Where is the Middle Ages?
Goals for this week (September 21/23, 2020)
By the end of this week, what should students know, be able to do and understand?
understand the fluidity to the geographic component of historical analysis
learn some approaches for reading scholarly sources via annotation
begin work on your personal Quest for the Middle Ages (scavenger hunt)
Overview:
This week we will move from examing the Middle Ages as a temporal phenomenon (a historical period) to exploring its geographic definition. By understanding how medievalists are redefining the geographic extent of the "Medieval World", we will be able to nuance our idea of the Middle Ages
we will try to understand why academics write the way they do (and why it is important for scholars to sometimes be obstuse)
we will read about the historiography of the "Global Middle Ages"
we will seek to understand how the modern concept of the "National State" impacts how we view the past (including the Middle Ages)
we will seek to understand how new research on economic, social, religious and cultural exchange binds together a much wider geographic area than is traditionally considered "Medieval"
begin the game-based learning component of the first term of class (i.e. the Scavenger Hunt)
Online Time
On Monday, September 21st, the professor will speak about the traditional geographic definition of the "Medieval World" and how this has changed in the last decades. Students will be asked to consider their own inherited ideas about the Middle Ages to see where and why they place borders.
On Wednesday, September 23rd, the professor will lead students through the process of reading and annotating a scholarly article (and how to do so quickly). He will also demonstrate how to use the hypothes.is social annotation tool and the bibliographic software, Zotero. You might want to have registered and installed this software in time for this class, but this is optional.
Read/Watch/Listen
Students will need to read and annotate:
An article entitled, "Where are the Middle Ages" on a scholarly blog, the Public Medievalist, a copy of which is located on Perusall.
Chapter two of Marc Bloch's The Historian's Craft (continuing). This reading of the entire book is to give you background reading about the nature and purpose of the academic discipline of history. In week 6 we will discuss and you will write about your reaction to this text.
On Wednesday, we will read an academic article looking the idea of the Global Middle Ages on Perusall. In preparation, please read the description of the exercise here:
Practice
We will continue to practice using the Perusall social annotation tool on Wednesday.
Discuss
What questions should students be discussing with each other on Perusall this week?
when reading and annotating the texts for this week, think about when and where you think the Middle Ages are located. Do the categories the academics use fit with how YOU see the time period?
Do
Students are expected create a new page on cuPortfolio to present a "character profile" for their avatar in the Quest for the Middle Ages and share it with the group. The writing assignment is explained here. Students may wish to do some further reading about the game to complete your profile. A detailed (overly detailed!) guide to character creation is posted in the Quest for the Middle Ages channel on Teams.
Submit an End of Week Report on Sunday night (each week) to let me know if you have any questions and (this week) to provide a link to your cuPortfolio profile.
Assessment
This week you will receive feedback on the Profiles you created on cuPortfolio last week.
Going Further
If students want to do more to ensure success, what materials and resources (e.g. reading, video, audio simulations, games) do you recommend?
Students can make sure they are logged into hypothes.is and zotero.
if they have any further questions about the class, meet with the professor during online office hours on Wednesday mornings from 11h00-12h00. I'll be online and you can call me through Teams directly for a voice or videochat.
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