ATS1316: Medieval Europe

Primary Source Analysis - 15%
Essay plan - 10%
Essay - 25%
Medieval Expo group presentation - 15%
Medieval Expo individual portfolio - 15%
Reflective Writing Piece - 10%

Plus, there were bonus marks available for completing small tasks online, or in tutorials each worth 0.5-2% each. For someone who completed every bonus task, they would be able to add an additional 7% to their final mark. I highly recommend completing as many bonus tasks as possible, even if the amount they're each worth seems insignificant. (Completing all the bonus tasks took my mark from a D to HD)

Overall the subject was quite enjoyable. There is a lot of content covered, and you're pretty much looking at a new century every week. The content covered was very interesting, focusing on the Edict of Milan, the day-to-day lives of monks living in monasteries, the Carolingian Era, Feudalism as a problematic model, Medieval Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the Crusades, medieval letter-writing, and a LOT more.

While the content was quite interesting, it was not necessary to take comprehensive notes in each lecture. Due to the nature of the assessments the only areas you need to really pay attention to are: the topic you choose to do your primary source analysis on, your medieval expo topic, and your essay topic. This was nice, because in lectures for topics I knew I wouldn't be assessed on, I was able to just really enjoy learning the content of the lectures without having to furiously jot down notes, and just note down the bits I found most interesting. The assessments are not too difficult, however you really need to have a love of history to be able to do all the research required for each assessment. For example, I did my essay on the Black Death, and as a result had to pore over book after book about the plague, and read through many primary sources from people who lived through the plague. If you were writing your essay (or doing any other assessment) on a topic you did not totally enjoy, you would probably find it difficult to maintain enough interest to do all the required background research. Also, this unit uses MHRA referencing, which is different from a lot of other arts units, so you need to get the hang of footnoting.

One thing I did not like much about this unit was the Medieval Expo- having to research a topic in a group and then having to display it for everyone in your lecture in the form of either a poster/video/podcast. While the expo itself was fun; going around and looking at everyone's work and seeing people arrive in medieval costumes, the fact that it was a group project made this task quite difficult, especially when group members wouldn't respond to emails or turn up to tutorials, and thus slowing down progress.

In contrast, the thing I liked most about this unit was just learning so so much about the Medieval period in Europe- especially a bunch of stuff I had never even given a moment of consideration to (such as the structuring of letters). Also a lot of the primary sources we had to look at were just really cool, and sometimes pretty funny just reading about things that people in Medieval Europe believed/thought.

Overall, if you like history, or have any interest at all in the Medieval period, I would really really recommend this unit. If you don't super love history, or the Medieval period, you will possibly find some of the content a bit dry and not be totally engaged.

Kathleen Neal- she's really cool and made lectures super interesting. Occasionally brought in guest lecturers who were also pretty good

No, because there was no exam

3.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Just the unit reader which has all the sources that will be referred to throughout the unit

1 x 1 hour tutorial
1 x 2 hour lecture

Semester 1, 2016

84 HD

Short multiple choice test held in the lecture (10%)
1500 word historiography exercise (25%)
500 word response to questions on one week's readings and short group tute presentation on one or two of those questions (10%)
1500 word research essay (30%)
In-class test; 750 - 1000 word essay based on extracts from the documents in the course reader and a general essay question (25%)

While this wasn't my favourite subject, it was certainly a good break from my other very contemporary subjects, and covered a wide range of topics within the medieval period. I now know a lot more about farming methods, monks who behave like Disney princes (Francis of Assisi, always communicating with animals...), and the origins of modern religious practices than I ever would have otherwise. The readings were tedious at times, mainly due to the apparent inability of medieval writers to STOP RAMBLING (I kid you not, at one point in a primary document, the writer admitted how awful his writing was and then said that he intended to continue on anyway :tickedoff:), but the lecture quality was very high and the tute discussions interesting. The assessment is not difficult, as knowledge outside of the lecture/reading content is not required. While I am not continuing onto the second-semester unit Renaissance Europe, I would still recommend this unit, as I found it refreshing to study the medieval period after four years of modern history in high school.

Clare Monagle, Constant Mews, Carolyn James, and a number of other guest lecturers.

Yes; we were given the previous year's in-class test two weeks prior to ours, so we were familiar with the format, and had the opportunity to write a practice essay.

4 out of 5.

Yes, with screen capture.

Only the course reader was required for this subject, and you will need it, as it contains all of the primary and secondary documents studied in the unit, including the documents off which the historiography exercise and in-class test are based.

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tute per week.

Semester 1, 2011.

90 (HD).