Purpose of the Certificate
The Graduate Certificate in Early Modern Studies enables students to develop interdisciplinary and transnational expertise outside of their home department: expertise that can generate innovative work at the dissertation level and beyond. Through courses, reading groups, summer seminars, conferences, and teaching opportunities, certificate students will come into a wider intellectual community of early modern faculty and graduate students from several departments. Students who satisfy certificate requirements will enter the Graduate Certificate in Early Modern Studies along with a PhD in their home department.
When is "Early Modern"?
Our Certificate addresses the “long early modern”: roughly, the period between 1400 and 1800, depending on region and topic.
Early Modern Studies at WashU
Early Modern Studies at WashU boasts a distinguished past and a vigorous present, with over thirty faculty members in English, History, Art History, Philosophy, Romance Languages and Literatures, German, East Asian Languages and Literature, Music, Performing Arts, and Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Studies. For well over a decade, the Early Modern Reading Group and the Eighteenth-Century Interdisciplinary Salon have provided opportunities for faculty and graduate students to present and discuss work in progress, and the Mellon-funded Early Modern Dissertation Seminar, which takes place every other summer, enjoys a permanent endowment. Our membership in the consortium of the Folger Shakespeare Library opens up remarkable resources for early modern students and faculty, from rich archival materials to financial support for research and conference travel. Digital Humanities at WashU has made early modern studies central, in part because its director is an early modern scholar and two of the largest digital archives of primary sources in the humanities are from our field: Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
The Certificate takes advantage of two long-standing strengths in Early Modern Studies at WashU: a long tradition of interdisciplinary work and a commitment to cross national and geo-linguistic boundaries. In particular Comparative Literature, where the Certificate is housed, has created strong cross-departmental links between eastern and western departments and programs.
Requirements for the certificate in early modern studies can be found here.