Majors and minors will be able to demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the European Middle Ages, including its major cultural and intellectual trends, its demography, and its social formations and institutions, from its beginning with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West to the end of the 14th century on the Continent and the end of the 15th in the British isles, including knowledge of the latest scholarly developments and of continuing areas of uncertainty and controversy; will be familiar with at least two of the constituent disciplines of medieval studies and gain understanding of the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary study; will have some knowledge of relations between medieval society in Europe and contemporaneous non-European cultures; will be exposed to the variety and character of the sources for the modern study of the Middle Ages, the history of the study of the Middle Ages by modern interdisciplinary scholarship, and the influence of medieval culture on modernity.
Majors will also develop skills in primary and secondary research and the writing of an original essay through a seminar, independent study, or yearlong thesis; and will acquire basic competence in one or more of the languages central to the study of the Middle Ages, such as Latin, Old English, and other European vernacular languages.
