Center for Medieval Studies

History

The Center for Medieval Studies (CMS) was established in 1988 by Professor Kathryn Reyerson (History). CMS was an interdisciplinary space where experts in medieval studies across the university collaborated on research projects and promoted the field. The founding members welcomed a variety of scholarly approaches and promoted the use of the newest technological resources. They advocated for dialogue between scholars of medieval Western Europe, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The Center was originally based on the East Bank of campus but crossed the river to Heller Hall in 2011, when it began to share space with the Center for Early Modern History.

Initial activities of CMS included the Colloquia Medievalia lecture series and the organization of several high-profile conferences and publications on topics such as: Vikings, Sutton Hoo, Islam in the West, city and spectacle , women, strangers, crime, space, Bede, monasticism, cartography, conversion, religion, law, and Mediterranean identities in the Middle Ages. 

CMS supported graduate students through specialized workshops and reading groups that cultivated skills in paleography, codicology, ancient and medieval languages, and the newest technology and digital archiving systems. An interdisciplinary graduate student minor in Medieval Studies was started in the 1990s. An undergraduate minor followed in the early 2000s. In 2018, the Sheila McNally Summer Research Grants were first awarded to support graduate student research.

The Center for Medieval Studies engaged in several key partnerships:

  • CMS Director Susan Noakes established the Minnesota Manuscript Research Laboratory (MMRL) in 2004 in collaboration with the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN. The lab allowed students to work with the HMML collection in conjunction with UMN faculty and HMML staff to develop skills in the areas of text studies, text editing, palaeography and codicology. HMML has built on this program and now offers a range of language and paleography courses open to all scholars through an application process.
  • CMS Director Susan Noakes and doctoral candidate Elizabeth Bowser partnered with Twin Cities schools to develop the Medieval Books in the Schools program in 2005-2006. This ongoing outreach program sends graduate students to local classrooms and lets grade school children experience medieval manuscripts from the Special Collections of UMN and try their hand at making a book! Work on a virtual version of this curriculum began in 2020 and continues.
  • CMS members actively participated in the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium, which provided access to the resources and programming of the Newberry and Folger Libraries.
  • CMS partnered with several Twin Cities institutions, such as the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Swedish Institute, as well as the UMN Weisman Art Museum, to share research with the public.
  • Under the leadership of Director Susan Noakes, CMS initiated a program of study in the global Middle Ages. This positioned CMS to be a core and founding constituent of the Mellon-funded Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World (in partnership with Center for Early Modern History and the James Ford Bell Library) during the tenures of directors Andrew Scheil and Michelle Hamilton. The Consortium further explored the research and pedagogical possibilities of a globalized study of the Middle Ages within the context of the entire “premodern world.”
  • CMS leadership supported the creation of the Center for Premodern Studies in 2021 which is now the home for Medieval Studies at the University of Minnesota and continues their academic and programming initiatives.

Founding Members & Key Contributors to the Center for Medieval Studies

  • Frank Akehurst, French and Italian, UMN (gave the Center’s first lecture in fall 1988, “Old French Literature and the Law”)
  • Rutherford Aris, Chemical Engineering and Classics (Founding Member, Annual Aris Lecture is in his honor) 
  • Bernard Bachrach, History, UMN (Founding Member)
  • Donna Cardamore Jackson, Music History, UMN (Founding Member)
  • Barbara Hanawalt, History (Former Director)
  • Ruth Mazo Karras, History (Former Director)
  • Calvin B. Kendall, English, UMN (Founding Member)
  • John Leyerle, English, University of Toronto (Leyerle founded the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He was hired to evaluate the potential for a Center at Minnesota and wrote a report advocating for the founding of the UMN Center for Medieval Studies.)
  • Sheila McNally, Classical and Near Eastern Studies, UMN (McNally Summer Graduate Fellowships are in her honor)
  • J. Lawrence Mitchell, English, UMN (Founding Member)
  • Oliver Nicholson, Classical and Near Eastern Studies (Founding Member and Former Director)
  • Susan Noakes, French and Italian (Former Director)
  • Malcolm Parkes,  Keble College, Oxford
  • Kathryn Reyerson, History, UMN (Founding Director)
  • Andrew Scheil, English (Former Director) 
  • Carl D. Sheppard, Art History, UMN (annual Sheppard Lecture is in his honor)
  • Frederick Suppe, History, UMN (Founding Member)
  • Stephanie Van D’Elden (Founding Member)

Center for Medieval Studies Directors

  • Kathryn Reyerson, Department of History (1988 -1991), interim director (2010 - 2011; fall 2015)
  • Barbara Hanawalt, Department of History (1991 - 1997)
  • Oliver Nicholson, Department of Classics and Near Eastern Studies (1997 - 2002)
  • Susan Noakes, Department of French and Italian (2002 - 2008)
  • Ruth Mazo Karras, Department of History (2008 - 2010; 2011 - 12)
  • Andrew Scheil, Department of English (2012 - 2015) 
  • Michelle Hamilton, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (2015 - 2021)