HIS32800 History from below: Rural life in the middle ages

Academic Year 2021/2022

That lives of the ordinary women and men, who comprised the bulk of early medieval society, are not as well represented in the contemporary sources or in the academic literature as the lives of those who belonged to political or ecclesiastical elites. These ordinary 'peasants', as they are often called in the historiographical jargon, nevertheless played an important part in driving economies and shaping identities in Europe and around the Mediterranean. This module will examine the evidence, mainly written but also archaeological, for peasant communities and their lived reality. The perspective will alternate between the macro and the micro: between grand narratives of servile emancipation in the late Roman Empire and the more focused day-to-day realities of peasant life. We will learn about freedom and servitude, living conditions, climate, public health, social and economic obligations, social mobility, gender roles, and historiographical interpretations. The module will be divided thematically as well as regionally, concentrating on different parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, from Ireland, through Spain and the Carolingian empire to Egypt.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Students will develop critical thinking skills, advanced writing skills, presentation skills, and research skills. They will deepen their knowledge about late antiquity and the early Middle Ages as eras of economic change, about the effects of climate change in the period, the state of private and public health, and social inequalities. They will engage with debates in the historiography concerning the transition from slavery to serfdom, peasants and aristocracies, the impact of the church on peasant communities, and the moral economy.

Indicative Module Content:

Introducing the Peasantry

1. Setting the scene: the peasant Bodo introduces key concepts

2. An era of economic change: climate, health, and economics

A Social Class in Transition

3.From Roman to Early Medieval: the transition from slavery to serfdom

4. The moral economy

A World of Peasants

5.Carolingian Europe

6.Britain

7.Ireland

8. Brittany

9.Egypt

The Church and the Peasantry

10.Peasant religions

11.The Temple Society

12.The church and labour

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

11

Seminar (or Webinar)

22

Specified Learning Activities

95

Autonomous Student Learning

95

Total

223

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
The module consists of a weekly one-hour lecture and weekly two-hour seminar. The weekly lectures provide an introduction to the week's theme, consisting of an overview of pertinent events, personalities, sources, and the historiography on the topic. The weekly seminar is premised on active, task-based learning as well as group work and occasional peer review exercises. The focus in the seminars will be on interpreting historical sources in which students apply critical thinking and develop their independent learning skills by writing a weekly review in response to the weekly readings. There is an emphasis on autonomous learning and developed through student-led class discussion and debates focused on central issues on the historiography that enhances problem-based learning. Research skills, critical thinking, advanced academic writing skills, and citation conventions, are developed through the final essay, which is 4000-eords long. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: Weekly review of assigned literature. Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

50

Project: A final essay with a research component based on primary and secondary sources. Week 12 n/a Graded No

50


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback on continuous assessment is given weekly in writing in the form of comments on the weekly submissions. Feedback on the end-of-semester paper will be given by appointment in one-to-one meetings.