Like the territories of the ancient Roman Empire to which the premodern Mediterranean

was heir, medieval history at the University of Chicago is divided into three main fields:
European, Byzantine, and Islamic. Within these fields, faculty research interests and
course offerings range widely both across and within cultures, from late antiquity
through the fifteenth century, and from the military and economic history of community,
polity, and empire to the intellectual and cultural development of religion.

Depending on their linguistic interests and abilities, students at Chicago may choose to
focus on one of these fields or to take on comparative work across fields; they are
encouraged to draw on the resources available at Chicago across disciplines,
particularly in those fields for which the number of faculty in history is relatively small.
Above all, faculty in medieval history are committed to providing students with strong
empirical, linguistic, and methodological grounding in their particular fields of research,
while at the same time encouraging conversation across fields.

In medieval European history, students are encouraged to think in terms not only of
acquiring the necessary linguistic and technical skills of working with manuscripts and
printed primary sources, but also of expanding their knowledge of European culture
more generally. Faculty at the University of Chicago are particularly strong in medieval
European languages and literatures (Latin as well as the vernaculars), in the history of
high and later medieval art, in the history of sacred and secular music, in the history of
law, and in the history of Christian theology and mysticism. In Byzantine studies, faculty
are likewise strong in languages (particularly Greek and Coptic), in the history of art,
and in the history of early Christianity. Students in medieval Islamic history are well
served by faculty in the Departments of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations and South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Students in medieval
European history are especially encouraged to situate their field chronologically with
courses in ancient, early modern, and modern European history, geographically with
courses in Byzantine, Russian, and Middle Eastern history, and comparatively with
courses in Jewish and Islamic studies.