Unit information: Medieval Universities: Knowledge and Power in Western Europe 1200-1450 (Level I Lecture Response Unit) in 2011/12

Unit name	Medieval Universities: Knowledge and Power in Western Europe 1200-1450 (Level I Lecture Response Unit)
Unit code	HIST25022
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Wei
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The first European universities emerged in Paris and Bologna around 1200. By 1300 there were about eighteen universities, by 1400 just over thirty, and by 1500 over sixty. This unit will explore the many transformations that this apparently straightforward expansion involved.

We will analyse universities as communities, looking at the formation of distinctive senses of (masculine?) identity, internal power structures and student life.

We will look at different theories of knowledge, considering the extent to which ideas about certain knowledge were challenged by women and men writing in vernacular languages on the margins of the university.

We will explore the role of universities in society: ideas about money, sex and power that were communicated to the rest of society; the careers of university men outside the university; the authority that gave universities and university masters key roles in national and international politics; and finally universities as focal points for dissent.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• To provide a broad grounding in the history of Western Europe 1200-1450 and to make students familiar with the various roles which universities played in medieval society and politics
• To enable students to test different interpretations of the ways in which medieval universities functioned.
• To develop students’ ability to read complex and technically difficult texts.
• To provide a particular perspective from the tutor to which students can react critically and build their own individual views and interpretations.
• To give students an understanding of key aspects of medieval intellectual history, while engaging with issues currently being debated by historians.

Teaching Information

Weekly 2-hour interactive lecture sessions Tutorial feedback on essay Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in consultation hours

Assessment Information

A 3000 word essay (50%) and 2-hour unseen written examination (50%) will assess the student’s understanding of the ways in which historians have interpreted developments in the field; test their ability to think critically and develop their own views and interpretations; and test their knowledge of educational institutions, ideas and the role of intellectuals in medieval society.

Reading and References

A. B. Cobban, The Medieval Universities: Their Development and Organization (London, 1975) J. Le Goff, Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, trans. T. L. Fagan (Oxford, 1993) D. E. Luscombe, Medieval Thought (Oxford, 1997) J. Marenbon, Later Medieval Philosophy (1150-1350) (London, 1987) H. de Ridder-Symoens (ed.), A History of the University in Europe. Volume I: Universities in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1992) L. Thorndike, University Records and Life in the Middle Ages (New York, 1944)