**Updated 10/17/2024. Listings are subject to change. Students, confirm meeting arrangements in BuckeyeLink when enrolling**
Spring 2025 Affiliated Course Listing
This downloadable, screen-reader accessible list shows all the courses in SP25 that will apply to the CMRS major or minor. Please contact the CMRS advisor with any questions.
Spring 2025 CMRS-Affiliated Courses
MedRen 2618 - Travel and Exploration: Narratives of Travel and Intercultural Contact in the Age of Discovery
Instructor: Jonathan Burgoyne, WF: 11:10AM-12:30PM | 050 Hagerty Hall, Class Number: 36005
In Travel and Exploration: Narratives of Travel and Intercultural Contact in the Age of Discovery we will not only explore victorious accounts of discovery and conquest, but also tales of failed expeditions, shipwrecks and captivity. To do so, we will study narratives produced by the Portuguese and their main competitors in European imperial expansion, particularly the Spanish, English and French.
GE Foundations (New): Historical and Cultural Studies
GE (Legacy): Culture and Ideas and Diversity – Global Studies
MedRen 3217 - Shakespeare's London
Instructor: Chris Highley, TuTh: 2:20PM-3:40PM | 082 University Hall, Class Number: 35830
This course will explore roughly one-and-a-half centuries of the history, politics and culture of London, beginning with the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, moving on to a Civil War that saw the Kifng lose his head and culminating with the devastating plague and Great Fire of London in 1666. In our tour of this vibrant metropolis, we will encounter an extraordinary range of figures: alongside the great and the good like Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare, we will also meet prostitutes, vagabonds and gulls (!). You’ll become familiar with the layout and buildings of London, its churches and cathedrals, its palaces and thoroughfares and of course its iconic river Thames. We will linger especially around the theatres, bear gardens, alehouses and brothels that made up London’s burgeoning entertainment industry.
GE Theme (New): Lived Environments
GE (Legacy): Culture and Ideas and Diversity – Global Studies
MedRen 5695 - The Dire Sisterhood: Women of Norse Myth and Legend
Instructor: Merrill Kaplan, TuTh: 9:35AM-10:55PM | 455 Hagerty Hall, Class Number: UG: 35163 G: 25164
Goddesses. Prophetesses. Wronged lovers. Patrons of war. Meet the ladies of Norse mythology and heroic legend in the medieval Icelandic poetry and prose that tells their tales. Students will read lays from the 13th-century Poetic Edda to learn about the distaff side of the Old Norse mytho-legendary tradition, focusing on the poems that let queens, valkyries, ogresses, and other women speak for themselves. Students will also engage with peer-reviewed scholarship and develop their own research paper topics. All readings are in English.
Autumn 2024 CMRS-Affiliated Courses
MedRen 2666 - Magic & Witchcraft
This course will investigate the history of magic and witchcraft from late antiquity up through the eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment supposedly disenchanted the world. We’ll be particularly attentive to three questions: how people thought about magic and what it could (and couldn’t) do, how people who could supposedly cast magic were regarded and treated by those who could not, and how magic relates to the other major ways of understanding the world: religion and science. Most of us probably don’t believe (or at least completely believe) in magic, yet millions of people in the past who were every bit as smart as us did. We’ll try to understand why and how that belief might have made enough sense in their world that some of them turned to magic to improve their lives or harm their enemies and others felt so compelled to oppose magic that they were willing to hunt down and execute those they regarded as witches. Course requirements will include regular short informal writing exercises, some of which will require you to consider the beliefs and practices we’re studying as if they were your own.
Class: 29502
Time: WF 11:10AM-12:30PM
Room: 360 Journalism Building
Instructor: Nick Spitulski (Humanities Institute)
GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course
MedRen 4504 - Arthurian Legends
Welcome to Arthurian Legends! In this asynchronous online course, we will explore together the wondrously rich and complex Arthurian tradition that flourished during the Middle Ages, from the first references to Arthur in early medieval chronicles and elusive Celtic poems through Malory’s epic Morte Darthur. We will encounter the wild and crazy heroes of Welsh romance and the earliest incarnations of characters who remain a part of our popular culture, such as Merlin, Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere, the Lady of the Lake, and Morgan le Fay. We will look at how medieval authors used Arthurian stories, characters, and tropes to explore a host of issues that remain relevant today, including the qualities of leadership, the desiderata of healthy relationships, the nature of heroism, and our responsibilities to each other, to ourselves, and to the environment. Though our focus is the Middle Ages, we will also consider the ongoing modernization of Arthurian characters, stories, and themes in literature, games, and film, and we will explore the use of Arthurian materials in contemporary conversations about race, gender, sexuality, and a host of other issues.
