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Graduate Studies at Marco

Image of Marco instructor and student looking at a map.Fostering Community

Marco supports a vibrant and collaborative community of MA and PhD students from a number of UT departments, including English, History, World Languages & Cultures, Architecture, Musicology, and more. Marco grad students do more than just take classes together; they also collaborate on projects, coauthor research articles, eat lunch together, volunteer in the wider Knoxville community, host study groups, organize conference panels, and much more. Being an affiliated member of the Marco graduate student community is easy: just be a student interested in or working on premodern studies!

The Graduate Colloquium, which meets several times per semester, offers further training in the field, introduces students to important professionalization skills, and provides graduate students with a venue in which to present their research to their peers, while weekly language sight-reading groups allow students to improve their medieval Latin and other language skills in a fun, low-pressure environment. Marco students are also encouraged and supported in creating reading groups or other academic groups.

Image of several Marco graduate students in a discussion seminar.The Graduate Certificate in Medieval Studies

The Marco Institute offers a Graduate Certificate in Medieval Studies to students interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary course of study while at UT. Students interested in pursing the Graduate Certificate are invited to apply after their first semester at UT, in consultation with Marco’s Associate Director. The Graduate Certificate is an add-on to a student’s degree program, and is not a stand-alone degree. Students interested in pursuing MA or PhD studies at UT in late antique, medieval, and early modern fields should apply directly to a home department (e.g. History, English, MFLL) for admission to that department’s graduate program.

Image of a Marco student examining a manuscript.Graduate Student Support

Graduate students affiliated with Marco are encouraged to apply for research and travel funds from the Institute for conference presentations, archival work, etc. These funds include the Paul Barrette Student Travel and Research Scholarship, the Raymond E. Horne Graduate Student Award, and Marco Graduate Student Research and Travel Scholarships. These awards are open to any UT graduate student working on premodern subjects, whether you are completing the graduate certificate or not!

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, Marco is also able to provide a number of fellowships and assistantships for graduate students affiliated with the Institute. These include:

  • Haslam Dissertation Fellowship
  • Anne Marie Van Hook Memorial Travel Fellowship
  • The Public Humanities Graduate Research Assistantship
  • Medieval & Renaissance Studies (MRST) Graduate Teaching Assistantship

Marco graduate students have also received numerous prestigious outside fellowships, including: Fulbright awards, the Rome Prize, research fellowships from the Warburg Institute and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and more.

Additionally, the Marco Institute offers a Summer Latin Program every summer, with courses in medieval Latin at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced level. The program is free for all Marco graduate students.