Medieval Art & The Natural World

Description from DukeHub

This seminar investigates how medieval people understood, visualized, and actively shaped the natural world around them. Topics may include the medieval cosmologies; medicine and the human body; bestiaries and animal fables; animal companions; landscape and wilderness; parks and gardens; the rise of naturalism. Graduate students will pair discussion of theoretical readings in ecocriticism and materiality studies with focused case studies from Western Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world based on readings of secondary and primary sources. Over the course of the semester students will develop and present a research paper on a topic of their choice.

Skills

• research methodsAI review: "develop and present a research paper"

AI-resilient: 1 of 5 1/5

• No: Physical, lab or field work
• No: Live work with people
• No: Judgment someone is accountable for
• No: A craft you practice with your hands or body
• ✓Yes: Small, in-person format · seminar, 6 seats per section

The checks lean on Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025), which found generative AI applies least to physical work and hands-on work with people. A signal, not a promise. How the score works

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