University of Richmond

The Interdisciplinary Concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies for English Majors

This concentration was created for English majors interested in deepening their knowledge of the cultures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance through interdisciplinary study. It thus requires that in addition to taking upper-level courses in Medieval and Renaissance English literature, majors also explore these periods from the perspective of other academic disciplines including, but not limited to, the history of art and architecture, foreign literatures, philosophy, religious studies and history. It is hoped that the breadth of knowledge and intellectual flexibility that interdisciplinary study fosters will enable students in this concentration to undertake more complex kinds of research projects and achieve more sophisticated levels of critical thinking and writing than might otherwise have been possible.
6 units, including

ENGL 308/ID 390 Interdisciplinary Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
One  course in Medieval literature, one course in Renaissance literature and one from either category, chosen from

  • ENGL 301 Literature of the Middle Ages
  • ENGL 302 Literature of the English Renaissance
  • ENGL 303 Chaucer
  • ENGL 304 Shakespeare
  • ENGL 305 Critical Approaches to Shakespeare
  • ENGL 306 Milton
  • ENGL 309 Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: The Lyric Tradition
  • ENGL 330 Selected Topics in Literature Before the Early to Mid-19th Century (depending upon topic)
  • ENGL 400 Junior/Senior Seminar (depending on topic)

Three units from at least two different departments outside of English, chosen from

  • ART 314 Northern Renaissance Art
  • ART 315 Art of the Italian Renaissance
  • ART 316 Art in the Age of Reform
  • FREN 411 The French Middle Ages
  • FREN 421 Renaissance
  • HIST 225 Medieval Italy
  • HIST 227 High Middle Ages
  • HIST 229 Medieval England
  • HIST 230 The Renaissance
  • ITAL 423 Le Tre Corone: Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio
  • MLC 357 The Idea of the Renaissance: Self, History and Knowledge
  • RELG 258 Medieval Religious Thought
  • SPAN 321 Literary Spain: Poetry, Drama, Fiction
  • SPAN 432 True Lies: Fiction and Truth in Don Quijote


A final critical paper examining one or more works relevant to the major shall be completed in the junior or senior year preferably as the final project in ENGL 308/IDST 390 or in another appropriate upper-division English course with prior approval from the concentration coordinators.

Students also will be encouraged to consider enrolling in any number of the following courses (these courses will not, however, count toward the six courses in Medieval and Renaissance Studies required of English major concentrators):

  • ART 221 Survey I: Prehistory through the Middle Ages
  • ART 222 Survey II: Renaissance to the Present
  • CLSC 301 Greek Art and Archeology
  • CLSC 302 Roman Art and Archeology
  • CLSC 306 The Classical Tradition
  • ENGL 226 Love and War in Medieval Literature
  • ENGL 234 Shakespeare
  • FREN 431 Le Siècle Classique
  • GREK 301 Greek Epic
  • GREK 302 Greek Drama
  • HIST 110 Ideas and Institutions of Western Civilization I
  • HIST 223 The Roman Empire
  • PHIL 281 Philosophy of Art
  • PHIL 362 Philosophy of Religion
  • RELG 241 Introduction to Early Christian Era
  • RELG 243 The World of the New Testament
  • RELG 340 Varieties of Early Christianity
  • RELG 341 Paul and Christian Origins
  • RELG 342 John and Early Christian Literature