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Cornell University

Graduate School

Graduate SchoolFields of Study

Medieval Studies

Field Description

The aim of this comparative and interdisciplinary field is to allow students to concentrate more fully on medieval studies than is possible in the programs of traditional departments. Although programs to fit individual interests and needs are emphasized, there are some degree requirements, such as reading knowledge of Latin and a course in paleography and research methods, that must be met by all candidates.

The program does not ordinarily admit students seeking a terminal M.A. degree. Ph.D. degree candidates are granted the M.A. degree after successful completion of course work and the general field exams. For the Ph.D. degree, reading proficiency in Latin and two foreign languages, and teaching experience are required.

Contact Information

Website: http://www.medievalstudies.cornell.edu
Email: medievalst@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-8545

259 Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Subject and Degrees

Concentrations by Subject

Medieval Studies

  • medieval archaeology
  • medieval art
  • medieval history
  • medieval literature
  • medieval music
  • medieval philology and linguistics
  • medieval philosophy

Faculty

Frederick M Ahl

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: late Latin epics

Benjamin William Anderson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval archaeology; medieval art; medieval history
  • Research Interests: Byzantine art; architecture, and visual studies; architecture and archaeology of late antique and medieval Anatolia

Ross Brann

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: Judeo-Arabic culture, especially medieval; Hebrew poetry and poetics; Islamic Spain

Charles Francis Brittain

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval philosophy
  • Research Interests: early medieval philosophy (Christian and pagan); Platonism; intellectual history

Oren Falk

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history
  • Research Interests: medieval, cultural, and Norse history

Laurent Ferri

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history; medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: European cultural and political history; art history; witchcraft; history of the book

Andrew Scott Galloway

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature; medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: Old and Middle English literature and its contexts; medieval historiography

Arthur Bernhard Groos

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: Middle High German literature; early modern city culture

Kimberly Joy Haines-Eitzen

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history; medieval literature
  • Research Interests: early Christianity and early Judaism; religion in Late Antiquity; text transmission in Late Antiquity; asceticism and monasticism

Wayne Eugene Harbert

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: Germanic philology and Middle Welsh

Andrew Hicks

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature; medieval music; medieval philosophy
  • Research Interests: history of music thought and theory; pythagoreanism and platonism; medieval Latin philology and manuscript studies; medieval Persian literature

Thomas Dana Hill

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature; medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: Old and Middle English literature; Old Norse-Icelandic literature; English philology

T. J. Hinrichs

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history
  • Research Interests: medical history; Chinese government policies to educate southern peoples in medicine; suppression of southern "shamans"

Cary S. Howie

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: medieval French and Italian literature; critical theory; gender studies; queer studies; medieval literature

William John Kennedy

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: rhetoric; Neo-Latin; late medieval literature and criticism

Scott C MacDonald

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval philosophy
  • Research Interests: medieval philosophy and theology

Sturt W. Manning

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval archaeology
  • Research Interests: archaeology (especially Mediterranean, Near Eastern, and European); archaeological theory; complex societies; dendrochronology (and dendroarchaeology); climate and history; archaeological science

Marilyn Migiel

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: medieval and Renaissance Italian literature

John Michael Najemy

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history
  • Research Interests: late medieval and Renaissance Italian history

Judith Ann Peraino

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval music
  • Research Interests: medieval music

Simone Pinet

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature; medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: medieval and Renaissance Spanish; books of chivalry; Golden Age poetics; cartography; theories of space; mester de clericia; romance

David Stephen Powers

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history
  • Research Interests: medieval Islamic history

Masha Raskolnikov

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: Middle English literature, especially allegory, rhetoric and translation studies; contemporary critical theory; feminist and queer studies

Eric Rebillard

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval archaeology; medieval history
  • Research Interests: medieval history; Saint Augustine; late Antiquity/early Christianity

Cynthia Robinson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval art
  • Research Interests: medieval Mediterranean visual culture, 1000-1500A.D. (Islamic and Christian); courtly culture; religion and art

Courtney Roby

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history
  • Research Interests: Professor Roby%u2019s research interests focus on the literary aspects of scientific and technical texts from the ancient world, the interaction of verbal and visual elements in those texts, and the definition and dissemination of scientific work. She is currently working on a book manuscript based on her dissertation, which traces the literary techniques used in the textual representation of technological artifacts from Hellenistic Greece to late-ancient Rome. Other recent, current, and forthcoming projects address Ptolemy%u2019s use of ekphrasis to appeal to the %u201Cscientific imagination,%u201D the challenges of describing pain as presented by Galen, the Roman reception of Greek science, and the reworking of mathematical texts by the Roman surveyors.

William J.S. Sayers

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature; medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: medieval western European languages and literatures, in particular Old Norse, Middle Irish and Anglo-Norman French

Savely Senderovich

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval history; medieval literature
  • Research Interests: medieval Russian literature

Ding Xiang Warner

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: Chinese literatures and literary thought from Han through early Song; medieval Chinese intellectual history; text production and text culture in pre-modern China

Michael L Weiss

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval philology and linguistics
  • Research Interests: Indo-European linguistics; old Irish

Winthrop Wetherbee

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: medieval Latin, English, and Italian literature

Samantha Zacher

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Medieval Studies: medieval literature
  • Research Interests: Old English literature with a special interest in prose homilies and biblical poetry; Middle English literature; manuscript studies; rhetoric; studies in orality and literacy; history of the English language