Medieval Studies

Degree Offered

Doctor of Philosophy

Facilities for Graduate Work

The collections of the General Libraries, including the Perry-Castaneda Library and the branch libraries in architecture, classics, and fine arts, provide strong support for medieval studies through their journals, series, monographs, facsimile editions of manuscripts, microforms, slides, recordings, and musical scores. In addition, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center has a significant collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, both sacred and secular, that may be used for firsthand research.

Areas of Study

Among areas of study in the humanities, medieval culture is perhaps most naturally cross-disciplinary. The doctoral degree program in medieval studies draws upon the collaboration of medievalists in ten units of the Colleges of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts: the Departments of Art and Art History, Classics, English, French and Italian, Germanic Studies, History, Philosophy, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Spanish and Portuguese and the School of Music. Students may also receive assistance from faculty members in architecture, comparative literature, linguistics, government, Middle Eastern studies, Asian studies, and theatre and dance.

Graduate Studies Committee

The following faculty members served on the Graduate Studies Committee in the spring semester 1998-1999.

Matthew Bailey
Rebecca A. Baltzer
Mary E. Blockley
Thomas Cable
Alison Knowles Frazier
Michael Paul Harney
Hubert P. Heinen
Geraldine Heng
Joan A. Holladay
Ernest N. Kaulbach
William W. Kibler
John S. Kolsti
Louis H. Mackey
Janet A. Meisel
Martha G. Newman
David E. Price
Guy P. Raffa
Elizabeth Scala
Madeline Sutherland-Meier
John Weinstock
Stanley N. Werbow
James I. Wimsatt
Marjorie Curry Woods

Admission Requirements

In addition to meeting the requirements for admission to the Graduate School, applicants to the medieval studies program are expected to have the following qualifications.

1. A master's degree or the equivalent in the field in which the applicant plans to teach. The applicant's undergraduate and graduate experience should provide appropriate training for teaching lower-division courses in the field.

2. Appropriate academic preparation through the master's degree level for medieval studies. If the Admissions Committee determines that the applicant's background is inadequate for doctoral work in the chosen area of specialization, admission may be conditional on further coursework or other study to correct the deficiency.

3. Reading proficiency in Latin and the two modern foreign languages most important for scholarship in the student's dissertation area; these are normally French and German. (The student of Slavic languages may substitute an appropriate language for Latin.) Deficiencies in Latin or one of the modern languages may be made up in the first year. Proficiency may be demonstrated by superior performance in two years of college-level coursework, by equivalent achievement on the standard national proficiency examination, or by satisfactory performance on a written or oral translation test administered by a qualified faculty member.

Degree Requirements

The doctoral degree requires completion of thirty semester hours of coursework beyond the master's degree, consisting of Medieval Studies 392L and 392M, eighteen additional hours of related coursework approved by the graduate adviser, and the dissertation courses, Medieval Studies 399R and 399W. Among the related work, the student must complete three hours of a vernacular literature or language, three hours of related work with a theoretical component, and three hours of manuscript study. The section "Related Courses" includes many courses that a student might use to fulfill these requirements. Other courses may be approved by the graduate adviser; the decision whether any course fulfills any requirement rests with the graduate adviser. These thirty hours of coursework are in addition to work done for the master's degree and to fulfill the language requirement.

After meeting the language requirement and completing twenty-four hours of coursework, the student submits a detailed dissertation proposal and takes a comprehensive examination. Upon passing the examination, the student is recommended for admission to candidacy for the degree.

For More Information

Mailing address: Graduate Program in Medieval Studies, c/o Department of English, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1164

Medieval studies courses: MDV

Contents |  Chapter 1 |  Chapter 2 |  Chapter 3
Chapter 4 |  Chapter 5 |  Appendix

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