Course Offerings
The University of New Mexico offers undergraduate and graduate courses focused on the medieval period in History, English, Art History, the Honors College, Anthropology, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and more! Like the Institute itself, the courses offered range by theme, geography, and time period, and are often taught through an interdisciplinary lens. To enroll, search for the courses listed below within MyUNM and the registration portal.
Course Offerings for Spring 2026:
History Department
Dr. Sarah Davis-Secord (scds@unm.edu)
HIST 395: The Silk Road in History
Face to Face, MW 1100-1215
The name “Silk Road” evokes the idea of an ancient commercial route spanning the breadth of the known world, featuring caravans of traders bringing fine silk cloth from China to Rome. Yet the term has always been something of a misnomer—both revealing and concealing the diverse histories of exchange it represents. This class is intended as a historical journey that puts those ‘known’ histories in conversation with the ‘hidden’ ones. Building on a range of literary and material sources, we will interrogate the multiple silk roads and their afterlives. The class will take a thematic approach to cultures of exchange among people from diverse geographies, languages, and religions. Students will consider a novel approach to the history of cultural and economic exchange that links the earliest experiments in sericulture to the more contemporary Belt and Road Initiative undertaken by China. In doing so, the course reveals a fascinating history of connections and disjuncture that has shaped the Eurasian landscape and its cultures.
Dr. Timothy Graham (tgraham@unm.edu)
HIST 401/601 (Anglo-Saxon England, 450-1066)
Face to Face, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 12:00-12:50
This course will offer an overview of the history and culture of England from the arrival of the Angles and Saxons in the fifth century until the Battle of Hastings of 1066. These six centuries form one of the most vibrant and innovative periods of English history, when the foundations of England’s political, social, and cultural structures were first established. We will cover such diverse topics as the pagan culture of the early Anglo-Saxons, the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, the Irish and Roman missions to England, the Viking invasions, the military and educational campaigns of King Alfred the Great, Anglo-Saxon manuscript culture, and the Bayeux Tapestry. The course will center upon the interpretive study of such primary source materials as the Beowulf poem, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There will be two papers, in-class quizzes, and a final examination.
HIST 668/ENGL 551 (Medieval Research and Bibliography)
Face to Face, Mondays, 16:00-18:30
This course will offer intensive training in the research and bibliographic skills necessary for the study of the Middle Ages while also introducing students to the history of medieval scholarship from the sixteenth century onwards. A key aspect of the course will be a detailed orientation to the major published resources available to medievalists, including the volumes of the Patrologia Latina, the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and the Early English Text Society. Participants in the course will learn about the techniques used by scholarly editors when preparing a medieval text for use by a modern readership; they will also be introduced to the conventions of the modern apparatus criticus. Students will learn how to read and analyze charters and other types of medieval document and will receive instruction in the basics of such important ancillary disciplines as medieval chronology and sigillography. The section of the course devoted to the history of medieval scholarship will include a special focus on the origins and development of scholarship on Old English from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.
Dr. Michael A. Ryan (ryan6@unm.edu)
HIST 304-001: High & Late Middle Ages,
Face to Face, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00-12:15
In this class, we will reevaluate the traditional narrative that depicts the High Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1300 C.E.) as a “golden” era of medieval civilization, whereas the Later Middle Ages and early modern era (ca. 1300-1550 C.E.) represent the death or waning of that civilization. The reality is far more complex. We will question that narrative and invert it by studying the events that took place during the High Middle Ages that tarnished this “golden” era. We will analyze the crises of the Later Middle Ages and early modern eras and contextualize them within a larger atmosphere of political, cultural, and social change. By encountering the many manifestations of what constitutes the European high and late Middle Ages, students will come away with a more nuanced understanding of the history of that period.
English Department
Dr. Jonathan Davis-Secord (jwds@unm.edu)
448.001 & 548.001: T: Beowulf in Old English
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Jonathan Davis-Secord, jwds@unm.edu
Beowulf is the most celebrated and studied Old English poem, yet it remains ambiguous and contested. Modern scholars continue to scrutinize difficult points in the text and wrestle over approaches to the poem. This course will be devoted to a close reading of Beowulf in the original Old English. We will explore the roles of women in the text, the meanings of the “monsters,” the patterns of gift-giving, the linguistic intricacies of the text, queer identities, racial identities, and many other topics. Students will prepare translations of the poem, read secondary literature, and complete writing assignments for the semester. Prerequisite: Knowledge of Old English.
