Columbia’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program brings together dozens of students and more than 70 faculty from a wide range of departments across the university. Traversing the artificial disciplinary and departmental barriers that too often subdivide this vibrant commingling, the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program offers unique opportunities to explore the rich confluence of visual, musical, theological, and literary production in medieval and early modern cultures.
The Program offers an undergraduate minor, an undergraduate concentration, a master's degree, and a doctoral certificate.
Recent Announcements
CFP: Threads of Knowledge: Weaving and the Life of Textiles in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Threads of Knowledge: Weaving and the Life of Textiles in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
The 29th Biennial Conference of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program of Barnard College
Barnard College, New York City
December 5, 2026
Brianna Burdetsky (M.A. 2023) publishes article in Arthuriana volume 35.4
MedRen alum Brianna Burdetsky (M.A. 2023) has adapted her thesis, "The Fifth World: Magic and Landscape in Vidvilt and Wigalois," into an article that has recently been published by the journal Arthuriana (volume 31.4).
Leah DeVun (Columbia History, Ph.D. 2004) awarded the Haskins Medal by the Medieval Academy of America
The Medieval and Renaissance Studies program is delighted to announce that a recent book by a Columbia doctoral alumna in History has received one of the foremost book prizes in medieval studies. The Medieval Academy of America has awarded the Haskins Medal to Leah DeVun (History, Ph.D. 2004), The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2021).