Mission & Values

The Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of New Mexico offers a variety of programs dedicated to university and civic outreach, as well as to the enrichment of scholarship, teaching, and research in the civilizations of medieval Europe, the Mediterranean, and the wider world from 500 to 1500 CE. Through special student opportunities and advanced research activities, as well as through its links with graduate degree programs offered by UNM departments, the Institute is committed to furthering the transmission and preservation of the rich heritage from the Middle Ages. Our programs operate under the philosophy that the study of medieval culture provides a powerful vantage point from which to evaluate our own and other cultures and to reflect on the complexity of human behavior and institutions.

The Institute promotes the University of New Mexico as a major research institution in the humanities and as a central intellectual resource for the many university, local, national, and international communities it serves. Each year, the IMS hosts its signature outreach event, the week-long Helen Damico Memorial Lecture Series that brings internationally distinguished scholars to Albuquerque to present on a set of topics organized around a central theme. UNM’s Institute for Medieval Studies is dedicated to furthering interdisciplinary and multicultural work by challenging the conventional separation of existing intellectual disciplines and by offering the broadest possible approach to research in the humanities.