Class: 35002
Time: Asynchronous
Room: Online
Instructor: Karen Winstead (English)
MedRen 5610 - Manuscript Studies
This course introduces students to the pre-print culture of the European Middle Ages and trains them in the fundamental skills required to read and understand handwritten books, fragments, and documents from ca. 500-1500 CE. Students will work with manuscripts held in the OSU library’s Special Collections and will benefit from numerous guest lectures. Knowledge of Latin and other medieval languages is NOT a prerequisite for enrollment.
Class: 34998 (Undergraduate) & 34999 (Graduate)
Time: TR 12:45-2:05PM
Room: 150A Thompson Library
Instructor: Leslie Lockett (English) & Eric Johnson (Thompson Special Collections)
Required Texts:
Clemens, Raymond and Timothy Graham. Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0801487088.
MedRen 7899 - Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia
Description: MEDREN 7899 will consist of 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 4 1-hour+ lectures by visiting professors and at least 1 internal lecture and subsequent discussion (total 3 hours per event); at least one lunch with visiting faculty member (2 hours); active involvement with the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association and its activities; and meetings with the Center director (one hour once per term). With permission of the Director other professional activities (such as attendance at appropriate conferences, on- or off-campus) may be substituted. Please be sure to consult with the Director to confirm plans for the semester before enrolling in the course.
Prereq: Grad standing. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.
Class: 25699
Time: generally F 4:00-6:00 (in line with scheduled lectures and faculty/student colloquia)
Room: Varies - please consult the CMRS Events page for additional info
Instructor: Christopher Highley (English)
Spring 2024 CMRS-Affiliated Courses
MedRen 7899 - Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia
Description: MEDREN 7899 will consist of 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 4 1-hour+ lectures by visiting professors and at least 1 internal lecture and subsequent discussion (total 3 hours per event); at least one lunch with visiting faculty member (2 hours); active involvement with the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association and its activities; and meetings with the Center director (one hour once per term). With permission of the Director other professional activities (such as attendance at appropriate conferences, on- or off-campus) may be substituted.
Prereq: Grad standing. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.
Class: 25699
Time: generally F 4:00-6:00 (in line with scheduled lectures and faculty/student colloquia)
Room: Varies - please consult the CMRS Events page for additional info
Instructor: Christopher Highley (English)
Autumn 2023 CMRS-Affiliated Courses
MedRen 2666 - Magic & Witchcraft
Description: This course will investigate the history of magic and witchcraft from late antiquity up through the eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment supposedly disenchanted the world. We’ll be particularly attentive to three questions: how people thought about magic and what it could (and couldn’t) do, how people who could supposedly cast magic were regarded and treated by those who could not, and how magic relates to the other major ways of understanding the world: religion and science. Most of us probably don’t believe (or at least completely believe) in magic, yet millions of people in the past who were every bit as smart as us did. We’ll try to understand why and how that belief might have made enough sense in their world that some of them turned to magic to improve their lives or harm their enemies and others felt so compelled to oppose magic that they were willing to hunt down and execute those they regarded as witches. Course requirements will include regular short informal writing exercises, some of which will require you to consider the beliefs and practices we’re studying as if they were your own.
Class: 35356
Time: TR 12:45 - 2:05 PM
Room: 1000 Fontana Lab
Instructor: David Brewer (English)
GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course
Required Texts:
Kiekhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781108796897
Copenhaver, Brian P. The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. London: Penguin Classics, 2017. ISBN: 9780141393148
MedRen 5611 - History of the Book Studies
Description: This course will introduce students to the history of the book in the hand-press period from the 15th to the 18th century. It will consider important theoretical and historical questions related to the effects—religious, scientific, political, cultural, literary, economic, educational, etc.—of the spread of the printed book in early modern England and Europe. Working with materials in OSU’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, students will develop essential skills of descriptive and analytical bibliography (the description of books as physical objects and the analysis of their manufacturing and production). This research will enable students to explore how the material forms of texts both shaped and were shaped by diverse cultural agents, including printers, compositors, proofreaders, pressmen, publishers, booksellers, readers, and collectors, as well as by larger cultural forces, such as censorship, the Stationers’ Company, and international intellectual and trade networks. This course is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students working in any field.
Required Texts: Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography, 2nd printing (Oak Knoll, 2000); Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, new ed. (Cambridge UP, 2005); Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (Yale UP, 2010); and many readings on Carmen, which students will be required to download and print. There will also be several recommended texts.
Class: 35354 (UG), 35355 (G)
Time: WF 2:20 - 3:40 PM
Room: 086 University Hall
Instructor: Alan Farmer (English)
Required Texts:
Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107632752.
Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. ISBN: 9781884718137.
Pettegree, Andrew. The Book in the Renaissance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780300178210.
