Medieval Studies

College of Letters and Science
Program Office: 7305 Dwinelle Hall, (510) 642-4218

Director: Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, PhD
Program Website: Program in Medieval Studies

Overview

The Medieval Studies Program at UC Berkeley is an interdisciplinary group that coordinates and sponsors lectures, events, and visiting professorships, promotes scholarly interests common to medievalists of different academic departments, and communicates information of interest among them. The Committee on Medieval Studies offers a concurrent PhD program in which candidates have both a home department and training in the core disciplines of medieval studies.

Undergraduate Program

The Program in Medieval Studies offers an undergraduate interdisciplinary Minor in Medieval Studies. The Minor has three principal purposes:

1. To give undergraduate students who have an interest in Medieval Studies the benefit of advising about what courses are available in the various departments and how certain courses might fit together into a meaningful sequence or cluster.

2. To enable students to be informed about lectures, colloquia, social events, and conferences of interest to them.

3. To allow those undergraduates who complete substantial work in Medieval Studies to have that fact acknowledged. Should those students wish to pursue further academic work after graduation, their chances of success in the competition for admission to graduate school will be enhanced, not just because of the official notice on their transcript but because they will have gained greater professional competence through informed participation in the Program in Medieval Studies at Berkeley.

Undergraduates who contemplate applying for the Minor should contact the Graduate/Undergraduate Adviser, Professor Daniel Melia, to discuss their interests and needs.

Requirements

Students can receive credit for fulfilling the Minor by completing any five upper-division or graduate courses in Medieval Studies. Please note that the following restrictions apply:

• At least three of the five courses must be taken at Berkeley.

• The courses must be of 3 or 4 units and must be taken for a letter grade, with a minimum GPA of 2.0 in those courses.

• So that cross-disciplinary skills are ensured, only three of the five courses may be taken in a single department. Students should consult with a Letters and Science adviser to ensure that there is no more overlap between the Minor and the Major programs than is permissible. Only one course can be counted toward both the major and the minor degrees.

• The Graduate/Undergraduate Adviser in Medieval Studies must certify that the five courses do qualify as courses in Medieval Studies. This verification should take place early in the student's last term at Berkeley. Previous consultation with the Adviser is strongly recommended.

---

Concurrent PhD Degree

Graduate students must be accepted for admission to a regular department (e.g., English or History) before applying for a concurrent degree in medieval studies. The degree granted is the concurrent PhD in the departmental discipline and medieval studies (e.g., English and medieval studies, history and medieval studies). The concurrent PhD is designed to preserve an established standard of training in a major subject while broadening the student's experience in other aspects of the field. A candidate for the concurrent PhD is expected to fulfill all the PhD requirements of the major field of study.

In addition, Candidates for this Concurrent Degree Program must fulfill the following requirements:

1. Completion of three courses, which must include: (a) Medieval Studies 200, (b) History 275, or History 280 on a solely medieval topic, and (c) a course from outside the student's home department (a list of such courses is posted on the Medieval Studies website).
2. Advanced competence in Latin, demonstrated either through a special examination administered by the Medieval Studies program or through coursework.
3. Reading proficiency in a medieval form of a modern European language outside the major field of study, either through examination administered by the Medieval Studies program or through coursework (an upper-division or graduate-level literature course; ordinarily drawn from a list posted on the Medieval Studies website).
4. Working proficiency in manuscript studies (paleography, diplomatic, or codicology), as demonstrated through coursework (appropriate upper-division or graduate-level course at Berkeley or appropriate graduate-level course or workshop elsewhere) or through presentation of an extended research paper making substantial and original use of such skills.
5. A field statement of 30-50 pages, to be completed before the Qualifying Examination, which situates the major area of interest in an interdisciplinary setting.
6. A special committee for the PhD qualifying examination. A representation of Medieval Studies must serve on the PhD orals examination committee.
7. Regular participation in the Medieval Studies Colloquium, and one presentation of dissertation/work in progress to that Colloquium.

---

Curriculum

The program offers some of its own courses. These include Medieval Studies 200, the graduate proseminar; Medieval Studies 150 and 250, two special topics courses, and occasional courses in medieval Latin, paleography, and manuscript studies. In addition, students are urged to consult the medieval offerings in the departments or programs of Art History, Celtic Studies, Classics, Comparative Literature, Dramatic Art, English, French, German, History, Italian Studies, Linguistics, Music, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Rhetoric, Scandinavian, Slavic, and Spanish and Portuguese, as well as in the School of Law and the Graduate Theological Union. An updated list of such offerings is posted each semester on the Program in Medieval Studies website .