Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART)

CURRENT ISSUE 2025


Spring 2025 (Volume 32, Issue 1)

The focus of this spring issue of SMART is on social justice and the early modern Spanish text for the contemporary classroom. Early modern literature is exemplary in its treatment of social (in)justices of the period. This collection of articles is a foray into the task of aligning the methodology of Spanish literature programs with the theoretical framework of social justice theory, focusing on applying it through high-impact learning strategies and experiential learning projects as essential parts of the learning process and thereby including principles of diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion, and awareness. These articles are a starting point for scholars to think about how their pedagogy and research interact in ways that allow students to see themselves in the works of the early modern period and to recognize their relevance to contemporary society. As you will see, social justice pedagogy can be a workable and effective approach to teaching literature.

ANA L. MÉNDEZ-OLIVER, GLENDA Y. NIETO-CUEBAS, and ERIN A. COWLING Introduction: Social Justice and the Early Modern Spanish Text: Pedagogy and Practice for the Contemporary Classroom

NURIA ALONSO GARCÍA and ALISON CAPLAN Demystifying the Canon: Engaging in an Anti-Bias Examination of the Spanish Golden Age Comedia

ANA L. MÉNDEZ-OLIVER Teaching the #MeToo Movement through Early Modern Spanish Texts

CHRISTINA COLE “Yo nací libre”: Foregrounding Women’s Agency in Don Quixote through Music Playlists

GLENDA Y. NIETO-CUEBAS and HENRY BLUM The Witching Hour: Effectiveness of an Interdisciplinary Cross-Course Experience for Social Justice-Oriented Pedagogy

LISETTE BALABARCA-FATACCIOLI Moriscos in the Classroom: Teaching the “Other” Spanish Empire’s Subjects

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WILLIAM F. HODAPP Book Review: Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England, by Richard Rastall with Andrew Taylor

CHRISTINA FRANCIS Book Review: The Medieval Changeling: Health, Childcare and the Family Unit, by Rose A. Sawyer

LESLEY COOTE Book Review: Three Preludes to the Song of Roland: Gui of Burgundy, Roland at Saragossa, and Otinel, translated by William H. Kibler and Catherine M. Jones

JENNY REBECCA RYTTING Book Review: Women, Dance, and Parish Religion in England, 1300–1640, by Lynneth Miller Renberg

THOMAS H. CROFTS Book Review: Textual and Bibliographical Studies in Older Scots Literature: Selected Essays of Priscilla Bawcutt, edited by Janet Hadley Williams

LAINIE POMERLEAU Book Review: Ethics in the Arthurian Legend, edited by Melissa Ridley Elmes and Evelyn Meyer

MICHAEL CALABRESE Book Review: William Caxton’s Paris and Vienne and Blanchardyn and Eglantine, edited by Harriet Hudson

MARILYN OLIVA Book Review: England and Bohemia in the Age of Chaucer, edited by Peter Brown and Jan Ĉermák

LESLEY COOTE Book Review: The Thun-Hohenstein Album: Cultures of Remembrance in a Paper Armory, by Chassica Kirchhoff


Fall 2025 (Volume 32, Issue 2)

This issue is forthcoming.


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.


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