Medievalists

[bigdgp]

Hey all, just thought I'd take a moment in the middle of preparing all of these applications to find out a little more about my intellectual community. I know that we have all, for the most part, done this in other places, but it may be a fun (and helpful) exercise to do it once more now that we have thought about SOP's, writings samples and other ways to sell ourselves to programs. What are everyone's interests and where are people applying? I want to look at England's imagined history, particularly in the way that she accommodated her pagan mythologies even after becoming Christianized. I want to focus on Anglo-Saxon lives of saints and poems mostly, however, as they represent the culmination of the phenomenon I want to research, I will have to say something about Geoffrey of Monmouth and Layamon (and Wace by association). I am applying all over the place:

Fordham

Columbia

NYU

Yale Medieval Studies

Ohio State

Notre Dame

Minnesota

UCLA

McGill

Toronto

Trinity College Dublin

Oxford

York

[Medievalmaniac]

This is actually my area, specifically: Arthuriana, the crafting of national identity in texts, pagan elements in Christian texts and Christianization of pagan texts - the whole shabang. You've got some good schools chosen for that sort of work. I will say that University of Lampeter Wales just trotted out an MA in Arthurian studies, working with Karen Janulak, who is Geoffrey's newest biographer (her monograph on G. of Monmouth just came out last month).

Fordham is especially good for Anglo-Norman, or French of England, studies, in a partnership with University of York - and their website on the matter is drool-worthy for the bibliography provided!

Columbia is getting Judith Butler....drool. Drool, drool, drool.

I'm surprised, with an interest in Arthuriana/Wace-Lazamon, that you are not applying to Penn State (Norris Lacy, french / medieval literature - editor of the New Arthurian Encyclopedia) among other schools?

Trinity-Dublin = John Scattergood and the Book of Kells - drool, drool, drool.

I do understand that there are a few professors in Harvard's English department working specifically in postcolonial/national identity, and I think this is specifically in medieval texts - I was encouraged to apply there by professors in the department for that work in particular.

If you stay in the UK and want Wace and Lazamon, what about Judith Weiss, over at Robinson-Cambridge, or W.R.J. Barron in Exeter? Most recent editions of the R de B and the Brut, respectively.

Have you read Crane's Insular Romance, or Warren's History on the Edge? These are two of my favorite works in medieval national identity.

[bigdgp]

I think I was a little misleading when I mentioned Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lay(or z)amon and Wace in my post. I don't particularly want to focus on them, or on Arthurian literature. They are ancillary to my overall topic which will be more focused on the process of a cultural development that eventually arrived at their work. I am more interested in things like finding "Loathly Lady" tropes in Anglo-Saxon saints' lives and things like that. I'm all about the earthy, firey, windy and watery...gritty early stuff! That's why I am not looking at places like Penn State. I'm generally trying to follow the Ango-Saxonists, preferably the ones who can also teach me Old Norse!

[Medievalmaniac]

On 11/11/2010 at 6:50 AM, bigdgp said:

I think I was a little misleading when I mentioned Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lay(or z)amon and Wace in my post. I don't particularly want to focus on them, or on Arthurian literature. They are ancillary to my overall topic which will be more focused on the process of a cultural development that eventually arrived at their work. I am more interested in things like finding "Loathly Lady" tropes in Anglo-Saxon saints' lives and things like that. I'm all about the earthy, firey, windy and watery...gritty early stuff! That's why I am not looking at places like Penn State. I'm generally trying to follow the Ango-Saxonists, preferably the ones who can also teach me Old Norse!

Anglo Saxonists:

Catholic University of America. Dr. Lilla Kopar. She is, actually, from Scandinavia. Old Norse would not be a problem here!

Florida State University. Dr. David Johnson. (no Old Norse)

WashU. Dr. Wolfram Schmidgen (I "think" he can do ON) - but you would be hard-pressed to find a better A-S.

[elleblum]

I'm applying to several medieval programs. My primary area of interest is French and English Romance, Mostly 12th/13th century or earlier. (Marie de France, Chretien de Troye, Chansons de geste, etc) I'm only applying to Columbia English/Comp Lit PhD, Cornell Medieval PhD, CUNY Comp Lit PhD, Toronto Medieval MA and Fordham Medieval MA,

I don't have a solid language background, which limited by ability to apply to most Medieval Studies programs. Furthermore, as my boyfriend will be moving with me, I need to go to a school in a major city with a strong theater community (which narrows the field considerably- Cornell is the only one that doesn't fit the bill on my list) Also since I want to study French & English equally, comp lit seems the way to go, but finding a comp lit department with a strong medieval community has been rather difficult.

I'm leaning more and more towards an MA program to get more skills under my belt before entering PhD programs and also so I have the year to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that grad school is right for me.

Good luck!

[frenchmedievalist]

Hey! I'm not applying until the fall of 2012, but I'm glad that there are others with similar interests! I'm very interested in medieval French literature (Chrétien de Troyes and Arthuriana, specifically), but I will probably focus on the historical side of the Middle Ages once I start grad school. I have a long list of schools so far, but I haven't had to chance to do serious research and pick certain schools yet. If anyone knows of any programs in France (I'm searching schools in Europe as well as the US), that'd be very helpful! So far, I think my only choice if I want to go to France after college will be to apply for a Fulbright (where chances will be *very* slim). Regardless, doing anything involving medieval studies will be amazing!