Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university.

Learning outcomes

After completion of the course, the students should be able to:

• analyse and compare Medieval urban societies in the Baltic region and Eastern Mediterranean from interdisciplinary and intra-disciplinary perspectives
• identify, combine and discuss material, visual and written sources on cultural, socioeconomic and political relations among urban settlements in maritime environments  
• engage with up-to-date theoretical and methodological approaches from medieval history, art history, and archaeology in collaborative contexts  
• contextualise modern and contemporary receptions of the studied urban settlements in historiography, the heritage domain, artistic production, and popular culture

Content

This course explores Byzantium and large towns from the East Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea in a comparative and diachronic perspective during the Medieval period. Common to these towns is that they are built on maritime relations and that they, as nodes in larger sea-based networks, develop their own urban lifeworlds and interfaces. The purpose of this course is to study and compare the development of these urban environments and their diverse cultural expressions in material, visual, and textual sources. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the course problematises the social and spatial dynamics of these towns, their structural elements, cultural and economic exchanges, as well as their significance as nodes in larger networks. The course will also examine medieval towns as cultural heritage; and as modern and contemporary reception in arts and popular culture, conservation and historiography.

Instruction

The course is designed to accommodate advanced-level students with various academic backgrounds in the humanities. Notably, this course incorporates virtual and distance learning as a core component. The teaching consists of seminars and lectures with written and oral assignments. All teaching is offered in English.

Assessment

Assessment is on-going through oral and written presentations, individually or in groups. Active participation in seminars and group presentations is included in the assessment.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special circumstances might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.