HCA1003 : Gods, Gold, and Silk: Global Middle Ages
- Offered for Year: 2020/21
- Module Leader(s): Dr Christina Mobley
- Lecturer: Dr James Gerrard, Dr Sophie Moore, Dr Nicola Clarke, Dr Philip Garrett, Dr Willow Berridge, Dr Scott Ashley
- Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
Aims
This module seeks to provide a global framework for understanding the Middle Ages, defined broadly from 500CE-1500CE. By privileging networks of circulation of people, goods, and ideas, this module stresses the interconnection of the global past. This module will introduce students to interdisciplinary methodologies that will allow them to recover the past of people and places for whom we have few or no written documents. Drawing on expertise from across the school of HCA, methodologies will include object analysis, textual analysis, climatology and ecology. Instructors will model how to understand the local history of the global through a series of specialist case studies. These illustrate the benefit of the global as an analytical framework by tracing how communities in seemingly disparate parts of the world understood and consumed global ideas and goods. By encouraging them to examine the past from a variety of perspectives, this module invites students to see familiar places in a new light and unfamiliar places as more central than previously understood.
The module aims are
• To introduce students to the emerging discipline of the Global Middle Ages.
• To introduce students to interdisciplinary methodologies used to recover the past.
Outline Of Syllabus
This module may include the following large themes, with specific case studies dependent on research lead teaching.
Migration
Ethnogenesis
Religion
Networks of trade and exchange
Networks of knowledge
Empires and complex societies
Dark Ages
Slavery
Gender
Power
Teaching Methods
Please note that module leaders are reviewing the module teaching and assessment methods for Semester 2 modules, in light of the Covid-19 restrictions. There may also be a few further changes to Semester 1 modules. Final information will be available by the end of August 2020 in for Semester 1 modules and the end of October 2020 for Semester 2 modules.
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 64 | 1:00 | 64:00 | N/A |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 18 | 2:00 | 36:00 | Non-synchronous recorded content and enhanced readings. |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 64 | 1:00 | 64:00 | N/A |
| Structured Guided Learning | Structured research and reading activities | 18 | 1:00 | 18:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 9 | 1:00 | 9:00 | Synchronous on-line seminars for group discussion |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 9 | 1:00 | 9:00 | Online |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Our teaching strategy is based on a flipped classroom. Students are expected to come to class having completed the assigned reading in order to fully participate in active learning, lead by in-classroom activities. Seminars are spaces for students to workshop specific case studies, developing the competencies in the multidisciplinary methodologies and analytical skills targeted in the module aims.
Assessment Methods
Please note that module leaders are reviewing the module teaching and assessment methods for Semester 2 modules, in light of the Covid-19 restrictions. There may also be a few further changes to Semester 1 modules. Final information will be available by the end of August 2020 in for Semester 1 modules and the end of October 2020 for Semester 2 modules.
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 2 | M | 5 | Writing an argumentative thesis: 250 words |
| Essay | 2 | M | 15 | Using historical evidence: 500 words |
| Essay | 2 | M | 20 | Thinking historically across space and time: 750 words |
| Essay | 2 | A | 60 | Cumulative final essay: 2000 words |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
Informed by pedagogical research, this course adopts an outcome based assessment model. In order to ensure accessibility to socially and neurologically diverse student population, this course uses scaffolded written assignments to build critical writing skills, facility with the material and historical research. Each written assignment focuses on one skill, allowing students to improve throughout the semester. The first essay introduces the skill of crafting an argumentative thesis statement. The second essay develops student understanding of triangulating between multidisciplinary methods and sources. The third essay builds on the argumentative and methodological skills of the first two essays by asking students to make an argument about a specific case study. The final essay invites students to demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired in the course and the skills they have developed in the first three essays by asking students to trace a global theme across time and space.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- HCA1003's Timetable