UW News

October 23, 2024

Video: UW historian on medieval European monsters, and the meaning of monsters

The Plinian or Monstrous Races (Sciapodae, Cyclopes, conjoined twin, Blemmyae, and Cynocephali) from Sebastian Munster’s Cosmographia,1544

Charity Urbanski, a teaching professor of history at the UW, studies monsters and monstrosities in medieval Europe. One of her interests is the purpose monsters served for medieval Europeans, and what we can learn about medieval European society by looking at their monsters, which served as vehicles for expressing anxieties and fears.