Course info

Monasticism, in all of its astonishing variety, was a key feature of nearly every landscape in the medieval West. Religious women and men and their institutions were so ubiquitous throughout the Middle Ages, in fact, that all students of medieval history, whether focusing primarily on religion, or on politics, economics, law, artistic production, or literature will necessarily encounter monasticism in their studies. This module offers honours students in History and Archaeology the opportunity for an in-depth study of medieval monasticism through the lens of both textual and material culture (including bioarchaeology, the study of human remains, interpreted broadly as material culture). We will begin with the ideological and material underpinnings of Christian monasticism with an investigation of the desert of late antique Egypt and then move right into the Middle Ages. The module is arranged thematically rather than chronologically, taking on a new topic each week, with most weeks including both textual and archaeological sources for reading and discussion.