Current Courses

MEMS Graduate Courses Fall 2026

MEMS 465 | Fun with Sex, Gender, and Religion in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales | Theresa Tinkle

Canterbury Tales has something for every literary taste. Some tales are bawdy and contain jokes about sexuality; other tales praise virginity. The tales offer tongue-in-cheek treatments of gender roles, portrayals of gender ambiguity, and descriptions of gender reversals. Some tales are highly irreligious, while others appear serious works of Christian devotion, and still others leave us wondering about the values associated with Chaucer's religion. Reading through the tales, students will learn about class structure, fashion, music, and material culture in Chaucer's time. The Tales' language is a little more difficult than modern English, but the works are also wonderfully lively and fun.

Affiliated Courses

HISTORY 594 | Conversions (history of) | Kenneth Mills

What is Change? How we think about it? What do we expect? Who tells of “change” and when? “Conversion” is a seductive idea, offering our seminar a mighty beginning, but also an invitation. We’ll explore prominent incidents of cultural and religious transformation in Late Antiquity, Medieval Europe, Spanish America and insular Asia that have contributed to —and locked us within?— powerful terms of reference. And we’ll also look to break free, expanding our vocabulary, our thinking tools and sense of possibility. We’ll consider the ways in which individual identities and group allegiances are formed and asserted even as they remain dynamic, and keep our interpretative eye trained on processes of translation, on gradual emergence and re-invention. We will move about in terms of time period and geographical space, our historical grounding drawing from an array of other disciplines to inform our interpretation of change, most notably literature, anthropology, and art history. 

ITALIAN 450 | Risk, fortune, luck | Karla Mallette

How do you calculate risk? Do you use the same strategies of analysis to think about the chances that it will rain today, your favorite team will win their next game, or your new crush will message you back? This course focuses on the differences between risk, fortune and luck and traces the origins of the mathematical analysis of risk to Renaissance Italy and beyond. We use historical documents and modern analysis to explore the history of the word “risk.” We learn how codebreakers used the mathematical calculation of probability to decipher encrypted messages in 13th century Iraq and in 15th century Italy, and how gamblers used dice games, card games and chess as laboratories for the study of probability in 16th century Italy. We investigate the origins of tarot cards in Renaissance Italy (and their precursors in Mamluk Egypt and Tang Dynasty China). We analyze the impact of new regimes of risk management on the great Italian writers of the era – Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini – and trace the influence of these ideas about risk assessment and management in the 21st century, from movies (Ring and Slumdog Millionaire) to hawala funds transfer systems to neo-pagan uses of tarot cards. All course materials taught in English

SPANISH 865 | "Letters of Blood and Fire": Conquest and Capital in the Iberian Empires | Daniel Nemser

At the end of the first volume of Capital, Marx develops the concept of primitive accumulation to explain the historical transition from feudalism to capitalism. Criticizing political economists like Adam Smith, Marx argues that this process cannot be understood as a morality tale in which everyone gets what they deserve—a diligent and frugal few become capitalists while the lazy and profligate multitudes are reduced to proletarians. Rather, the rise of capitalism is a violent history of expropriation that is “written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire” (875). He goes on the explain that Spanish and Portuguese colonialism, including the conquest and colonization of the Americas as well as the transatlantic slave trade, plays a key role in this process. This seminar explores this colonial dimension of primitive accumulation by engaging directly with these “letters of blood and fire” in their historical and intellectual context. After introducing the concept of primitive accumulation and some of the debates it has generated in the Marxist tradition, we will read a series of primary sources from the Iberian empires that address questions such as the justification of conquest, slavery and the slave trade, and the nature of money and merchant capital. Authors may include Francisco de Vitoria, Bartolomé de las Casas, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, José de Acosta, Philip Nichols, Thomas Gage, and Hugo Grotius. This course will be taught in English and all readings will be available in English translation.

ANTHRARC 683 | Aztec, Maya, Inca Civilizations | Joyce Marcus

Prehistoric Warfare is a seminar that examines the evolution of social conflict from "warless" hunting-gathering societies to intervillage raiding to state-level warfare.

MIDEAST 421 | Islamic Mysticism: Sufism in Time and Space | Alexander Knysh

This course examines the rise, formation and subsequent development of Islamic asceticism-mysticism (Sufism). It focuses on Sufism’s practices, doctrines, literature and institutions from the 8th century C.E. up to the present. We will also discuss various approaches to Sufism by Western and Muslim academics as well as criticism of Sufi teachings and practices by some influential pre-modern Muslim theologians. We will pay special attention to the variegated sociopolitical roles that individuals and institutions associated with Sufism have played in pre-modern, modern, and contemporary Muslim societies. As far as the most recent developments are concerned, we will analyze the conflict between the “fundamentalist” (Salafi) and Sufi interpretations of Islam and the important part that it plays in current debates about Islamic “orthodoxy” and the future of Islam in Muslim societies and Muslim diaspora worldwide. Finally, we will explore the impact of Sufi teachings, practices and literary production on Western societies and cultures.

HISTART 505 | Himalayas, An Aesthetic Exploration | Nachiket Chanchani

Join a group of adventurous students for a semester to learn about how art and nature are intertwined in the Himalayas, one of the most beautiful and diverse mountain ranges in the world. Together, we will go on a series of virtual backpacking expeditions along trails trod by traders, conquerors, and pilgrims to the sources of South Asia's sacred rivers, pausing at temple towns crowded with ancient monuments. At these sites, we will read ancient inscriptions, uncover forgotten settlements, and enter fresco-crowded shrines crowded with glimmering statuary. Then, will traverse through alpine meadows and glaciers to witness how development pressures and climate change are transforming ecologically fragile landscapes and diverse cultures. Thereafter, we will cross high passes and briefly enter adjacent lands including war-torn Afghanistan to see how the region's cultural heritage is being preserved and survey how ethnically Tibetan artists are responding to Chinese occupation.