"Dungeons and Outlaws: The Prison in Medieval History" (MDVL 381Q) 

Asynchronous Course through Binghamton University (SUNY)

Course description:

In modern films, games, and television shows that depict the Middle Ages, the dungeon sits at the heart of the "darkness" of medieval life. For prisoners inside dungeons, castles, monasteries, and towers, the experience of imprisonment differed based on one's status, social class, and gender. Drawing upon readings of primary and secondary sources by prisoners and their jailers, this course will explore prisons in the cultural, social, religious, and political fabric of the medieval world in three interrelated themes: gender and sexuality, religion and inquisition, and crime and punishment. To look beyond the ways that modern culture views medieval dungeons and prisons, this course will explore how medieval people used, viewed, and experienced imprisonment between the Carolingian period and the Protestant Reformation.

Course Taught by: Jessica Minieri 

If interested, please email: jminier1@binghamton.edu