Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART)
Spring 2026 (Volume 33, Issue 1)
The Spring 2026 issue of SMART includes a fine collection on medieval gaming, based on a session from the International Congress on Medieval Studies concerning the increased interest in game-based classroom learning, whether it takes the form of video games, role-playing simulations, or board game design. Nora L. Corrigan begins the collection by exploring the rich opportunities to teach literature as game and some of the pitfalls of playing with texts in the classroom. Following that, Sara J. Sprouse introduces a mock trial collaborative project she uses in her first-year composition course based, critically, on the motivations of Grendel’s mother in Beowulf. Maile S. Hutterer and Renee Buchanan’s next article describes an undergraduate seminar that capitalizes on the interdisciplinary and cooperative aspects of gameplay to enhance student learning in the context of an art history course. Ana Grinberg considers other approaches that might enable the long-term retention of information learned in her world literature classes and the pedagogical advantages of game pedagogy. Mark-Allan Donaldson discusses using video games as pedagogical tools in medieval studies in order to render the medieval relevant to students. Finally, Katrina H. B. Keefer shares a games approach to teaching Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, approaching the story in a new light. As usual, this issue of SMART includes many books reviews.
NORA L. CORRIGAN Ludic Texts, Ludic Teaching: Using Games in the Early Literature Survey
SARAH J. SPROUSE Interrogating Monstrosity through Play: Putting Grendel’s Mother on Trial
MAILE S. HUTTERER and RENEE BUCHANAN “Gaming Medieval Art”
ANA GRINBERG Epics and Games in the Literature Classroom
MARK-ALLAN DONALDSON Video Games as Pedagogical Tools in Medieval Studies
KATRINA H. B. KEEFER Castles in the Cloud: Methodologies for Digital Reconstruction in The Canterbury Tales
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LAINIE POMERLEAU Book Review: Popular Memory and Gender in Medieval England: Men, Women and Testimony in the Church Courts, C. 1200–1500, by Bronach C. Kane
JOHN S. GARRISON and MAX TURETZKY Book Review: The Folger Guides to Teaching Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romero and Juliet, edited by Peggy O’Brien
LAINIE POMERLEAU Book Review: International Medievalisms: From Nationalism to Activism, edited by Mary Boyle
FRANS VAN LIERE Book Review: Peter Comestor’s Lectures on the Glossed Gospel of John, by David M. Foley
STEPHEN MONTGOMERY-ANDERSON Book Review: Literature and Medievalism in Early Modern England: Strange Histories, by Mike Rodman James
ROY HAMMERLING Book Review: The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: Experience, Identity, Representation, by Sue Brunning
MICHAEL CALABRESE Book Review: Rebellion in Medieval Europe, c.1100–c.1500, edited by Adrian Jobson, Harriet Kersey, and Gordon McKelvie
COREY J. ZWIKSTRA Book Review: Teaching “Beowulf ”: Practical Approaches, edited by Larry Swain and Ophelia Eryn Hostetter
JENNY REBECCA RYTTING Book Review: Robin Hood: Legend and Reality, by David Crook
THOMAS H. CROFTS Book Review: Troubadour Texts and Contexts: Essays in Honor of Wendy Pfeffer, edited by Courtney Joseph Wells, Lisa S. Bevevino, and Sarah-Grace Heller
SUSAN KENDRICK Book Review: Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor, 1503–1533, by Michelle L. Beer
CHRISTINA FRANCIS Book Review: Medievalisms in a Global Age, edited by Angela Jane Weisl and Robert Squillace
Fall 2026 (Volume 33, Issue 2)
The articles in this issue of SMART come from a December 2023 online symposium on “Teaching the Middle Ages and Renaissance to STEM Students,” organized by Lainie Pomerleau (College of Coastal Georgia) and Richard Utz (Georgia Institute of Technology), who asked participants to explore teaching premodern subject matter to student audiences that mostly or entirely consist of STEM majors. Contributions revealed the evolving focus of higher education but also the continued relevance of and fascination with medieval and Renaissance subject matter across academic disciplines. The varied and unique symposium presentations revealed apparent themes: universities are experiencing change and challenges nationwide; there are more STEM and STEM-industry adjacent students than humanities students, which call for new, innovative, and adaptive critical approaches to teaching medieval and Renaissance material; and faculty in the medieval and Renaissance fields are well-positioned to employ more interdisciplinary pedagogic models. As usual, this issue of SMART includes many books reviews.
LAINIE POMERLEAU and RICHARD UTZ Introduction: Teaching the Middle Ages and Renaissance to STEM Students
MONICA H. GREEN An Omni-Crisis at the Intersection of Disciplines: Teaching the Black Death to STEM and Humanities Students
ANDREEA BOBOC Teaching Contagion: Medieval to Early Modern
KEVIN MOBERLY and BRENT MOBERLY Fail Backwards: Bridging STEM and Medieval Studies through Critical Game Design
KEN MONDSCHEIN Meeting Them Where They’re At: Teaching the Premodern to STEM Students
EMILIANO GUTIÉRREZ-POPOCA Teaching Shakespeare and Early Modern Colonialism through Data Visualization Tools
SCOTT MANNING Sharing Joan of Arc with Lifelong Learners at a Fortune 50 Tech Company
DORI COBLENTZ To Obstruct and Delight: Antagonistic Collaboration for Humanities-STEM Transfer
JULIANA VIEZURE Interest-Based Learning in Medieval History Courses: The Passion Project
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MICHAEL PARRISH Book Review: Medievalism and Reception, edited by Ellie Crookes and Ika Willis
VICTORIA COSTA Book Review: Reinventing Medieval Liturgy in Victorian England: Thomas Frederick Simmons and The Lay Folks’ Mass Book, by David Jasper and Jeremy J/ J. Smith
LESLEY COOTE Book Review: Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook, Volume III 1450–1500, by Ralph Moffat
LAINIE POMERLEAU Book Review: Women and Magic in Medieval Romance: Genre, Intertextuality and Power, by Jane Bonsall
RICHARD UTZ Book Review: Tennyson’s Philological Medievalism, by Sarah Weaver
JENNY REBECCA RYTTING Book Review: Stone Fidelity: Marriage and Emotion in Medieval Tomb Sculpture, by Jessica Barker
WILLIAM F. HODAPP Book Review: Rewriting the Past in Scottish Literature 1350–1550, By Kate Ash-Irisarri
MICHAEL CALABRESE Book Review: The Passion and Miracles of St. Thomas Becket by Benedict of Peterborough, translated by Rachel Koopmans
Please share information on the SMART journal with friends, colleagues, and libraries, alerting them to the wide contribution that this publication makes to Middle Ages and Renaissance pedagogy. We are always interested in new submissions, either individual papers or collections of essays around a theme. If you have a project that you think might be suitable for SMART, please let us know.
Thank you for reading SMART.
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The Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wichita State University continues to fund and support the mission of SMART by providing readers with quality pedagogical instruction.