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Graduate Program
 The Medieval Institute prepares its graduates with the professional
profile they need for eventual departmental employment while giving
them the benefit of interdisciplinary methods, knowledge, and
perspectives that traditional departmental programs do not provide.
Generous fellowship support and minimal service demands permit
students to pursue their studies attentively. Students have study
carrels in the Institute as well as day-and-night access to its
reading rooms.
Degree Programs
Potential applicants please note: Both an official
application and official general information about the Graduate
School and its admission requirements must be requested from the
Graduate School itself. The easiest way to do so is on-line at
http://graduateschool.nd.edu.
Master of Medieval Studies
(non-terminal)
Ph.D. in Medieval Studies
Graduate Studies Curriculum
The Graduate Studies Curriculum combines programmatic interdisciplinary
coursework, training in the technical skills of medieval studies,
and linguistic preparation. At the same time, students enjoy the
freedom to do extensive work within a single discipline and outside
the period of the Middle Ages. The Institute has traditional strengths
in philosophy, theology, religious and intellectual history, the
history of universities, and manuscript studies. Recently, the
Institute has enlarged its focus to include literature in the
vernaculars, especially Old
and Middle English, Latin literature, Dante
studies, musicology, liturgy, medieval Judaism and Islam,
Byzantine studies, and art history. In all of these fields we host lectures, conferences
and workshops, publish books, and in a variety of other ways support
an active community of scholars at all levels -- a community that
is in turn well connected with other medievalists and medieval
studies programs both nationally and internationally.
Admission to the Institute for graduate study is, accordingly,
highly competitive. Successful applicants generally have very
strong GRE scores (usually a combined score of 1200 or more), a solid background in the medieval world (as evidenced by their transcripts of previous course work), and
sound facility with medieval Latin and relevant vernacular languages.
We expect that our graduate students will have taken introductory and intermediate Latin and moved into advanced Latin
courses during their undergraduate careers. We strongly encourage
prospective applicants to do everything that they can to enhance
their Latin skills. Prospective applicants whose language training
is deficient are therefore encouraged to pursue a year of Latin
and modern language study in preparation for application to the
graduate program.
The Medieval Institute does not accept candidates for a terminal
Master’s degree but does require the Master
of Medieval Studies of all students whom it admits. The programs
of the Medieval Institute are rigorous and interdisciplinary,
and make high demands in terms of language skills. Accordingly,
the Master of Medieval Studies (hereafter M.M.S.) degree requires
two years of full-time study and the Doctor
of Philosophy in Medieval Studies (Ph.D.) requires a further
year of full-time study plus a dissertation. Each degree requires
a specified number of credit hours, language exams, oral and/or
written exams, proficiency in paleography, and research projects.
The Graduate School requires that students maintain a 3.0 Grade
Point Average in order to be in good standing. Students must also
be continuously enrolled on a full-time basis (the number of courses/credit
hours necessary to maintain full-time status varies depending
on a student’s year in the program).
In addition to the courses offered during the fall and spring
semesters, the Medieval Institute provides summer
courses in areas essential to the study of medieval culture.
These courses are conducted by leading scholars from Notre Dame
and elsewhere, and are open to students from any institution.
They provide an ideal opportunity for graduate students to acquire
language and technical skills necessary for scholarly research.
The Graduate School provides tuition scholarships for Notre Dame
graduate students to take up to three credit hours in summer session
courses.
Requests for further information about the Institute's Graduate
Program should be directed to:
Roberta Baranowski
Assistant Director
The Medieval Institute
715 Hesburgh Library
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Email: Roberta.Baranowski.7@nd.edu
Information about application procedures, however, must be requested from the Graduate
School itself. The easiest way to do so is online via the Graduate
School web page. Please note that the
Medieval Institute's deadline for applications is January
15, 2009, and in addition to the standard Graduate School
material, Institute applicants are requested to submit a scholarly
writing sample of not more than 15 pages.
When submitting GRE scores to the Graduate School, please use 5199 as the GRE Department and Major Field Code.
Advising
Students will choose their courses each semester in consultation
with the director. During their third year of study students will
choose a faculty adviser, ordinarily the person who will direct
their dissertation, and that professor will help choose the course
of study.
Financial Aid
Students admitted to the graduate program in the Medieval Institute
can count on generous
financial support. Nearly all graduate students at Notre Dame
are funded by the University or outside organizations. Graduate
funding is divided between fellowships (no service) and stipends
(service is owed). Graduate students entering at the Masters'
level usually receive a four-year commitment: two years of fellowships
(first and fourth years) and two of service (second and third
years). Service may be teaching (assistantships or composition
courses), research assistantships, or other assignments. Students
are expected to apply for outside sources of funding or special
University fellowships to finance the year devoted to dissertation
research and that devoted to writing and have been notably successful
in such competitions. Regardless, the Institute does all that
it can to see that advanced graduate students are provided with
the support they need in order to complete the dissertation.
Graduate Handbook
Detailed information about administrative policies and procedures is contained in the Graduate Handbook of the Medieval Institute. Click here to see a copy.
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