Medieval studies
Medieval studies is the academic interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages. A historian who studies medieval studies is called a medievalist.
Institutional development
The term 'medieval studies' began to be adopted by academics in the opening decades of the twentieth century, initially in the titles of books like
These institutions were preceded in the United Kingdom, in 1927, by the establishment of the idiosyncratic
With university expansion in the late 1960s and early 1970s encouraging interdisciplinary cooperation, centres similar to (and partly inspired by) the Toronto Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies were established in England at University of Reading (1965), at University of Leeds (1967) and the University of York (1968), and in the United States at Fordham University (1971).[8][7]: 112–13
The 1990s saw a further wave of Medieval-Studies foundations, partly prompted by the dynamism brought to the field by its embracing of postmodernist thought and the associated rise of neo-medievalism in popular culture.[9][7]: 134–36 This included centres at King's College London (1988),[10] the University of Bristol (1994), the University of Sydney (1997)[11] and Bangor University (2005),[8] and the merging of the Medieval History and Medieval Language and Literature sections of the British Academy to create a Medieval Studies section.[12]: 1
Medieval studies is buoyed by a number of annual international conferences which bring together thousands of professional medievalists, including the
: 112, 121 n. 81Another part of the infrastructure of the field is the International Medieval Bibliography.[15][16]
Historiographical development
The term "Middle Ages" first began to be common in English-language history-writing in the early nineteenth century. Henry Hallam's 1818 View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages has been seen as a key stage in the promotion of the term, along with Ruskin's 1853 Lectures on Architecture.[17][18] The term medievalist was, correspondingly, coined by English-speakers in the mid-nineteenth century.[19]
The concept of the Middle Ages was first developed by Renaissance humanists as a means for them to define their own era as new and different from what came before—whether a renewal of Classical Antiquity (the Renaissance) or what came to be called modernity.[9]: 678–79 This gave nineteenth-century Romantic scholars, in particular, the intellectual freedom to imagine the Middle Ages as an anti-modernist utopia—whether a place nostalgically to fantasise about a more conservative, religious, and hierarchical past or a more egalitarian, beautiful, and innocent one.[9]: 678–81
European study of the medieval past was characterised in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by
However, the early twentieth century also saw the increasing professionalisation of research on the Middle Ages. In this context, researchers tended to resist the idea that the Middle Ages were distinctively different from modernity. Instead they argued the so-called '
In the wake of the Second World War, the role of medievalism in European nationalism led to greatly diminished enthusiasm for medieval studies within the academy—though nationalist deployments of the Middle Ages still existed and remained powerful.[27] The proportion of medievalists in history and language departments fell,[28] encouraging staff to collaborate across different departments; state funding of and university support for archaeology expanded, bringing new evidence but also new methods, disciplinary perspectives, and research questions forward; and the appeal of interdisciplinarity grew. Accordingly, medieval studies turned increasingly away from producing national histories, towards more complex mosaics of regional approaches that worked towards a European scope, partly correlating with post-War Europeanisation.[27] An example from the apogee of this process was the large European Science Foundation project The Transformation of the Roman World that ran from 1993 to 1998.[29][30]
Amidst this process, from the 1980s onwards medieval studies increasingly responded to intellectual agendas set by
In the twenty-first century,
Centres for medieval studies
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Many Centres / Centers for Medieval Studies exist, usually as part of a university or other research and teaching facility. Umberella organisations for these bodies include the Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Etudes Médiévales (FIDEM) (founded 1987) and Co-operative for Advancement of Research through Medieval European Network (CARMEN). Some notable ones include:
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, Bangor at Bangor University (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, Bergen at the University of Bergen (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, Bristol at the University of Bristol (Official site)
- The Department of Medieval Studies, CEU at the Central European University (Official site)[45]
- Groupe d'Anthropologie Historique de l'Occident Médiéval at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, Exeter at the University of Exeter (Official site)
