Area II, Renaissance and Baroque. Prerequisite: First-year students with permission. An introduction to the art of the Early Renaissance in Italy. Examples of painting, sculpture, architecture, and printmaking produced in Italy between 1200 and 1500 will be examined. Offered every third semester. V.1, V.6a

Area II, Renaissance and Baroque. Prerequisite: First-year students with permission. An introduction to the art of Western Europe in the 17th century. Examples of painting, sculpture, architecture, and printmaking produced in Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands between 1600 and 1700 will be examined in detail. Offered every third semester. V.1, V.6a

Area I, Ancient and Medieval. Prerequisite: ARTH 115. A study of the art and architecture of Byzantiam, Islamic cultures, and western Europe from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. Major themes we will consider are monastic life, growing urbanization, pilgrimage, the Crusades, and the role of women in society. Offered alternate years. III.W, V.1, V.6a

Area I, Ancient and Medieval. Prerequisite: ARTH 115. This course will introduce students to the late medieval world where the arts of cathedral and court were influenced by urbanization, travel, rising levels of literacy, and changes in monarchy and religion. This course will include an examination of Islamic art and the art of the Byzantine Empire as well as that of Western Europe. Offered alternate years. III.W, V.1, V.6a

Area II, Renaissance and Baroque. Prerequisite: ARTH 116. Using both primary and secondary sources, the seminar will examine Italian Renaissance art in relation to contemporary art theory in the 15th and 16th centuries. Offered alternate years. May be counted as a core course or as an auxiliary course toward the minor in gender studies. V.6a

Prerequisite: First-year students with permission. A study of selected comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances by William Shakespeare with attention to the plays’ cultural and literary context. Topics will vary by semester. Topic for 2012-13: "Supernatural Shakespeare." Witches, fairies, ghosts, and gods: a surprising number of Shakespeare's plays incorporate mystical elements. Indeed, the plays ask us to consider whether the theater itself might be a place where magic can happen. During our course of Shakespeare's plays, we will pay special attention to the representation and use of the supernatural in the works we read. V.2

Prerequisite: First-year students with permission. An introductory study of the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of the Anglo-Saxon language. Because Old English is the linguistic ancestor of Modern English, students will learn some of the foundations of the language they speak as they begin translating prose and poetic texts from the 9th-11th centuries. Students will also consider elements of the Anglo-Saxon culture and poetics as they translate such poems as “The Dream of the Rood,” “Judith,” “The Seafarer,” and portions of “Beowulf.” V.2

Prerequisite: Sophomores with permission. A study of the continuing development of English words, grammar, and syntax, including sources of vocabulary and changes of form, sound, and meaning. Offered alternate years. V.1

Prerequisite: Sophomores with permission. An examination of English Renaissance drama before 1603, including early works by Shakespeare and plays by his Elizabethan contemporaries such as Lyly, Greene, Marlowe, Kyd, and Dekker. We will study the increasing secularization and professionalization of theater, the development of comedy and pastoral, and the emergence of revenge tragedy. Both textual analysis and dramaturgy will be emphasized. Offered alternate years. V.2, V.6a

Prerequisite: Sophomores with permission. This course will investigate the relationship between the religious and secular realms in Early Modern English literature. We will give particular attention to the uncertain delineations among holy, patriotic, familial, and erotic forms of love in poetry and literary prose. Contexts will include the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the court, colonialism, and the English Civil War. Authors may include Spenser, Sidney, Wroth, Herbert, Donne, Milton, Cavendish, and the Cavalier poets . Offered alternate years. V.2

Prerequisite: FREN 202 or placement. A survey of French Literature from the Middle Ages to the 18th century at the advanced intermediate level. III.W, V.2, V.3

Prerequisite: Open to first-year students and sophomores; others by permission of the instructor. We will analyze the historical record concerning six of the most famous figures from medieval Europe: Arthur of Britain, Charlemagne, the Cid, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Francis of Assisi, and Joan of Arc. We will then investigate the legends concerning each, and attempt to separate historical facts from quasi-historical fiction. How much of what we know about these “heroes” is actually true? Offered alternate years. This course cannot be taken on a P/CR/NC grading option. III.W, V.1

A survey of English history under the Tudors and Stuarts, with some attention to Scotland and Ireland as well. The course will begin with an examination of early modern English society, including social relations in local communities and family structure, familial relationships and the position of women. Other topics include: Henry VIII’s “break with Rome,” the Protestant Reformation, assessment of Elizabeth’s abilities as queen, the Civil Wars, Restoration politics and the world of Samuel Pepys. V.1, V.5

This course challenges the perception of the Middle Ages as the “Dark Ages” by introducing the cultural, political, intellectual and religious complexity of the period from the fall of the Roman empire to the Black Death. While focusing geographically on Europe, north Africa and the Near East, it also explores the medieval West in the context of sub-Saharan Africa and China. Offered alternate years. V.1

Prerequisite: HIST 143. The millennium separating antiquity and the Renaissance witnessed the rise of western Christianity and capitalism, the invention of romantic love, the development of Islamic science, and the Black Death. Topics will alternate: Early Middle Ages or Dark Ages; High Medieval Renaissance(s); Medieval Iberia; The Disastrous Fourteenth Century. Offered alternate years. May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be counted as an auxiliary course toward the minor in gender studies. May be counted toward the major in Spanish as the one course allowed to be taken in English. III.W, V.5

Prerequisite: MUSC 157. not open to students who have received credit for MUSC 212 or MUSC 331. A study of vocal and instrumental Western music from the period of Gregorian chant through to the early classical period ca. 1770. Emphasis is placed upon study of stylistic developments in their historical contexts. V.6a

An historical study of the origins and development of Judaism down to the present. The course will deal with Jewish ethics, gender, literature, law, ritual, and notions of history and ethnic identity as they developed in various Jewish communities throughout the world. Offered alternate years. May be counted as an auxiliary course toward the minor in gender studies. III.W, V.1

An introduction to the “world of Islam”, beginning with an examination of its foundation in the seventh century and concluding with a consideration of issues pertaining to Islam in the modern world. The course will deal with such topics as: Muhammad; the Qur’an; Islamic “Traditions” (hadith) and the “Law” (shariah); the Caliphate; sectarian divisions, especially the Sunni-Shiite schism; Sufi mysticism; Muslim influences on medieval European societies; the Crusades; Islamic art and literature; and the modern resurgence of Islam. Offered alternate years. V.4, V.5

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. The history of theatre in the Middle Ages, Elizabethan and Jacobean England, and the Spanish Golden Age. It includes the major genres and playwrights, staging, design, and production arrangements. Representative plays will be read and discussed from each period. Offered alternate years. V.1, V.2