The Medieval and Renaissance Studies program invites students to look into the past and learn for the future.
The Med-Ren program began around 1968 with a 15-credit certificate. The certificate is offered to both undergraduate and graduate students with departments including classics, east Asian languages and literatures, history, religious studies and theater arts.
Caro Pirri, an assistant professor of English, highlighted the importance of studying the medieval and renaissance periods centuries later.
“It helps us to think beyond our own knowledge horizons while remaining attentive to the ways that modern systems and institutions have both changed and stayed the same over time,” Pirri said.
Pirri said the term “early modern” is especially useful when describing aspects of the 14th-17th centuries because the phrase demonstrates the transitional nature of the period.
“One of the terms we use in the field for the Renaissance in particular is ‘early modern,’ and I like that term because it really emphasizes that some features of this period will be unfamiliar ‘early,’ while others anticipate and feed into modern ideas.”
Chloé Hogg, newest director of the Med-Ren program and associate professor of French, was appointed in fall 2025.
“I think it’s actually like the best kept secret[. It’s] small but mighty,” Hogg said. “We’ll be figuring out how to [make] the certificate a little bit more streamlined.”
Hogg plans to make the program more collaborative with guest speakers, workshops and an end of the year mixer to highlight the undergraduate research.
“There are a lot of really interesting undergraduate research projects that undergrads will be doing in one of their classes for the Med-Ren certificate,” Hogg said. “I’d love to bring us together and just have a way for undergraduates to share their research projects in a way that feels informal and supportive.”
The certificate is split between the Medieval times — beginning in the 5th century CE — and the Renaissance time period, which was believed to begin in the 14th century.
Ingrid Lewis, a first-year history major, first heard about the certificate in her HAA0302 “Renaissance Art” class last semester. She’s now hoping to add a Med-Ren certificate with a concentration in the late medieval era.
“I believe the certificate was mentioned in [my art] class and the fact that it would count for one of the credits in the certificate,” Lewis said. “I am already planning to take as many medieval-focused history courses as I can, and so it started to seem like a good idea to look into.”
Zixiao Huang, a PhD student in early modern Italian arts, has thrived in the Med-Ren program with its many resources.
“I have truly benefited from our Med-Ren community,” Huang said. “Chloé set up weekly writing hours for us starting last semester, and I could not have found a better way to meet and bond with other med-ren students and faculty.”
Huang highlighted how important the Med-Ren community is because of its interdisciplinary collaboration.
“Over the course of the semester, we learned a great deal about and from one another through writing together,” Huang said. “It also makes me very happy to see how different departmental disciplines and backgrounds shape our research and ideas.”
Hogg emphasized that the program is meant to be manageable. She believes it can enhance anyone’s degree, regardless of their main academic focus.
“It is meant to be doable,” Hogg said. “It adds this kind of legible distinctive credential that if you’re applying to a professional program or a graduate program or a job, it gives people something to ask about — ‘Oh you have a certificate of Medieval Renaissance studies? What’s that about?’”
Jennifer Waldron, associate professor in the department of English, said the study of Med-Ren has immense professional gain because it can be useful in careers such as medicine, academics, law, the arts and business.
“The humanist approaches to problem-solving that our students learn about and practice have lasted hundreds of years for a reason — they transcend a single profession, problem, or environment, and prepare students for future jobs that may not even exist now,” Waldron said.
Waldron also highlighted how Med-Ren students develop adaptability, by studying different structured societies and further cultivating their imaginations.
“In real-world situations, whether forging personal relationships, seeing a new patient or tackling a fresh case study in business or law school, we often have to dive into a complex environment without complete knowledge and learn as we go along,” Waldron said. “When MRST students hone their capacity to imagine and analyze the complexity of unfamiliar social, aesthetic, economic and political systems from the past, they improve their ability to develop creative solutions for the future.”