Lecture Series

Each year the Medieval Studies Center takes up a theme. For 2011-2012 our focus is "The Four Last Things - Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven." The program includes lectures, panel discussion, musical performance, and other events exploring this topic in a range of disciplines. Lectures are given on Monday afternoons, and all of them are open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, the lectures are held in the Crown Center Auditorium at the Lake Shore Campus (at the Loyola el stop) and begin at 5 p.m.

Above: Last Judgment (detail), Florence, Baptistery ceiling, c 1225.

Below: Autun, tympanum of the Last Judgment, c 1130.

Course Offerings

The Center cross-lists courses with supporting departments. For courses to be offered in 2011-2012, please go here.

Contact

• For information about the Medieval Studies faculty, including email and other contact details, please see the links at the right.
• For information about Loyola University's labyrinth and medieval garden, go to the Resources link at the right.

History of Medieval Studies at Loyola

Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary exploration of the history and culture of the Middle Ages, ca. 500 AD to ca. 1550 (including Late Antiquity, the Renaissance and the Reformation). It includes parts of three continents (Europe, western Asia and northern Africa) and can even touch on Central and South America.

Medieval Studies has long been one of the outstanding strengths of Loyola University Chicago. The Medieval Studies Committee was formed in 1991 to promote contact among medievalists in several departments. The key to the envisioned community of scholarship was an interdisciplinary lecture series which would bring specialists in the year's chosen theme to Loyola.

The lecture series was so successful in building community among Loyola's medievalist faculty and graduate students that it led to the creation of the Medieval Studies minor in 1995-1996; the committee was renamed the Medieval Studies Program to acknowledge its academic status. Recently, it was again renamed the Medieval Studies Center (MSC) to indicate its more wide-ranging activities. Plans to expand both the academic side and the activities side of the program are in progress. While the MSC does not yet offer graduate degrees in Medieval Studies, our graduate students in various departments benefit from the close interaction among the departments and the stimulation of a wide medievalist community.

The original goal of of the series was to bring together faculty and students from departments across the campus. It also has succeeded as a networking opportunity for our graduate students and undergraduates, who meet and exchange views with our guest speakers in informal settings before and after the lectures. Our lecture series is well attended by welcome visitors from other esteemed local institutions, providing a regular meeting place for Chicago area medievalists.

The Medieval Studies Center also maintains close connections with the Newberry Library and its Center for Renaissance Studies; our faculty regularly offer graduate consortium seminars in the CRS, and our students avail themselves of courses offered there as well as the depth of the Library’s manuscript and scholary holdings.

Above: Laurentius de Voltolina, Liber ethicorum des Henricus de Alamannia, 2nd half 14c.

This file updated 12 August 2011 by jlong1@luc.edu