MARS (Medieval and Renaissance Studies) is an on-campus faculty research group that has existed in various iterations since 1992 and currently operates under the auspices of the BYU Humanities Center, adopting the model of two-to-three-year thematic series. From 2020-23, the group will study “Networks of Intercultural Exchange in the Medieval & Early Modern World.”
Affiliated faculty come from various colleges and disciplines and our purview includes the history, art, literature and culture of Europe and the Mediterranean from the end of Antiquity (ca. 400 AD) through the development of the Early Modern world (ca. 1700). Our on-campus activities include faculty presentations and/or brown bag reading lunches to offer a dry run rehearsal for upcoming presentations or workshop and receive feedback on articles in the works; reading groups, in which the center purchases copies of a recent book that has made a splash on our given theme that we read and discuss – sometimes with the author; and, finally, hosting colleagues to give general faculty and student presentations. Over the years, MARS has brought the likes of Robert Darnton, Carole Levin, Molly Murray, Malina Stefanovska, Howard Bloch, Albrecht Classen, Katie Chenoweth, Kelly DeVries, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Corinne Noirot, Elissa Weaver, Bruce Hayes, and many others to Provo.
For more information or to be added to the MARS newsletter, please contact Elliott Wise (Comparative Arts & Letters).