- The Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham at Fordham University (Official site)
- The Center for Medieval Studies, Freiburg at the University of Freiburg (Official site)
- The Center for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, or CLAMS, at King's College London (Official site)
- The Institute for Medieval Studies, Leeds at the University of Leeds (Official site)
- The Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Liverpool (Official site)
- CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, at University of California, Los Angeles (Official site)
- The Centre d'Études médiévales de Montpellier or Center for Medieval Studies at the university of Montpellier (Official site)
- The Center for Medieval Studies, Minnesota at the University of Minnesota (Official site)
- The Medieval Institute, Notre Dame at the University of Notre Dame (Official site)
- The Laboratoire de médiévistique occidentale de Paris or Paris Laboratory for Western Medieval Studies at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Official site)
- The Center for Medieval Studies, Pennsylvania at Pennsylvania State University (Official site)
- The Centre d'études supérieures de civilisation mediévale or Center of Advanced Studies in Medieval Civilization at the University of Poitiers (Official site)
- The Charles University in Prague and the Czech Academy of Sciences (Official site)
- The Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, Reading at the University of Reading (Official site)
- The Nova University of Lisbon (Official site)
- Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit at the Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture at the University of Southampton (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, Sydney at the University of Sydney (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto at the University of Toronto (Official site)
- The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto (Official site)
- The Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies at the Utrecht University (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies, York at the University of York (Official site)
- The Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University (Official site)
- The The Catholic University of America (Official site)
- The Centre d'études médiévales, Montréal à l'Université de Montréal (Official site)
- The Trinity College, Dublin (Official site)
- The Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Turku (Official site)
- The Centre for Medieval Studies at Tallinn University (Official site)
- The Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Bucharest (Official site)
See also
- Medievalism
- Canadian Society of Medievalists
- Conferences in medieval studies
- Digital Medievalist
- Medieval Academy of America
- Renaissance studies
- 12th Century Renaissance
Notes
- ^ George R. Coffman, ‘The Mediaeval Academy of America: Historical Background and Prospect’, Speculum, 1 (1926), 5–18.
- ^ William J. Courtenay, 'The Virgin and the Dynamo: The Growth ofMedieval Studies in North America: 1870–1930', in Medieval Studies in North America: Past, Present, and Future, ed. by Francis G. Gentry and Christopher Kleinhenz (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1982), pp. 5–22.
- ^ Luke Wenger, 'The Medieval Academy and Medieval Studies in North America', in Medieval Studies in North America: Past, Present, and Future, ed. by Francis G. Gentry and Christopher Kleinhenz (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1982), pp. 23–40.
- ^ H. Damico, J. B. Zavadil, D. Fennema, and K. Lenz, Medieval Scholarship: Philosophy and the arts: biographical studies on the formation of a discipline (Taylor & Francis, 1995), p. 80.
- ^ MI History, University of Notre Dame
- ISBN 9780955718298, pp. 1-58 [=Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 69/70 (2015)].
- ^ .
- ^ a b G. McMullan and D. Matthews, Reading the medieval in early modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 231.
- ^ .
- ^ "King's College London - About us". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
- ^ D. Metzger and L. J. Workman, Medievalism and the academy II: cultural studies (Boydell & Brewer, 2000), p. 18.
- ^ Alan Deyermond, 'Introduction', in A Century of British Medieval Studies, ed. by Alan Deyermond (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 1–5.
- ^ W. D. Padenm The Future of the Middle Ages: medieval literature in the 1990s (University Press of Florida, 1994), p. 23.
- ^ A. Molho, and G. S. Wood, Imagined histories: American historians interpret the past (Princeton University Press, 1998), p. 238.
- ^ Sawyer, Peter (2009). "The Origins of the International Medieval Bibliography: Its Unwritten History (as told by its Founder)". Bulletin of International Medieval Research. 14 for 2008: 57–61.
- ^ Macartney, Hilary (2007). "La International Medieval Bibliography como herramienta de investigación para la historiografía de ciudades medievales y sus territorios". La Ciudad Medieval y Su Influencia Territorial: Nájera. Encuentros Internacionales del Medievo 3, 2006: 439–450.
