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FAQ:
What is Medieval Studies and how does it “fit in” at SMU?
What is the DAMC?
What are the requirements for the SMU Medieval Studies degrees?
Who should I contact about the Medieval Studies Program?
What is Medieval Studies and how does it “fit in” at SMU?
Ranging from the fourth century ad to 1485, from Celtic Britain to Visigothic and Islamic Spain, Byzantium to Persia and the Caliphate, from script to print, from feast to fast, from fine arts to liberal arts, from Augustine to Abelard and beyond, this program offers an intense and condensed liberal education. Studies reveal how the historical shapes, institutional structures, literary visions, and artistic forms that emerged from the Middle Ages have colored our concepts of God, society, self, love, individualism, creativity, and success.
This interdisciplinary program in Medieval Studies at SMU comprises a concentration (a B.A. major, a B.A. minor, and an M.A.) in both the Liberal and the Fine Arts which relies on courses offered in all of the above departments. The Medieval Studies Program affords the student an opportunity for a ‘classically’ liberal education, exploring the literature, language, history, art, music, and belief of the Middle Ages within a broad subset of ‘Western’ (Celtic, Franconic, Italic, Germanic, Visigothic) and ‘non-Western’ (Byzantine, Islamic, Persian) contexts. The chief goal of most majors in the liberal and Fine Arts is to anchor a student’s work in a field that enhances her/his broader undergraduate intellectual experience. Medieval Studies, as an interdisciplinary endeavor, seeks to be a broader envelope for students’ explorations. It is, at once, wholly appropriate pre-professional training in multiple fields which embrace thinking of a broad and analytical sort (ranging from Business to Religious Studies, and from Biology to Music Theory and Foreign Languages/Literatures), and it is also an excellent grounding from which a student can pursue graduate work in Medieval Studies or in such disciplinary fields as Literature, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Art History and Music History.
DAMC is an acronynm which stands for: Dallas Area Medieval Consortium. It is an ‘association’ of medievalists in the Dallas area which makes it possible for students at Southern Methodist University, the University of Dallas, and the University of Texas-Dallas to enroll in selected medieval studies courses at the other member campuses. Through the Consortium, SMU students can elect no more than a total of fifteen hours in medieval subject courses at any Consortium college and no more than twenty-one hours of upper-level Latin language and literature at the University of Dallas.
What are the requirements for the SMU Medieval Studies degrees?
The Medieval Studies Program at Southern Methodist Unversity offers three degrees: a B.A. major, a B.A. minor, and an M.A.
Requirements For The B.A. Major In Medieval Studies:
Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary major of thirty hours (ten semester courses) in medieval subjects, and Latin language and literature, distributed over at least three broad subject areas in medieval studies:
history, literature,
music, and visual arts [Art / Music History], with no less than six hours in each area.
Latin language and literature courses after the second year may count toward hours for the Medieval Studies major. Students are encouraged to take courses in philosophy, religious studies, and church history as they are available. Individual student programs are approved by the Director of Medieval Studies.
Requirements For the B.A. Minor In Medieval Studies:
A student must complete fifteen hours from the courses listed, including at least three interdisciplinary and nine advanced hours. No more than six hours at the introductory (1000 or 2000) level may be counted; some of the MDVL and CF (Cultural Formations) courses listed below are also interdisciplinary. Other courses may satisfy the interdisciplinary component. Individual student programs are approved by the Director of Medieval Studies.
Requirements For the M.A. In Medieval Studies:
M.A. students are required to earn thirty semester hours of credit. Twenty-four hours are to be taken in graduate level courses and seminars, to be distributed over at least three broad subject areas in medieval studies:
history, literature,
music, and visual arts [Art / Music History], with no less than six hours in each area.
No more than twelve hours and no less than three hours may be elected in each area. Students are encouraged to take courses in philosophy, religious studies, and church history when they are available. Students may elect three hours in non-medieval courses may be taken in the student's major disciplinary area of concentration with approval of the Director of Medieval Studies. Students must also demonstrate competence—through examination—in intermediate Latin and one other modern or medieval language. The Dallas Medieval Consortium makes it possible for SMU students to enroll without charge in advanced Latin courses regularly offered at UD. Finally, students must write a thesis, of six hours credit, linking materials and methods of more than one discipline; the writing of the thesis is guided by a committee composed of the Director of Medieval Studies and professors from (the) two major subject areas covered by the thesis.
Nature of the thesis:
1. A thesis should be a work of some 60-90 pages that presents the state of research and offers an original contribution to the chosen topic. It should avoid being a resume of the state of the question. It should – as its title suggests – argue a “thesis”: a new idea about a topic. Since the Medieval Studies program is interdisciplinary, all topics must explicitly engage some model of interdisciplinarity.
2. The thesis format will follow the guidelines published on the SMU website: http://www.smu.edu/graduate/files/Guide_update.pdf. The thesis will adhere to the Turabian style for works on the humanities unless there is a compelling reason to use a style sheet for some other discipline.
Schedule of the thesis:
1. Students should be thinking about thesis possibilities from the time they enter the program. Be alert for topics that look rewarding, questions that seem likely to yield good material, professors whose approach looks compatible with your interests. Seminar papers often prove to be good entrees into topics.
2. Students must pass the language exams before moving onto thesis work. If you have not passed the language exam before the end of the third semester, the faculty will have to meet and decide whether to grant an extension or to drop the student from the program.
3. Students should have a topic in mind by the beginning of their third semester (or at the equivalent point after eighteen hours) when they sign up for a Directed Study to work with their advisor (first reader). There will be at least two readers. The thesis must be interdisciplinary in its conceptualization and execution. By the very beginning of the fourth semester, students must submit to the advisor and to the director of Medieval Studies a two-page thesis abstract, a three to five page state-of-the-literature, and a preliminary bibliography. The faculty will then offer suggestions and either approve the project or require revisions and schedule another presentation date.
4. The remaining thesis hours will be taken in the fourth semester or as convenient for the student. Students on financial aid are advised to be aware that financial aid can cover only four semesters of nine hours each.
5. Members of the thesis committee will be drawn from faculty in Medieval Studies and appointed by the director of Medieval Studies. When warranted, the director of Medieval Studies will solicit and appoint an outside reader from another university as a member of the thesis committee. They should be engaged early in the project, in the course of the third semester, so they are aware from its inception what the project will be and can contribute to it. Advisors and students alike should be sure drafts circulated to committee members are in good form, with typos corrected, etc.The Latin reading exam is a combination of straight translating with grammatical identifications and close exercises—that is, both translation and precise grammatical recognition.
Students should prepare the following texts:
From the Vulgate, Luke
From the Vulgate, Song of Songs (see pp. xvi–xxxv in E. Ann Matter, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (Philadelphia, 1990).)
From Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, especially section on ealdorman and the sparrow
From John of Salisbury, any section of the Metalogicon or the Policraticus
From Hildegard of Bingen, Symphonia, with an introduction, translation, and commentary by Barbara Newman (Ithaca, 1988), pp. 128–31): ‘O virga ac diadema’
Whom should I contact about the Medieval Studies Program?
If you are interested in learning more about the SMU Medieval Studies program and related Medieval issues, please contact the Director of Medieval Studies, Prof. Bonnie Wheeler.
For a complete list of SMU Medieval Studies courses, click here.