Why Minor or Major in MRST?

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Greetings!

The Lord of the Rings, Excalibur, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Vikings, Assassin’s Creed, … one could easily add to this list of ‘best sellers’ inspired by the medieval and Renaissance eras. Such books, movies, mini-series, and games entertain and feed the imagination. Digging a bit deeper into modern culture and life, one finds that ideas about of love (romantic and otherwise), beauty, piety, and religion as well as institutions, like common law and congress, are deeply rooted in those past but ever-present periods. When one studies these periods, one finds a rich pageant of beautiful (and horrifying) events and people, portions of which help us to understand who we have become.

But why minor or double major in MRST?

An MRST minor or major can enable you to:

Pursue Your Passion

Many of us are fascinated by things medieval and Renaissance, including (adding to the list above): Arthurian Romance and medieval warfare, crusades and castles, French Gothic cathedrals and medieval theology, the Alhambra in Spain and Top Kapi in Turkey, witches and heretics, The Black Death, The Hundred Years War, ballet, classical guitar, Tang, Song, and Yuan China, medieval Japan, Chaucer and Shakespeare, A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Renaissance artists and engineers like Botticelli, Da Vinci and Michelangelo, scientists and ‘explorers’ like Ibn Battuta, Zheng He, Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Galileo (and our own Thomas Harriot!), Japanese Samurai, the Papacy, Protestant Reformers like Luther and Calvin who ‘destroyed Christendom’ and opened paths to modernity, and on and on.

Some have fallen in love with the period through travel and study abroad. You may wish to visit Italy, France, England, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Morocco, Ireland, Germany, China, or Japan someday. You can learn about the history and art of these cultures first by studying them in an MRST class here at ECU.  You can earn your bread with that other major in a different field and eat your cultural cake too by adding an MRST minor or major, thrilling yourself with discovery upon discovery.  Like Alice, you can travel through a ‘distant mirror’ and learn and read about fantastic things that make up who we are today.

Get a Better Job and Add Value to Your Career

In the eyes of a hiring committee, the MRST line on your transcript or resumé will set you apart from the competition who only have narrowly focused on a job-specific track. As you should argue in your application letter, the MRST credential demonstrates that you can think, analyze, create, and write in dynamic ways. After all, in your MRST studies, you will have delved deep into the humanities and arts, honing skills all employers want (and often fail to get): the ability to read and interpret complex evidence quickly and accurately, to formulate cogent arguments based on evidence of diverse types, and to write compelling prose. Your MRST credential will also demonstrate that you have a broad approach to the world and are curious about the meaning and value of human experience from waging war and pursing peace to producing amazing works of art, literature, science, technology, and culture.

Give Coherence to Your Program of Study

Let’s face it, ECU’s General Education requirements sometimes seem redundant or useless. By taking an MRST minor or major, we will help you to build on touchstones in the gen ed requirements and use electives to pursue a coherent, thematic curriculum. These courses will give you broad knowledge and develop integrated expertise in several disciplines and theoretical approaches foundational to all your university studies.

Further Your Professional Goals in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

If you plan to teach or pursue a higher degree/career in Art, Art History, Dance, English, Film and Media, History, International Studies, Languages and Literatures, Music, and the like, then you can further your goals with an MRST minor or major. Your degree will show employers and admissions officers that you have a basic mastery of a formative period of history as well as broad inter-disciplinary interests. Your knowledge and multi-disciplinary competency will set you apart from those who have simply majored in one discipline or studied other periods through a narrower focus.