- ^ Robert I. Moore, 'A Global Middle Ages?', in The Prospect of Global History, ed. by James Belich, John Darwin, Margret Frenz, and Chris Wickham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 80-92 (pp. 82-83).
- ^ "medieval, adj. and n.", "middle age, n. and adj." Accessed 5 August 2018. OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/115638; www.oed.com/view/Entry/118142. Accessed 5 August 2018.
- ^ "medievalist, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/115640. Accessed 5 August 2018.
- ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 37-53.
- ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 87-100.
- ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 127-52.
- ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 167-83.
- ^ Allen J. Frantzen, Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990).
- ^ John M. Ganim, Medievalism and Orientalism: Three Essays on Literature, Architecture and Cultural Identity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
- ^ ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 1-13.
- ^ ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 57-69.
- ^ Robert I. Moore, 'A Global Middle Ages?', in The Prospect of Global History, ed. by James Belich, John Darwin, Margret Frenz, and Chris Wickham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 80-92 (pp. 83-84).
- ^ Ian Wood, 'Report: The European Science Foundation's Programme on the Transformation of the Roman World and the Emergence of Early Medieval Europe', Early Medieval Europe, 6 (1997), 217-28.
- ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 17-36.
- ^ Caroline Bynum, "Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist's Perspective", Critical Inquiry 22/1, 1995, pp. 1-33.
- ^ David Matthews, Medievalism: A Critical History, Medievalism, 6 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2015).
- ^ Ulrich Müller, 'Medievalism', in Handbook of Medieval Studies: Terms — Methods — Trends, ed. by Albrecht Classen, 5 vols (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010), pp. 850–65.
- ^ Little, Lester K., 'Cypress Beams, Kufic Script, and Cut Stone: Rebuilding the Master Narrative of European History', Speculum, 79 (2004), 909-28.
- ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 155-66
- .
- ^ ISBN 9781903153703, pp. 70-84.
- , pp. 3--22.
- ^ Moore, Robert I., 'A Global Middle Ages?', in The Prospect of Global History, ed. by James Belich, John Darwin, Margret Frenz, and Chris Wickham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 80-92.
- ^ Robinson, Francis, 'Global History from an Islamic Angle', in The Prospect of Global History, ed. by James Belich, John Darwin, Margret Frenz, and Chris Wickham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 127--45.
- ^ The Global Middle Ages, ed. by Catherine Holmes and Naomi Standen, Past & Present Supplement, 13 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) (=Past & Present, 238 (November 2018)).
- ^ Michael Borgolte, Die Welten des Mittelalters: Globalgeschichte eines Jahrtausends (Munich: Beck, 2022), ISBN 978-3-406-78446-0.
- ^ Phelpstead, Carl (2022). "Kringla Heimsins: Old Norse Sagas, World Literature and the Global Turn in Medieval Studies". Saga-Book. 46: 155–78.
- ^ Jonathan Riggs, 'Reimagining the scope and approach of the UCLA Center for Early Global Studies', UCLA Newsroom (15 December 2021).
- ^ On the origins of the department, see Gábor Klaniscay, 'Medieval Origins of Central Europe. An Invention or a Discovery?', in The Paradoxes of Unintended Consequences, ed. by Lord Dahrendorf, Yehuda Elkana, Aryeh Neier, William Newton-Smith, and István Rév (Budapest: CEU Press, 2000), pp. 251-64.
External links
- Western Michigan University: International Congress on Medieval Studies
- The Medieval Academy of America
- The Medieval Review
- Medieval Studies links from Voice of the Shuttle
- Medieval Studies projects from British Academy
- Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Medieval Studies
- Medievalists of Color
- University of Chicago: Library Guides to Medieval Studies "Medieval & Byzantine Studies". Library Guides. USA: University of Chicago.
- "Medieval Studies". Topic Guides. USA: Center for Research Libraries.
- FIDEM
- Carmen: The Worldwide Medieval Network