Dr. Lisa Myers (myersl@unm.edu)
ENGL 348.001
Robin Hood: Medieval Outlaw
TR 12:30-1:45
This course focuses on the medieval outlaw tradition in English literature and its influence upon the legend of Robin Hood. We will read a collection of early medieval outlaw tales in order to examine the ways in which the Robin Hood legend is a departure from the standard tropes and motifs of the outlaw genre. The focus of the course will be on the surviving medieval and Early Modern Robin Hood texts, but will also touch upon 20th Century representations of the forest outlaw.
Dr. Anita Obermeier (aobermei@unm.edu)
ENGL 581.001: Chaucer and the Comic Tradition
Face to Face, R 1600-1830
One of the amazing aspects of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ample oeuvre is its incredible breadth of genres and forms, hardly ever seen in any other author in the English language. Chaucer is a master of the lyric, romance, saint’s life, fabliaux, prose treatise, lyric complaint, short story, and satire. The anthologized Chaucerian texts are mostly the ones that contain comedy and make people laugh. In this class, we will focus on the comic forms and the social commentary they often convey. Since Chaucer is a well-read polyglot, we will also examine works that he knew and that might have influenced him, such as troubadour lyrics, the Romance of the Rose, and Boccaccio’s Decameron. In our inquiries, we will enlist ancient, medieval, and modern theories of the comic.
Dr. Nicholas Schwartz (nschwar@unm.edu)
MDVL/ENGL 347: Viking Mythology
Face to Face, TR 9:30-10:45
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to comprehensively introduce students to Viking Mythology. It will cover Norse ideas about the creation of the world, the end of the world, and pretty much everything in between. Students should expect to read about Odin, Thor, Loki, and a host of other characters not so well-known today in addition to accounts of important events like the conversion to Christianity. Texts include, but are not limited to, The Elder/Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, and The Saga of the Volsungs. Moreover, students will learn about the culture(s) that produced these wonderful stories and their literary conventions. This course will foster a valuable familiarity with this important mythological tradition and expose students to a variety of methods of reading them. Assignments include a midterm, final, written assignments, and discussion board posts. All are welcome to take this course.
Art History Department
Various Faculty, with undergraduate and graduate course offerings
For a full list of Honors College courses, professors, and times, click here!
Religious Studies Department
Various Faculty, with undergraduate and graduate course offerings
To see specific times, dates, and professors, click here for more information!
Honors College
Various Faculty, undergraduate course offerings
For a full list of Honors College courses, professors, and times, click here!
Languages, Cultures, and Literatures
Various Faculty, undergraduate and graduate course offerings
For a full list of LCL courses, professors, and times, click here!
Music Department
Colleen Sheinberg, Medieval and Renaissance, Early Music Ensembles, Music History
For information about medieval music, email Colleen Sheinberg! Click here for her contact information!
Anthropology Department
Dr. Justine Andrews (jandrews@unm.edu)
ARTH 529.001 Topics: Love, Sex and Gender in Medieval Art
ONLINE MW 1-2:15
During the Middle Ages (c. 500-1500 CE) artists and patrons often explored ideas of gender, sexuality and desire in works of art from a variety of media and for multiple purposes. Recent scholarship has begun to study these works of art and uncover the voices and representation of homosexual, trans, queer, and non-binary people and relationships. This course will study the medieval art, primary texts, and contemporary scholarship that engages with questions regarding gender and sexuality. The course is inspired by the new exhibition Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex and Gender in the Middle Ages at The Cloisters Museum (Metropolitan Museum of Art NY).
Although the graduate section is full - please contact Dr. Andrews if you are interested jandrews@unm.edu
For a full list of Anthropology courses, professors, and times, click here!
Philosophy Department
Various Faculty, with undergraduate and graduate course offerings
For a full list of philosophy courses, professors, and times, click here!
