Book of Hours, the Netherlands, second half of 15th century Medieval Studies Program Description

Cornell’s Medieval Studies Program is designed to provide students with expertise and professional success in the fields of particular departments, the members of whom will likely form the majority of the students’ Special Committees.  But Medieval Studies also presents graduate students with combinations of scholars in clusters of study that might not be as visible in traditionally defined departmental graduate training.  At the right are listed just some of the possible clusters of graduate study available in Medieval Studies, with the names of members of the Medieval Studies Graduate Field who regularly teach and mentor students in those clusters, and some information about courses or other resources.  For further information about individual faculty listed here, see http://www.arts.cornell.edu/medieval/People/faculty.htm.

This section also contains information for undergraduates and from Cornell University's Procedural Guide for the graduate field of Medieval Studies, in addition to a comprehensive list of the Medieval Studies course offerings since 1993. More information on student life is available under the "People" heading.

Further Information
 Program Overview

Archaeology; Art History; Asian Studies; Celtic Studies; English Literature and Language; Gender and Sexuality Studies; German Studies and Germanic Philology; History; Iberian Peninsula Studies; Latin Language and Literature; Linguistics; Literary and Critical Theory; Musicology; Near Eastern Studies; Old Norse Studies; Paleography and Textual Studies; Philosophy; Romance Literary and Linguistic Studies; Russian Language and Literature

 Cornell University Facilities

 Undergraduate Minor in MS

 Procedural Guide for the Graduate Field of MS

 Course Descriptions

Procedural Guide
for the graduate field of Medieval Studies
(revised August 2005)

Table of Contents

THE PROGRAM IN MEDIEVAL STUDIES

Languages

Students will be expected to demonstrate competence in Latin by passing the Assessment in Medieval Latin administered by the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto at the M.A. level.1 This examination is administered twice a year (September and April), and students must arrange to take it before the beginning of their fourth year. It is the student's responsibility to decide, in conjunction with her/his committee, when to take the exam and to register for it. (The program administrator will advise on how to do this.) The Director will make the necessary arrangements with Toronto for the administration of the examination. The Graduate School will pay examination fees. The Program supplements the wide range of Latin classes offered by Classics with informal (usually highly enjoyable) reading sessions in Medieval Latin each week. Students are also required to know two further languages relevant to their research. These two languages (usually modern, and never the student's mother tongue) are determined by the Special Committee. Should the student pursue a program of study where Latin might not be appropriate, the Special Committee will decide what an appropriate substitute requirement might be.

The Field has no standard means for determining whether a student has sufficient knowledge of foreign languages other than Latin. This is left to the Special Committee. The student must fulfill all language requirements by the end of the third year.

1 Students whose main field is Philosophy will, instead, be required to pass a different examination to be set by their committee. Students whose primary work does not concern the Latin West are exempted from this requirement, and will substitute another medieval language as determined by their committee.