Requirements for the Minor
The minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies consists of five semester courses and a language requirement:
- In order to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, three courses, each from a different area of study, must be chosen from the course listings.
- Study abroad or transfer courses can count for one of the five minor courses. They must be in the period of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. For distribution, they must be clearly based in the particular discipline. Credit will be granted at the discretion of the Program Chair, in consultation with faculty from the relevant department.
- One course from an honors thesis in a period based in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, advised by a MERS faculty, or an independent study with a MERS faculty (MERS 98a,b) may count for one of the electives.
- Two additional electives.
- Students in the program must complete the university language requirement in one of the following: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Arabic, or Hebrew.
- No grade below a C will be given credit toward the minor.
- No course taken pass/fail may count toward the major requirements.
Spotlight on Faculty Research
Professor and noted scholar of English Renaissance poetry Ramie Targoff has long been fascinated by the relationship between religion and literature. Her book “Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England” looks at how notions of love became bound by mortality, and the effect that change in thinking has had on centuries of poetry.