The increasingly global interconnectedness of our contemporary world puts a premium on broad cultural knowledge and experience. MEMS offers a wealth of resources and opportunities as you prepare to enter this world. The program’s interdisciplinary scope means that you can learn about other cultures in a fuller, more integrated way. You can take courses in history AND art history AND literature AND music, or study Europe AND Asia AND the Americas, without having to give up any of your interests. The program also encourages you to study abroad for a term or a full year; and because you can learn about the language, history, and culture of your place of study in your MEMS coursework, you are prepared to take full advantage of your study experience. Finally, globalization has a history. Since the past is always present, a concentration in medieval and early modern studies enables a fuller, more contextualized understanding of other contemporary cultures as well.
The Program
MEMS currently offers an honors concentration that allows you to work closely with faculty and other honors students, encourages study abroad, and gives you considerable latitude in defining your interests and program of study. In both coursework and in the senior colloquium, you will be challenged to conceive complex, engaging projects, learn to do research, and ultimately present your projects in an honors thesis. Recent and current MEMS students have written on such topics as:
• “Calculated Cuisine: Banqueting in the Court of Timur”
• “Memory Systems and the Divine Comedy”
• “Artistic Anatomy: The Rise of Anatomical Science”
• “The Accoutrements of Status: Arms and Armor Producers in Paris during the Reign of Philip the Fair”
• “Aristotle the Heretic: Explaining the Negative Reaction to Philosophy at the University of Paris in the 13th Century”
• “Conflict and Controversy in the Order of St. Francis: The History of Franciscan Poverty from 1226 to 1324”
• “The Renaissance Woman: A Perspective on Sixteenth-Century Italian Courtesans”
• “Variations on a Theme: The Ubiquitous Dragon”
• “The Knightly Palimpsest: Rituals of Initiation in Chivalric Literature”
• “Between Spain and Zion: The Juxtaposition of Diaspor and Exile in The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela”
• "Redefining History: An Analysis of the Levellers' Reforms and Use of Norman Yoke Theory"
• "Rites of Passage: Social Transitions in Two Middle English Romances"
A New Minor
The MEMS minor was approved for students starting in Fall 2005. So, you can now complement the premodern offerings in your concentration with an interdisciplinary line of inquiry, or complement a modern area studies concentration with historical depth. We hope the added flexibility will be of broad interest.
Study Abroad
Students are encouraged to study abroad, and one of the program's goals is to provide an education that will make this experience especially rewarding. The flexibility of the MEMS concentration makes it easy (with a little forethought) to accommodate study abroad. Often the courses you take abroad can be counted toward your MEMS requirements, and the timing of the MEMS thesis colloquium can be adjusted so that you can do both. Recent MEMS students have studied in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain; in addition, MEMS concentrators are eligible for the Honors “Spring in Florence” terms (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/honors/programs/florence.htm). For more information on study abroad opportunities, go to: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/oip/.
You can now also apply online. Go to: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/oip/applying.htm#online to read the new instructions. OIP promises that more features will be added in the future.
Double Concentration
Students can combine a concentration in MEMS with a concentration in another department or program—in the natural sciences as well as in the social sciences and humanities. Students who plan to pursue a double concentration should see the concentration advisor early to work out a plan for completion of requirements.
Student Associations
The MEMS Society is student run and cooperates with the program in planning academic and social events. There is a social gathering of all MEMS concentrators and friends near the beginning of each term in which general policy questions are discussed.
Advising
MEMS honors concentrators will have academic advising by the program director (Professor Karla Taylor, kttaylor@umich.edu) to support their individually constructed programs of study. Program administrator (Terre Fisher, telf@umich.edu) will be the primary point of contact for students in MEMS.
MEMS FAQs:
Do I have to be in the LSA Honors Program to become a MEMS major?
Any undergraduate may declare a MEMS concentration, not just those who have already been admitted to the LSA Honors Program. When you declare a MEMS concentration, however, you automatically become a member of the LSA Honors Program, through which you join a vibrant wider community with access to an especially rich and challenging set of opportunities both in and outside the classroom. Through special courses, research relations with faculty, and a vigorous intellectual community that includes Honors faculty fellows, the Honors Program enables students to identify their intellectual interests and to pursue them as deeply and as far as they can.
The Perlman Honors Commons serves as the intellectual hub of the Honors Program, where students and faculty come together for study, conversation, and a variety of intellectual and cultural events in truly beautiful surroundings. A biweekly interview/discussion, “Fresh Ideas,” alternates there on Thursday afternoons with student-organized events. There are also weekly informal gatherings over lunch in the dining hall. And monthly “Lunch with Honors” gives our students direct contact with many of the remarkable people who visit the University, including, last year, Salman Rushdie, and this year, Bruno Simma from the International Court of Justice in The Hague. For more information, see the Honors Program website at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/honors/index.html.
What can I do with a degree in Medieval and Early Modern Studies?
Because Medieval and Early Modern Studies is a broad, interdisciplinary field, you can put a MEMS concentration to a very wide range of uses. Recent majors have gone into medicine, law, library and information science, teaching, business careers, and graduate work in a variety of disciplines (e.g., history, medieval studies), many with a view to teaching in a college or university.
A MEMS concentration allows you to pursue your interests and develop a set of skills transferable to nearly any endeavor. You learn to analyze and clarify ideas, consider cultural objects and accomplishments in their full historical contexts, present ideas and arguments effectively in both oral and written form, and you have the opportunity to do in-depth research in an area you have identified as particularly fascinating.
The knowledge and skills you acquire and hone in a MEMS concentration will prove enormously useful, whether or not you continue in an academic career. And, of course, the value of MEMS degree is not only vocational. As a model liberal arts degree, MEMS prepares you to cultivate interests and talents you can draw on for a lifetime of learning across a broad range of cultural, aesthetic, creative, and intellectual experiences.
