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Interdisciplinary Program in Ancient and Medieval Studies (AMS)

Interdisciplinary Program in Ancient and Medieval Studies Through a wide variety of subjects drawn from a number of disciplines, this program provides a curricular framework for exploring topics in ancient and medieval studies which range from the history of ideas and institutions to that of material artifacts, literature, and certain of the original languages. The program spans the 6,500 years between 5000 B.C. and 1500 A.D.

This program’s goal is to develop knowledge and understanding of the more distant past both for itself, in its uniqueness, and as an object of specifically modern questions and methods of inquiry. The program has an interest in the structure of institutions and social systems, and in relationships between the social order and learned traditions, values, ideologies, and ideas. Ancient and medieval studies derive a special claim to our interest from the fact that the record is so full and multiform and that much of it is of exceptionally high quality at once in substance and form.

Ancient and Medieval Studies is available as a concentration, a minor, and as a major departure within Course 21. Individual programs are to be determined in consultation with Prof. Eric Goldberg, Room E51-290, (617) 324-2420, egoldber@mit.edu or Prof. Stephanie Frampton, Room 14N-434, (617)253-4452, sframpto@mit.edu.

The program is supported by faculty from the following disciplines at MIT:
Architecture
History
Literature
Music
Philosophy

Faculty include: Arthur Bahr (Literature), William Broadhead (History), Michael Scott Cuthbert (Music and Theater Arts), Wiebke Denecke (Literature), Stephanie Frampton (Literature), Eric Goldberg (History), Sally Haslanger (Philosophy), Lauren Jacobi (Architecture), Ina Lipkowitz (Literature), Anne McCants (History), John A. Ochsendorf (Architecture), Lee Perlman (Experimental Study Group), Max Price (MIT Materials Science & Engineering), Nasser Rabbat (Architecture), and Linda Rabieh (MIT Concourse).

IAP in Ancient Greece: Building on the success of prior seasons of the IAP in Ancient Italy/Greece program, the MIT History Faculty and MIT Concourse continues to offer between 10 and 20 MIT undergraduates a first–hand experience of Greek art and archaeology – city design, temples, theaters, monuments public and private, art of every kind and every material – in the settings where they can best be explored: in the magnificent heart of bustling Athens, and across the breathtaking landscape of central Greece (Delphi, Olympia, Epidauros, Mycenae, Corinth).

IAP Italy:  Now in its seventeenth year, this program of the MIT History Faculty and MIT Concourse offers between 10 and 20 MIT undergraduates a first–hand experience of Greek and Roman archaeology – urban topography, architecture, public and private monuments – in the setting where they can best be explored: in the heart of Rome, and along the Bay of Naples (ancient Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Naples).

Course Offerings