The class is “grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory” and considers the roles of “gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures,” according to its course description.
The class is “grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory” and considers the roles of “gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures,” according to its course description.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ Center for Medieval Studies regularly offers the class, which also covers “miraculous transformations, demonic possession, female artists and patrons, the ‘monstrous races’ of travel accounts, and gender-affirming surgeries.”
“In contrast to misconceptions of a homogenous white European past, the reality of medieval Europe was diverse and complex, and its boundaries – geographical, cultural, bodily, and otherwise – were in flux, as reflected in its visual and material culture,” the course description states.
The course is cross-listed in the history department. However, the history chair, Professor Sarah Chambers, said it is not offered through her department and did not have more information to share.
The medieval studies center also did not respond to an email in the past week. The Fix could not get through via the phone due to a busy signal.
The Fix also reached out to UMN history professors Michael Lower and Katherine Reyerson via email for comment on the class, but they did not respond. Both list research interests that would align with this course.
The College Fix asked for a copy of the syllabus and for examples of transgender saints.
However, a Catholic history professor at the University of Chicago said further context is needed for the claims made by the course.
“‘Transgender’ is, obviously, a modern term, but, yes, there were saints whom we might now describe this way, with the same caveats that people used to use about the terms ‘homosexual’ and ‘gay’ being anachronistic,” Professor Rachel Brown told The Fix via email.
Brown, a medievalist, said the class likely touches on the figures of St. Joan of Arc, who cross dressed to appear more masculine, or St. Symeon the Theologian, who was believed to be a eunuch serving among other eunuch monks. However, Brown noted, these saints can only be loosely called “transgender” or “queer.”
Brown commented that for years academics have pursued the idea of medieval abbots as “mothering” their monks, or that Christians should follow the example of Mary as mother to Christ.
Brown noted that this class is just one among many offered in the sphere of academia which is professedly against the traditional understanding of Church, European, and art history. Academics, she said, are taking a view of the past that assumes the superiority of modern thought.
Brown said that, “The problem in medieval studies is not that we have been ignoring the marginal and monstrous; it is that we have been failing to put the concern for the marginal and monstrous in context.”
Classes like this intersectional medieval art class, Brown thinks, miss the point about studying history as it actually occurred, rather than with a modern lens.
“That we care now about the marginal and monstrous,” Brown said, “is a direct effect of the medieval Christian insistence that even monsters like the ones described in the travel accounts were human beings to whom Jesus commanded the apostles to preach.”
The university offers other courses on gender and Christianity.
“The study of ancient material offers a space to acquire the skills of critical analysis of body and gender dynamics so that we can better understand the roles that the body and gender play in shaping our self-identity, social interaction, and societal structures,” according to the course description for “Gender and Body in Early Christianity.”