the Jane Watson Irwin Professor of Literature
Margaret Thickstun
Margaret Thickstun's interests include religious literature.
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
You will explore a critical period in the history of Europe and the Mediterranean world from a variety of perspectives, taking courses in art, literature, languages, history, and music from Byzantium to Shakespeare’s England. Working closely with faculty in small classes, you’ll find one-on-one encouragement, personal direction and research opportunities that suit your interests.
About the Minor
Medieval and Renaissance studies is a minor at Hamilton, attained by taking five courses in at least three departments. Within this broad framework, students may focus on either or both of these epochs, but they are encouraged at every turn to explore the continuities between them.
I never thought about medieval studies as a means to a tangible end, it was just something that I enjoyed for its own sake. Surprisingly enough, it did end up helping my post-grad job search — one interviewer saw the minor on my resume and asked me about it. I told her about some of the things I studied: Old English poetry, Viking battle tactics, forced drowning as a form of legal trial, things like that. She seemed intrigued.
Jack McManus ’13 — Medieval and Renaissance studies minor
Students will pursue the questions of when and how the modern world emerged. They'll gain a critical understanding of the multicultural histories, literatures and artistic traditions of the European and Arab-Muslim worlds — and the various forms of exchange, conflict and contact that shaped them roughly between 500 and 1600 CE. Students will find an era very unlike the stagnant “Dark Ages” of popular imagination. It's a period of boundless energy, creativity and originality that shaped the world for centuries to come.
Careers After Hamilton
- Assistant Professor of English, Wittenberg University
- Arts Editor, Bennington Banner
Meet Our Faculty
Associate Professor of History
John Eldevik
John Eldevik holds the Licence in Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
Professor of Music
Lydia Hamessley
Lydia Hamessley is the author of Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton.
Associate Professor of Literature
Katherine Terrell
Katherine H. Terrell specializes in Middle English and Middle Scots literature.
Assistant Professor of Art History
Laura Tillery
Laura Tillery’s research concentrates on issues of trade and mobility in late-medieval northern European art.
the Edward North Professor Classics and Greek Literature Emerita (retired)
Barbara Gold
Barbara Gold's interests include Greek and Roman literature, and women in antiquity.
John and Anne Fischer Professor in Fine Arts Emeritus (retired)
John McEnroe
John McEnroe combines academic research in Athens with archaeological fieldwork in Crete.
A Sampling of Courses
Introduction to Old English 221F
Exploration of the language, literature and culture of early medieval England, from the Anglo-Saxon invasion through the Norman Conquest. Emphasis on reading and translating Old English prose and poetry, as well as developing an understanding of its cultural context. Culminates with a reading of Beowulf in translation. Offered in alternate years.
View All CoursesChaucer: Gender and Genre 222F
Examines how Chaucer engages and transforms prevailing medieval ideas of gender and genre. Particular emphasis on his constructions of masculinity and femininity in relation to themes of sex, religion, social power and narrative authority. Readings include Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, as well as select medieval sources and modern criticism. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesShakespeare 227FS
This course is about developing the reading strategies to not only understand and enjoy Shakespeare’s plays, but to read them in a complicated, critical way. While we will study plays spanning Shakespeare’s career, the course will place a special emphasis on reading the plays attuned to how different genres (tragedy, comedy, romance, pastoral, history) are employed and explored. Additionally, we will read significant, complementary material about the culture and the theatre during Shakespeare’s lifetime. (Genre) (History)
View All CoursesMedieval Women: Writing and Written 237S
How did medieval women authors engage with a literary tradition that too often, as 14th c. writer Christine de Pizan lamented, declared that "female nature is wholly given up to vice”? Readings from English and French authors including Christine, Marie de France, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, and Geoffrey Chaucer; anonymous tales of women saints, cross-dressing knights, and disobedient wives; “authoritative” writings about women (inc. religious and medical tracts and a manual on courtly love). We will investigate how these texts both created and challenged gender roles in the Middle Ages.
View All CoursesEnglish Renaissance Literature: 1550-1660 327S
Study of the ways works and writers of this period are "in conversation" with each other on such matters as love, death, religious belief, the human response to the natural world and the role of women (in society and as authors). Readings of poems and other works by such writers as Shakespeare, Spenser, Donne, Herbert and Mary Wroth. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesToday and Tomorrow
