Chaucer course leads to medieval minor

Elizabeth Kohn enrolled at Carolina with a passion for history but was unsure of which period she wanted to study more deeply.

To help her decide, she decided to take a class on the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of “The Canterbury Tales.”

“I took a Shakespeare course in high school and really enjoyed it, so I was hoping this would be a similar experience,” said Kohn. The senior from Durham has majors in business administration in UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and Italian in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.

Though it was a jump from Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English to Chaucer’s Middle English, Kohn was right. “I was immediately interested in Middle English and other medieval topics,” she said.

Assistant professor H.M. Cushman, who teaches the English class on Chaucer, wrote to Kohn after the semester ended to share some serendipitous news: by taking the first-year seminar Reintroducing Islam, Kohn had already completed two of the five courses required for a minor in medieval and early modern studies.

Founded in 2007 with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Carolina’s interdisciplinary program in medieval and early modern studies features more than 90 faculty members across 12 College departments. Students can choose core classes in medieval art, South Asian history, British literature and more. Electives include Shinto in Japanese History and Modern Philosophy: Descartes to Hume.

“Aside from English 223, which sparked my interest in the program, professor (Maggie) Fritz-Morkin’s Italian 359: Medieval Frauds really cemented my interest in the subject,” Kohn said. In the class, they studied “the dangers and delights of lying and fraud in medieval Italy” with a special focus on works by Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio.

“It was a special class to me because I could combine my love of Italian with my interest in medieval and early modern writing,” Kohn said.

In another Italian class, she made connections between early modern authors and leaned into her familiarity with medieval writing in unexpected ways. That class allowed students to be the first transcribers of old Italian manuscripts.

“Some of the manuscripts are medieval, so getting to apply my knowledge about medieval texts is quite special,” she said.

In business administration classes, Kohn says the minor helped her be “a more well-rounded thinker.” And during her Maymester abroad in Florence, Italy, her understanding of medieval and Renaissance life enhanced her experience in studying art and architecture, while her Italian language skills saved the day on a weekend trip to explore Cinque Terre.

“There was supposed to be a train strike the day we were going, but I had heard about it — in Italian — on the radio,” said Kohn. “I was able to make last-minute changes and get us on a train before the strike started. I was really proud because I only had taken two years of Italian at that point.”

Aside from her studies, she serves as the president of the Carolina Athletic Association, an organization that connects students and UNC Athletics to share student feedback and promote Carolina’s varsity sports.

Kohn is a member of the Kenan-Flagler Private Equity Fund, an investment fund managed by both undergraduate and graduate students that “invests outside capital in an educational setting to deliver real returns for investors.” When she graduates in May, she will move to New York to begin her role as an investment banking analyst for Morgan Stanley.

“My time at Carolina laid the foundation for me to develop the skills needed to pursue this career,” she said. “I am forever grateful.”