Classics to Medieval Studies?

[Ethersworn]

Greetings,

I am currently a Classical Languages undergraduate student at USouth Carolina.

Upon graduation I will have roughly 4 years of Latin, 3 years of German, 2 years of Greek, 2 years of Old English, and 1 year of Old Norse. I will also have some various Medieval era courses. I want to attend a top Medieval Studies graduate program but am worried that having an undergrad degree in Classics rather than Medieval Studies (which my school doesn't have) may set me back. My sophomore undergraduate research is on Proto Indo European\, but my Senior thesis will obviously be on a medieval topic.

Can anyone shed light on whether this will be of detriment to my acceptance chances?

Thanks,

[remenis]

It is not uncommon to switch your field between undergrad and grad school - plenty of people do it and succeed. I know English majors who completed PhD programs in History and Art History, a Linguistics major who now has a PhD in Literature etc. Classics and Medieval Studies are somewhat connected so you're not going to be coming at them out of nowhere. You mentioned taking various assorted medieval classes and that is probably the best thing that you should do. The more medieval classes the better because it will show that you are preparing for the field seriously.

I have two questions which I think might help get you better advice: What specifically do you want to study in grad school? (Medieval studies comprises such a broad range of time, area and even disciplines) And, why you want to do an interdisciplinary Medieval Studies program as opposed to a specific medieval field (ie, Medieval Literature, or Medieval History?)

Not to knock the interdisciplinary programs (I majored in medieval studies as an undergrad) I've been handed a lot of advice from professors which says that an interdisciplinary PhD is often not as desirable (or hire-able) as someone with a PhD in one field with a medieval focus.

I bring this up mainly because the question of how qualified you are is going to depend highly on what you specifically you want to work on in graduate school.

One great thing is that no matter what the programs are going to consider your language preparations to be very useful. Serious research in any Medieval subject requires a really strong background in languages, especially in Latin, and that will really help you.

But some of your languages will be less useful than others depending on what you want to work on. If you wanted to research medieval Byzantine history - Greek will be essential and Old English and Old Norse probably will not be very helpful. If you want to research Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian literature, the opposite will be true. (German and Latin are going to be very useful for the study of virtually anything medieval).

And in either case you are unlikely to be considered a strong applicant without at least some courses relating to the type of work you want to do. Take some general courses on medieval subjects (a basic history of Medieval Europe, or a survey of Medieval art, etc) and try to also take courses relating to the subjects you think you'll want to work on. If you want to write about history - take history classes, if you want to write about medieval religion, take religion courses, etc.

[maeisenb]

I think that remenis basically nailed all the important questions here, but I would just note the main one proposed: what do you want to work on in the medieval field? And, more broadly, why are you switching?

[LLajax]

It seems like your situation isn't terribly dissimilar from mine. I did my undergrad in history, and want to do grad in Medieval art history (visual culture is where its at for me). I looked at interdisciplinary programs, but I was convinced to go with the art history with medieval focus because of potential hire-ability.

A lot of departments now really encourage interdisciplnary research and cooperation (as part of a more focused degree), especially for medieval, so yu might want to look for a program that really encourages that.