When are the Middle Ages?

Goals for this week (September 22, 2020)

By the end of this week, what should students know, be able to do and understand?

1. Learn about how medievalists think about the periodization (i.e. the temporal limits) of the Middle Ages and why it is considered a historical period worthy (or not) of study.

2. Learn what a primary source is and the problems of interpretation

3. Practice using Perusall to annotate readings and to cultivate discussions

Overview:

This week marks the beginning of the synchronous learning portion of the class. We will come together online for an introduction to the Middle Ages and to think about how it is defined chronologically.

This week will be exploring the idea of Periodization, asking how historical periods are constructed after the fact to represent something meaningful for historians (or other people interested in the past). By understanding how we temporally define the past, we can see the basic axioms we hold about that period.

1. Introduce ourselves and the class

2. Spend some time fielding technical questions

3. Together we will elucidate what we think the Middle Ages were

4. We will brainstorm what constitutes the temporal boundaries of the Middle Ages (and any possible subdivisions of them).

5. Read and annotate a primary source on Perusall together on Wednesday the 16th (and afterwards)

6. Read and annotate a secondary source on Perusall in time for class.

Online Time

Students need to have installed and successfully logged into Teams by Monday, September 21st, to ensure that they receive any updates to our schedule.

1. We will be meeting online from 11h30-1h00, September 22, 2020. Join the Microsoft Teams Meeting. The Teaching Assistant and I will be online about 15 minutes before class if you want to discuss anything with us.

• the professor will introduce himself and the class

• students will divided into small groups to meet one another; goal of the small group discussion is to decide on two questions that people would most like to be answered about the class.

• we'll spend some times discuss questions that might have arisen

• we'll spend 40 minutes speaking about how to define the Middle Ages temporally/ chronologically.

2. From 13h00 until 13h15, we'll take a break.

3. From 13h15 until 2h30 I will demonstate on Teams how to use Perusall to annotate a primary source in the course reader. You can follow along, ask questions, and annotate the text alongside your classmates in real time. You are not required to be online synchronously for this but this will be recorded and available for watching at a later time. I'll post a link to the videos in the topbar of the week 2 channel on Teams.

Read/Watch/Listen

• read through the 4 pages of the Anatomy of a Primary Source exercise

• read the Founding Charter of Cluny in the primary source reader in Perusall

Do

• By September 27th, students should have logged into cuPortfolio and created an introductory Profile and shared it with the class. Take a look on Sunday to see who else is in your class!

Practice

Read the following pages as preparation for the annotation exercise on Perusall.

pageAnatomy of a Primary Source

pageSources Schematic

pageThe Problem of Primary Sources

pageReading Cluny's Foundation Charter

Discuss

What questions should students be discussing with each other?

• The first two meetings this year focus on locating the Middle Ages as a time-based (chronological/ temporal) and geographically-framed (it has a place) phenomenon. As you read the readings and annotate them, think about how the authors of the articles define the Middle Ages in space and time.

Going Further

If students want to do more, follow through the Digital Tools section on the course site and sign up, get used to the environments and play around a bit.

Also, if you want to get a better sense of how medieval people reckoned time, take a look at this helpful guide on how to date primary sources (focussing on English sources)

Help

If you need help, take a look to see if your question is already answered on the coursesite (it has a search function), on Teams (also searchable), and then ask the professor for this week.

We're all getting used to the online environment, so it might take some work to sort things out. Some things are beyond my ken and ability to help - if you have trouble with Perusall (for example, they won't give you access to the textbook you bought through them), you might have to take this up directly with them (I'm afraid).