Recommended Texts:
Bowers, Fredson. Principles of Bibliographical Description. 2nd ed. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 1995. ISBN: 9781884718007.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. Descriptive Bibliography. Charlottesville: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 2020. ISBN: 9781883631192.
MedRen 5631 - Survey of Latin Literature: Medieval and Renaissance
Description: In this course, students will read widely in all genres of medieval Latin from antiquity to the late Middle Ages. The course aims to increase the student’s reading fluency and to anchor his or her knowledge of Latin grammar and syntax.
Text: Keith Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin
Note: This is a combined section class with LATIN 5018.
Class: MEDREN 35409 (UG section), MEDREN 35410 (Grad section); LATIN 36676 (UG section), LATIN 36677 (Grad section).
Time: TR 11:10 AM - 12:30 PM
Room: 045 Hagerty Hall
Instructor: Frank Coulson (Classics)
MedRen 7899 - Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia
Description: MEDREN 7899 will consist of 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 4 1-hour+ lectures by visiting professors and at least 1 internal lecture and subsequent discussion (total 3 hours per event); at least one lunch with visiting faculty member (2 hours); active involvement with the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association and its activities; and meetings with the Center director (one hour once per term). With permission of the Director other professional activities (such as attendance at appropriate conferences, on- or off-campus) may be substituted.
Prereq: Grad standing. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.
Class: 21417
Time: generally F 4:00-6:00 (in line with scheduled lectures and faculty/student colloquia)
Room: Varies - please consult the CMRS Events page for additional info
Instructor: Christopher Highley (English)
Spring 2023 CMRS-Affiliated Courses
MedRen 2211 - Medieval Kyoto: Landscapes and Portraits
Description: Kyoto was the capital of Japan from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. Today it continues to be the site of many temples, shrines, gardens, and other cultural monuments that attest to Kyoto’s enduring cultural practices and values. UNESCO collectively recognizes seventeen “Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto” as World Heritage Sites.
This course specifically focuses on the city’s medieval period, from its founding in 794 to the late 16th century. This was a period in which Kyoto’s cultural identity emerged, and, in view of Kyoto as the site of national authority during this duration, the broader Japanese cultural identity. Studying this timespan in the life of Kyoto lets us follow transformations in the lived environments of the city as it moves from imperial to shōgun military rule. By examining literary and other works of art, we’ll also address similar cultural transformations involving aristocrats, warriors, Buddhist institutions, and merchants. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on practices of urban historical preservation through the contemporary efforts of Kyoto’s citizens to preserve the heritage of the city.
Class: 34490
Time: TR 2:20-3:40PM
Room: Mendenhall Lab 125
Instructor: Naomi Fukumori (East Asian Languages and Literatures)
Required Texts:
- Clancy, Judith. Kyoto City of Zen: Visiting the Heritage Sites of Japan’s Ancient Capital. Tokyo and Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle, 2012.
- Dougill, John. Kyoto: A Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 2006.
- Stavros, Matthew. Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan’s Premodern Capital. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014.
- Selected literary works, including excerpts from The Tale of Genji, The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, Account of My Hut, and The Tale of the Heike
GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course
MedRen 2618 - Travel and Exploration: Narratives of Travel and Intercultural Contact in the Age of Discovery (CANCELLED)
Description: What do you know about the man who the city of Columbus is named after? This spring semester, explore the writings of Renaissance explorers like Columbus and learn how to share your findings using ArcGIS StoryMaps. This course examines how travel narratives in the “Age of Discovery” shaped Europeans’ perceptions of their own and other cultures, generated and perpetuated stereotypes, and reflected and/or challenged imperial, colonial, and nationalist discourses.
Assignments include a presentation, an essay, and an ArcGIS StoryMap.
Class: 34488
Time: TR 11:10AM-12:30PM
Room: Baker Systems 148
Instructor: Lisa Voigt (Spanish and Portuguese)
Required Texts:
- Mancall, Peter C., ed. Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery: An Anthology. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.
- Endo, Shusaku. Silence. Trans. William Johnston. New York: Picador, 2016.
GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course
MedRen 2666 - Magic & Witchcraft
Description: This course will investigate the history of magic and witchcraft from late antiquity up through the eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment supposedly disenchanted the world. We’ll be particularly attentive to three questions: how people thought about magic and what it could (and couldn’t) do, how people who could supposedly cast magic were regarded and treated by those who could not, and how magic relates to the other major ways of understanding the world: religion and science. Most of us probably don’t believe (or at least completely believe) in magic, yet millions of people in the past who were every bit as smart as us did. We’ll try to understand why and how that belief might have made enough sense in their world that some of them turned to magic to improve their lives or harm their enemies and others felt so compelled to oppose magic that they were willing to hunt down and execute those they regarded as witches. Course requirements will include regular short informal writing exercises, some of which will require you to consider the beliefs and practices we’re studying as if they were your own.
