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2021/2022

History of Women in the Middle Ages

Code: 100368 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500241 Archaeology OT 3 0
2500241 Archaeology OT 4 0
2500501 History OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Helena Kirchner Granell
Email:
Helena.Kirchner@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

There are not prerquisits

Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of this subject is to study, through different aspects (family, marriage, heritage, church, social class, labour and thought), the role of the women between the 5th and the 15th centuries in different geographic and political areas of the Western European world. Still nowadays, the historic enquiry and his explanation is done without gender perspective. The vision that the Medieval intellectuals, predominately of church, have transmitted, often excludes the women or simply is impregnated of misogyny ideas on the feminine gender. More scarce are the direct witnesses of women and even less of the farmer and working women. Even though, there are wide possibilities of enquiry by means of the written documentation generated of varied origins: from the Bible exegesis texts to wills or sale of immovable heritage documents. Also, from the archaeological point of view, there is little attention paid to these issues. In general, the historic and archaeological research on gender and women has been segregated from the main subjects of research and gender perspective is scarcely integrated in the historical narratives.

Competences

    Archaeology
  • Contextualizing and analysing historical processes.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Managing the main methods, techniques and analytic tools in archaeology.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethic relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
    History
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Identifying the main historiographical tendencies and critically analysing their development.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the key issues that allow us to address the study of historical phenomena from a gender perspective.
  2. Applying both knowledge and analytical skills to the resolution of problems related to their area of study.
  3. Applying proper techniques and analytical tools in case studies.
  4. Assessing and critically solving the characteristic historiographical problems of gender history.
  5. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  6. Critically analysing informational speeches, especially in relation to ideology and ethnocentric and sexist bias.
  7. Describing the economic, social and political structures of the Middle Ages.
  8. Effectively expressing themselves and applying the argumentative and textual processes of formal and scientific texts.
  9. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  10. Identifying main and supporting ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  11. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  12. Interpreting and analysing documentary sources.
  13. Knowing the main historiographical debates concerning the Middle Ages.
  14. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  15. Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
  16. Reading and interpreting historiographical texts or original documents and transcribing, summarizing and cataloguing information produced in the Middle Ages.
  17. Recognising and implementing the following teamwork skills: commitment to teamwork, habit of cooperation, ability to participate in the problem solving processes.
  18. Recognising diversity and multiculturalism.
  19. Recognising the importance of controlling the quality of the work's results and its presentation.
  20. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of historical processes.
  21. Solve the methodological problems posed by the use of medieval historiographical sources.
  22. Solving problems autonomously.
  23. Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
  24. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
  25. Using the specific interpretational and technical vocabulary of the discipline.

Content

1-Women history and historiography in the Middle Ages. The concepts

2-The legacy of the ideas: the Christian tradition

3-Family, kinship relationships, marriage and family estate

4-Women and church: female monasteries

5-Educated and noble women

6-Women and power: countesses, princesses and keens

7-Women and labor: peasantry, trade and crafts

Methodology

Masterly and practical sessions will be done. Practical sessions will be focused on text analyses and debates

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Supervised activities 86 3.44 22, 4, 14
Type: Supervised      
Directed activities 25 1 4, 14, 9, 17
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous activities 25 1 22, 4, 14, 17

Assessment

The assessment will consist of text comments, (30%), text comment exercises (40%) and an exam (30%). All the assessment activities are obligatory.

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed, provided they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
exam 30% 2 0.08 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 25
text comments 40% 10 0.4 1, 3, 22, 4, 13, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 14, 9, 23, 18, 20, 21, 15, 25
written essay 30% 2 0.08 6, 1, 2, 22, 4, 5, 8, 24, 10, 12, 16, 14, 23, 17, 18, 19, 21, 25

Bibliography

A. M. Aguado ... [et al.], Textos para la historia de las mujeres en España. Cátedra, 1994

M. Aurell, Les noces del comte. Matrimoni i poder a Catalunya (785-1213). Omega, Barcelona 1998

B. S. Anderson, J. P. Zinsser (Eds.), Historia de las mujeres : una historia pròpia, Madrid, Crítica, 2000, 3a ed.

G. Duby y M. Perrot (Dir.), Historia de las mujeres en Occidente, capítulos españoles bajo la dirección de Reyna Pastor. Taurus, 2000.

M.M. Rivera, Textos y espacios de mujeres (Europa siglos IV-XV). Icaria, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 1990.

C. Segura (Ed.),La Voz del silencio I. Fuentes directas para la historia de las mujeres (siglos VIII-XVIII), Asociación Cultural Al-Mudayna, 1992.

C. Segura (Ed.),La Voz del silencio II: Historia de las mujeres: compromiso y método, Asociación Cultural Al-Mudayna, 1993

F. Thébaud, Escribir la historia de las mujeres y del género.; KRK Ediciones, Oviedo, 2013.

T. Vinyoles, Història de les dones a la Catalunya medieval. Eumo Editorial, Pagès Editors, Lleida, 2005.

P. Dronke, Las Escritoras de la Edad Media, Crítica, Barcelona 1994

J.I. Saranyana, La discusión medieval sobre la condición femenina (siglos VIII al XIII). Publicaciones de la Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. Salamanca, 1997

J.M. Bennett, R M.Karras (eds.), The Oxford handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013

Software

There is not a specific software