Belief was a powerful force in early modern societies. In this deeply religious age, the European Reformations unleashed divisive and contested debates about what true, orthodox belief constituted, such that people were even willing to die for it. Yet this was also a world imbued with belief in the superstitious and the supernatural, a world of witches, demons and angels. This module will focus on how the often multifaceted aspects of belief shaped the lives and social relationships of ordinary women and men. We will consider how different social groups, especially those, like women or peasants, whose voices for a long time were marginalised from mainstream historical accounts, responded to changes in religious belief enacted by the Reformations and how this could inspire or restrict them. In addition to our main focus on Europe including the British Isles, we will also consider confrontations of Christian with non-Christian beliefs in the global context of a colonising, missionary age. Throughout the module, we will think about where the boundaries lay between the true and the false, the miraculous and the deceptive, the rational and the irrational. You will read miracle accounts, witchcraft trials and Devil Books and have the opportunity to turn the pages of some of the College’s collection of sixteenth-century printed books.

Course Leader: Dr David Gwynn

Email: David.Gwynn@rhul.ac.uk

Office: 0-01B International Building

Lecturing team:

JL - Dr Julia Leikin (Julia.Leikin@rhul.ac.uk)

Office: International Building 045

Consultation and feedback hours: Mondays 11-12, Friday 2-3.

ES - Dr Emily Steinhauer (Emily.Steinhauer@rhul.ac.uk)

Consultation and feedback hours: Mondays, Thursdays 11-12

RP - Dr Robert Priest (Robert.Priest@rhul.ac.uk)

Consultation and feedback hours: by appointment.

HS2023 

The Shock of the New: European Culture and Society 1789-1905

Course leader: 

Dr Robert Priest

robert.priest@rhul.ac.uk

International Building 036

Feedback and Consultation Hours: T.B.C.

Europe underwent a ‘food revolution’ in the Middle Ages. Between c.1100 and c.1300 the production, supply, preparation and consumption of food underwent huge changes. In the early Middle Ages the diet of even the wealthy and powerful was monotonous and based on local and seasonal supplies. By c.1400, however, courts vied to outdo each other in extravagance and pageantry, and the first celebrity chefs were even writing their own cookbooks. The revival of long-distance trade, improvements in shipping technologies and extensive contacts with new cultures as a result of territorial expansion in the eastern Mediterranean had brought a wealth of new ingredients – such as cumin, pepper, ginger, cinnamon - and new cooking methods, to the tables of western Europe. In the thirteenth century we see the first recipes for pasta, and the revolutionary blending of flowers and fruit with meat. The increasing prosperity of the nobility and mercantile classes, in turn, ushered in a period of conspicuous consumption that increased demand for exotic spices and new recipes. At the same time, however, the ideal of voluntary fasting and of simple eating remained a powerful spiritual inducement to some, and an exemplar of ‘the good life’ for others. Advocates of spiritual and bodily health urged the benefits of simplicity in cooking, and use of ‘natural’ ingredients. Moreover, the spectre of famine from failed harvests was never far away, as population increase before c.1300 put increasing pressure on agricultural resources. As in our own world, feast, fast and famine operated in precarious balance with each other. This course explores the development and expansion of Europe through food: how and why tastes changed; how new technologies and socio-economic change underpinned cultural change; and what contemporaries thought about eating and drinking.

This module introduces students to digital technologies that have been applied to historical studies. Through lectures, practical workshops and seminars we will develop a grounding to the range of different approaches that have been used for both research and public engagement to study the past. Over ten weeks we will consider a different approach, some high profile projects that have applied them, practical and ethical considerations from using them, and in some cases have a go ourselves. After introducing Digital Histories and the Digital Humanities more broadly we will move on to focusing on specific themes including: digital archives and databases, GIS and WebMapping, 3d recording and the digital museum, making 3d models and 3d printing, 3d modelling and “reconstructions” and multisensory digital pasts. As we learn different skill sets students will design a project which uses a digital approach to either answer a specific research question or to be used for public engagement which alongside the write up will form the final assessment for the module. 

Students will come away understanding that digital approaches are not independent to historical research but are powerful tools that have the potential to unlock new avenues into research and allow different approaches to a range of research questions. While they will develop their skills they will also learn correct application and understand the importance of not applying digital approaches for the sack of a digital approach but instead know when a technique or methodology might support a research question.

Course Leader: 

Dr Emily Manktelow

Email: emily.manktelow@rhul.ac.uk

Office: International Building 001C

Course Leader: Dr Alex Windscheffel. Seminar Leader: Chloe Storer

Email: a.windscheffel@rhul.ac.uk

Office: International Building 0-40