham School of Graduate Studies has sponsored a number of interdisciplinary workshops for graduate students and faculty. These groups are self-organized by the participants, have an ongoing core membership, and meet regularly throughout the academic year. This program is designed to help advanced students form working groups that support the dissertation-writing process, as well as encouraging exchange and collaboration among students and faculty who share intellectual interests but do not have a readily available common forum. For information on MEMS-related workshops and other groups of interest, follow the Rackham Seminars link above.
Funding Opportunities: The Newberry Consortium
The Newberry Consortium is a key source of funding for MEMS graduate students. Through our affiliation with the consortium (administered at the Newberry Library, Center for Renaissance Studies in Chicago), students and faculty have access to the programs of both the Newberry Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. In addition, both students and faculty may apply for funds to attend seminars or lectures, or to do research at these libraries. Typical grants are up to $250 for travel to Newberry programs and $500 for travel to Folger programs; in special circumstances, larger grants may be possible if funds are available. To apply for a Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Grant, please contact Karla Taylor (kttaylor@umich.edu). To see what’s going on at the Newberry and the Folger, follow the Events link above.
MEMS Summer Travel/Research Grants
MEMS awards Summer Travel/Research Grants to graduate students through an application process that commences early each Winter term. MEMS can offer such grants due to the generous gifts the program receives, and most recently, with support from the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, which has provided $5,000 for this purpose for the next three years (2007-2009). For further information about how to apply for this and other grants, follow the Funding link above.
MEMS Lecture Series
Every year MEMS sponsors at least four lectures by prominent visiting scholars in all disciplines. Recent lecturers have included Leonard Barkan, Kathleen Biddick, Caroline Walker Bynum, Charles Donahue, Elizabeth Eisenstein, Walter Melion, and Marcia Colish. Winter 2008 will see visits by Ulrich Langer (University of Wisconsin) and Douglas Biow (University of Texas). All lectures are open to the public. MEMS also arranges occasions for conversation between graduate students and its distinguished visitors. To view the current schedule of events, follow the Events link to Calendar of Events.
Conferences and Other Events: 2007-2008
Michigan Medieval Seminar
Sept. 28
Religion and Empire in the Early Modern Atlantic
Sept. 28-29
Harmony of Two Worlds? Song, Image, and Space in the Early Modern Atlantic
Mar 14-15
Conferences: 2006-2007
Ethics and Expression
Annual Fraker Conference, March 16 and 17
Moving Texts: Print Culture in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
Early Modern Colloquium, Feb 9
Watching Ourselves Watching Shakespeare
Nov. 10-11
Colonialism and the Enlightenment
Oct. 5 -Dec. 7, 3222 Angell Hall
Conferences and Other Events: 2005-2006
Latin American Series on Architecture and Urbanism proseminar
Jan. 20, Mar. 10, Apr. 7
In and Out: Plotting Culture
Annual Fraker Conference, Nov. 18-19
Michigan Medieval Seminar
Saturday, Oct. 29, Lane Hall 204 South State Street
Gendering Islamicate Histories
Friday Sept. 30, Rackham Assembly Hall
Conferences 2004-2005
Spatial Epistemologies in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
Friday, February 18, 2005 | 9:00-4:30 pm, 3222 Angell Hall
Homelands in Question: Relocating "Europe" in the Spaces of Cultural Negotiation
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference. February 11, 6:00-8:00pm; February 12, 9:00-4:00, Michigan League
Beyond Antiquity: The Classical Ideal from Petrach to Poliziano, Poussin and Wren, January 5th, 2005, 4:00-7:00pm, Classics Library, 2175 Angell Hall
Michigan Medieval Seminar, Saturday, October 2, 2004, 9:00-5:00, Lane Hall, 204 South State Street
Cultural Convergences in the Medieval Mediterranean, Saturday, September 11, 2004, 9:00-5:00, University Museum of Art