Class: 28737
Time: TR 9:35-10:55AM
Room: Hagerty Hall 180
Instructor: David Brewer (English)
GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course
Required Texts:
Kiekhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781108796897
Copenhaver, Brian P. The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. London: Penguin Classics, 2017. ISBN: 9780141393148
Levack, Brian P., ed. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2015. ISBN: 9781138774971
MedRen 5695 - Foodways of Medieval and Early Modern Europe and the Mediterranean
Description: Students will research the foodways of medieval and early modern Europe and the Mediterranean from multiple disciplinary perspectives, especially through literary and historical texts, archaeological evidence, folkloric and anthropological lenses, manuscripts and early printed books, hands-on re-creations of recipes and technologies, and the methods of experimental archaeology. Students will regularly present primary and secondary sources to the seminar. For those who are registered under the MedRen call number, the final research project may take the form of a scholarly paper, an online exhibit, or the documentation and sharing of a re-creation of a recipe or a food-related technology. The seminar experience will be enriched by guest speakers, a session in the Instructional Kitchen in the Ohio Union, and potentially field trips. (Any enrichment events that take place outside the scheduled class time will be optional.)
Readings will be made available on Carmen or through OSU Libraries. As of now, there is no plan to have students registered under the MedRen call number purchase any required textbook.
Class: 25782
Time: T 4:10-6:55PM
Room: Denney Hall 206
Instructor: Leslie Lockett (English)
MedRen 7899 - Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia
Description: MEDREN 7899 will consist of 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 4 1-hour+ lectures by visiting professors and at least 1 internal lecture and subsequent discussion (total 3 hours per event); at least one lunch with visiting faculty member (2 hours); active involvement with the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association and its activities; and meetings with the Center director (one hour once per term). With permission of the Director other professional activities (such as attendance at appropriate conferences, on- or off-campus) may be substituted.
Prereq: Grad standing. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.
Class: 25779
Time: generally F 4:00-6:00 (in line with scheduled lectures and faculty/student colloquia)
Room: Varies - please consult the CMRS Events page for additional info
Instructor: Christopher Highley (English)
Autumn 2022 CMRS-Affiliated Courses
**Please note: CMRS plans to once again implement a mix of in-person and remote coursework for the Autumn 2022 term. Updated 6/24/2022 (list is subject to change).
Autumn 2022 CMRS Courses
MedRen 2215 - Gothic Paris: 1100 - 1300
Description: An introduction to arts, architecture, poetry, history, music, theology, foods, fashions, and urban geography in Paris 1100-1300, the age of Gothic cathedrals and the rise of the university.
Students will:
1. be introduced to some of the main currents of medieval culture in Western Europe through the study of Paris, 1100-1300, gaining deeper historical and cultural appreciation and dispelling some misconceptions.
2. learn to recognize major characteristics of the “Gothic” style in art and architecture.
3. study the formation of the first major Western university, and use the methods of organization and analysis which developed there (and form the basis of analytical methods today).
4. study a crucial growth period of one of the world’s enduring cities, examining the complex web of economic, commercial, political and social forces which contributed to that growth, with the ultimate goal of gaining the ability to transfer that cultural analysis to other times and places.
5. read authentic primary texts in translation, with the goal of appreciating some of the stylistic features and extracting some knowledge of contemporary daily life and ideology.
Assignments: midterm & final exam, partly student written; short quizzes to process readings; a project researching and experiencing/ recreating something related to medieval Paris.
Class: 34993
Time: WeFr 11:10AM-12:30PM
Room: 129 Mendenhall Lab
Instructor: Kristen Figg (CMRS)
Required Books
- Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Betty Radice and M. T. Clanchy. Penguin Books (2013);
- Honeysuckle and the Hazel Tree : Medieval Stories of Men and Women, Patricia Terry. University of California Press (1995);
- Paris, 1200, John W. Baldwin. Stanford University Press (2010).
GE culture and ideas and diversity global studies course. **NEW: GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.**
MedRen 5610 - Manuscript Studies
Description: This course introduces students to the pre-print culture of the European Middle Ages and trains them in the fundamental skills required to read and understand handwritten books, documents, and scrolls from ca. 500-1500 AD. Students will work with manuscripts held in the OSU library’s Special Collections and will benefit from numerous guest lectures. Knowledge of Latin and other medieval languages is NOT a prerequisite for enrollment.
Class: 34984 (UG); 34985 (G)
Time: TR 12:45-2:05PM
Room: 150A Thompson Library
Instructors: Leslie Lockett (English) and Eric Johnson (University Libraries)
Required Books
- Introduction to Manuscript Studies, Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Cornell University Press (2007).