How did the changes in religion during the Reformation shape the medium of print? How did religious leaders and thinkers attempt to interact with their audience(s)? How did the ways in which religious figures used print pave the way for modern mass media?
How did handwritten documents shape life in the early modern period? What can these documents tell us about the experiences of early modern people?
How did Cervantes’ Don Quixote respond to the social conditions and literary traditions of early modern Spain?
How do maps tell the early history of Chicago and the Midwest? How have maps been used by different empires and nations to secure control of the region?
What can maps tell us about how people from different times, places, and cultures make sense of their world? How did maps and mapmaking influence the development of colonial North America?
What is the context for Shakespeare’s Roman plays? What were his sources? Why did classical Rome capture the interest of people in Renaissance England?
How did Renaissance writers define the family? What were the obligations of family members to one another? What threats to the family did writers perceive?
What were Western Christian religious beliefs, political relationships, and personal values during the Middle Ages? How did the motives, organization, and effects of the Crusades change over time? How have writers from the eleventh century on criticized the Crusaders’ goals and actions?
What is the historical and literary context for Shakespeare’s representation of Prospero’s island and its inhabitants? How did Renaissance writers and artists portray the European exploration of the Americas? How did that exploration inspire their visions of an ideal society?
How does Behn’s novel Oroonoko compare to other representations of race, slavery, and colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?