Study Areas - History Department
Monash has long been a pioneer in the study of medieval and Renaissance history in Australia. With our centre in Italy, we offer a unique opportunity to pair academic study with travel to Europe.
Staff Research Areas
The History Department includes the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, with a number of staff working on Medieval and Renaissance History:
| Peter Howard | Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Europe |
| Carolyn James | Medieval and renaissance history, cultural and social history |
| Clare Monagle | Religion and society in the medieval and renaissance periods. |
| Constant Mews | History of ideas (ancient, medieval to early modern) |
| Carol Williams | Medieval and Renaissance music; medieval popular culture |
| Megan Cassidy-Welch | Medieval history; cultural history; history and memory |
Units Offered
We offer a range of units in Medieval and Renaissance history. For a full list of units, see the handbook but you might want to consider:
| ATS1316 - Medieval Europe | The long term changes in European society and civilisation from the time of Charlemagne in the late eighth century to the first signs of the breaking apart of the idea of a unified Christendom in the early fifteenth century. Themes include social structure, urbanisation, relationships between men and women, education, the crusades, the role of the church and the relationship between religious reform and heresy. |
| ATS1317 - Renaissance Europe | Second Semester 2012. The social and cultural history of Western Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, especially the Italian Renaissance and the spread of its influence in northern Europe in the sixteenth century. Themes include humanism, art and patronage, gender, discovery of the New World, science, political and religious changes in the later Middle Ages, and the dissemination of the civilisation of the Renaissance in Western Europe. |
| ATS2579/ATS3579 - Witches and depravity in the medieval and early modern world | This unit will consider the cultural history of Western Europe from late antiquity through to the beginnings of modernity. We will focus particularly on the persecution of witches, accused sometimes of fornication with the devil or of infanticide and cannibalism, but will look also at other individuals and groups that have been considered sinful, unnatural, freakish or depraved. In so doing, we will explore the long story of the European outsider, and ask what these harsh designations and cruel treatments of people who were marginal or different might tell us about the history of European society as a whole. |
Units Taught in Prato
A highlight of studying Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Monash is the opportunity to take an undergraduate unit at the Monash University Centre in Prato Italy.
For information on all units available at Monash Prato please visit the Arts in Prato website.
Our two medieval and Renaissance History units available in Prato (alternate years) are:
| ATS3285 - Dante's medieval world: Politics, religion and the city. Not offered in 2012 |
| ATS2612/ATS3612 - The Renaissance in Florence - Summer Semester 2012 |