Unit rationale, description and aim
From the destruction wrought by the Crusades and the Black Death, the beauty of soaring cathedrals and exquisite novels such as the Tale of Genji, and the new knowledge developed by Zheng He’s voyages and those who travelled the Silk Road, the period from 400 to 1500 was a profound time of global change and exchanges. This unit introduces students to historical strategies for interpreting a broad sweep of historical societies and cultures from 400 to 1500. Students will learn to analyse materials from across the period and different world cultures to understand historical trajectories and politics, economics, religion, society and culture in societies around the globe, from Europe to Africa and Asia, and beyond.
The medieval past also continues to influence the modern world, as both a series of ideas and through social and cultural practices. This unit will consider what we mean when we say something is ‘positively medieval’ today, and the ways we can come to a more nuanced understanding of this dynamic period of history.
The unit aims to allow students to interpret and assess historical and scholarly debates, consider how historical knowledge is constructed, and how ideas about the medieval past influence our modern world.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitLearning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Develop an understanding of the contours of the so...
Learning Outcome 01
Identify the key scholarly approaches and debates ...
Learning Outcome 02
Use and appropriately reference a variety of prima...
Learning Outcome 03
Communicate clearly in written and/or oral form fo...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- Co-existence and interdependency between regions, cultures, and religions, including topics like the Iberian ‘convivencia’ between Muslims, Jews, and Christians, Ming Dynasty exploration fleets, and the medieval traffic in manuscripts of ‘lost’ Greek and Roman authors between the Muslim and Christian worlds
- Global and inter-regional conflicts, including religious conflicts, such as the Crusades, the Iberian Reconquista, and the Mongol conquests of Central Asia
- The search for love and beauty: art, poetry, music and architecture
- The development of political institutions and complex states, including the Islamic Caliphate, Chinese and Holy Roman Empires, and modern European nation-states
- Genders and sexualities, exploring topics from the development of priestly celibacy to the modern family
- A connected world; trade, disease, communication, examining the establishment of global trade networks, such as the Silk Road and the movement of people, ideas, and diseases, such as the Black Death, along it
- Beliefs: institutions and experiences, including the development of different expressions of Christianity (Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy), Buddhism, and Islam
- The role played in our modern lives by portrayals of the medieval past and how the concept of “modernity” is applied unevenly to different regions, cultures, and religions
- Skills in finding, reading and analysing primary and secondary sources, using evidence to substantiate an argument and how to create reference and bibliographical entries. How to write your own work without relying on AI generators.
Assessment strategy and rationale
This unit introduces students to historical strategies for understanding how to interpret a broad sweep of historical societies and cultures from 400 to 1500. Students will learn to analyse materials from the period to understand historical trajectories across societies globally in politics, economics, religion, society and culture. Students will complement these skills by learning how to interpret and assess historical and scholarly debates and consider how knowledge of the past is constructed.
Students will consolidate their knowledge of the social, cultural, economic, religious and political history of societies and cultures from 400 to 1500 through the ‘Medieval World History Quizzes’ task. They will demonstrate core content knowledge gained over the semester within this task.
Students will research, construct and defend a scholarly argument in the ‘Medieval World Cultures and Societies Discussion Posts’ task.
Students then build on the skills developed in the Blog Posts task to complete an independent research investigation that incorporates evidence from primary and secondary material into their analysis in the ‘Research Essay’ task.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Medieval World History Quizzes...
Assessment Task 1: Medieval World History Quizzes
Students complete a number of online quizzes that demonstrate a mastery of unit content and apply analytical skills to debates about the medieval past.
30%
Assessment Task 2: Medieval World Cultures and So...
Assessment Task 2: Medieval World Cultures and Societies Discussion Posts
Students research and construct 1 discussion post, and respond to 2 others, evaluating competing scholarly perspectives about medieval cultures and societies.
30%
Assessment Task 3: Research Essay Students demons...
Assessment Task 3: Research Essay
Students demonstrate self-directed research skills to locate and use primary and secondary materials appropriate to study of the medieval world and to communicate clearly in written or digital form to construct a written evidence-based historical argument with appropriate referencing.
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This 10-credit point can be taught in either On-campus, Multimode or Online Scheduled modes, enabling a self-paced learning approach, as well as opportunities for collaborative learning through interaction with other students. All lectures will be available for self-paced learning, however, tutorials will be at scheduled times, which will require some attendance to enable online interaction. Activities will appear in a student’s timetable.
Lectures provide students with basic content knowledge, present methodologies for interpreting source material in different media and highlight key debates in the scholarship. Lectures also establish guidance for the independent learning expected in this unit. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.
Active student participation is anticipated and encouraged in the online environment and facilitated through a specific assessment task. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous module discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers.
Tutorials are designed to provide students with a peer-to-peer learning environment in which they can discuss and debate issues and problems raised in lectures, in set readings and through their own exploration of the topics. Students consolidate their understanding, knowledge, analytical and communication skills through negotiation and interaction with both other students and staff. Tutorials may take a variety of forms, all of which provide different learning opportunities, including: working in pairs to share ideas; working in small groups for quick analysis, debate and identification of the most relevant and salient information; opportunities to brainstorm; opportunities to participate in whole group discussions; opportunities to work with source materials (primary and secondary); opportunities to learn through informal presentations. Where tutorials are online live, students will be required to have their cameras turned on.