When people ask me about my majors, I usually get confused faces. “Huh? Medievalism…? That’s a major? I didn’t know we had that at Laurier?!” Well, yes people, it is a major and I’m here to tell you why medieval studies classes are some of the most fun classes you will take.
As well as studying the period that is known as the Middle Ages, we also study Medievalism, which, according to Laurier’s site, we are quite unique for. Through Medievalism we are studying how the Middle Ages inspired later periods and even popular culture today.
Laurier’s website also states that “Medieval and Medievalism Studies thus links to contemporary attitudes toward myths, heroes, magic, fantasy, science fiction, crafts and role-playing clubs, films such as the Harry Potter series, television series such as Game of Thrones, and video games such as Assassin’s Creed.” AKA it’s not boring as you may assume.
We get to take the coolest classes
Laurier has been running the Game of Thrones and Harry Potter classes for a few years, and they are always packed. Who wouldn’t want to take a class on such popular series?!
We also have classes on Medievalism in video games, popular culture, and even a course on Vikings!
We get to go on field trips
We recently went on a trip to the ROM to see the Vikings exhibit, and then after to Medieval Times to eat chicken with our bare hands and watch jousting and sword fighting.
And even trips abroad
This summer there is a class on early Medieval England where students will be going to England to study the Middle Ages first hand. They’ll get to travel all over and visit many museums and medieval sites.
We study Memes
Most of you have probably seen some medieval memes online before, but we once spent a whole class analyzing and even making our own medieval memes.
The readings can be crazy
Some of the readings for medieval courses can be crazy. Anything from chivalric adventure stories, accounts of witches, and even tales about Vikings making fart jokes. Not only do we read material that is very old, but we also get to see and sometimes even touch manuscripts or documents that are hundreds of years old. Plus, these manuscripts have crazy images (where a lot of medieval memes come from), and there’s always a search to find the legendary penis tree.
Love Disney?
In certain classes, you get to study Disney, learn about royalty, knights in shining armour, and chivalry. So basically, we study the real-life inspirations for Disney.
Be an Instructing assistant in your fourth year
In fourth year the department chooses a number of students to be instructing assistants, who not only help the prof with lesson planning but also get to run tutorials and get hands-on teaching experience. Plus, getting to work that closely with a professor is amazing, not only for learning, but it looks great on your resume.
Passion
Pretty much everyone one in the program is super passionate about what they are studying. You could even say we border on nerdy because of how into the material we get, but that means that classes are always fun! Our tutorials and classes are always interactive because of how passionate everyone is about the Middle Ages.
The Medieval and Medievalism studies program at Laurier is essentially a chance to look back into another world, which is so interesting and fun. Plus, we get to study things like Harry Potter and Shrek, so how could you not enjoy that?