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)
TO BE ANNOUNCED
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.