Encountering those who are different from us can be both exciting and challenging, obliging us to reevaluate the boundaries that separate ourselves from others. In this course, we will consider how religious, ethnic, cultural and other categories have been used to differentiate between self and other, the relationship between violence and difference, and the role that language itself plays in constructing narratives of difference. Readings may include Chaucer, The Travels of Ibn Battutah, The Book of Margery Kempe, medieval popular romances, eyewitness accounts of the Crusades, and the writings of early explorers.