UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies

The UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS)—in collaboration with UCLA’s Center for Jewish Studies, and faculty from the UCLA Departments of English, Sociology and Philosophy—will organize and administer the Seminar. Professor Brian Copenhaver, the Director of CMRS and Professor of Philosophy and History at UCLA, will serve as the Seminar’s Director. Funds awarded by the Mellon Foundation will support participation of a Post-Doctoral Fellow and several Graduate Students Fellows, as well as faculty from other universities. CMRS will also contribute its own funds to support participation in the Seminar by faculty from other universities, and to cover other costs.

Faculty participating in the seminar will come from many disciplines: art history, biblical studies, comparative literature, English and French literatures, history, law, philosophy, political science, religion, rhetoric, sociology, theater and other fields can illuminate the problem of disputation. In order to create and sustain a coherent context for so many voices, the Seminar will depend on an orderly sequence of conversations and an evolving definition of the central topic of disputation. To keep the Seminar’s discussions focused, there will be regular intervention throughout the Seminar by UCLA and other faculty who will pose questions about various instances of the main topic from the three points of view selected to frame the Seminar: literary, philosophical and sociological.

Professor Calvin Normore (Philosophy, UCLA) is responsible for the philosophical continuity of the Seminar. Professor Christopher Baswell (English, UCLA) is responsible for the Seminar’s literary continuity. Professor Jeffrey Prager (Sociology, UCLA) will be responsible for sociological continuity.

Although the Seminar itself will not be offered for academic credit, other concurrent and credit-bearing courses for graduate students participating in the Seminar may be offered at UCLA by the Departments of English, Philosophy and Sociology, with meetings coordinated by CMRS.

The Seminar will consist of a series of sessions, approximately six per academic quarter, focusing on specific topics. Presentations will be made and discussions will be led by faculty from UCLA and other universities. Since it is anticipated that most participants will be unable to attend every session, the Seminar’s graduate student and postdoctoral fellows will prepare summary materials, bibliographies and web resources before and after each meeting of the Seminar. Materials will be posted by CMRS staff on the Center’s website.