Is there a Middle East?
Have you ever stopped to question this term? The region is in the middle of what? And to the east of whom? Does the name immediately bring to mind images of conflict and war?
The Medieval Studies minor offers the opportunity to address a variety of questions about the Middle Ages as well as about our own time: Why did thousands of Christian soldiers march off to uncertain wars against the "infidels" in the Crusades? How does an understanding of these holy wars enable us to think about conflicts fought over competing religious ideologies today? How does an understanding of medieval antifeminism assist our analysis of modern sexual inequality and discrimination?