Medieval History Seminar - (Advanced level)

bhist1231a  2023-2024  Bruxelles Saint-Louis

Medieval History Seminar - (Advanced level)
6.00 credits
30.0 h
Q1 and Q2
Teacher(s)
Bousmar Eric; Desmette Philippe;
Language
French
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

The advanced level seminar aims to develop the students' skills (research, reflection, critical thinking) through a long-term research work of real scientific relevance. The Faculty of Arts aknowledges that this work has the value of a bachelor's thesis (‘travail de fin de cycle').
 
Content
This is a research seminar based on primary sources. Each student will be requested to address a specific aspect of a common theme, within the research fields of the professor and relating to medieval history. The work entrusted to third-year students is more advanced than that of second year students that follow the intermediate level seminar. Each student is invited to compare his/her results with those of the other students and to enrich his/her own work as the course and work develop. The theme and the type of sources implemented vary from one year to another. For instance: "Are the ‘Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles' at the court of the Dukes of Burgundy a faithful or a biased reflection of society?"; “Relationship, sociability, material culture, religious sensitivity and socio-political structures: Nivelles in the fifteenth century. A town as seen through its testaments.”; "Violence, honor and courage. Representations and experiences of violence through narrative sources of the late Middle Ages."; « Fiefholders in Walloon Brabant and the feodal military service for Charles the Bold (1475) ».
Teaching methods
The course takes the form of seminars, alternating joint sessions and individual work of the student on secondary literature and primary sources.
The professor will develop a research issue and framework. The students will achieve bibliographical research and state of the art. The seminar also includes supervised palaeographic initiation (in the case of original documents); critical editing of documents (if applicable); use of documents and historian argumentation; discussion sessions about the problems and results; writing of an individual piece of work.
Evaluation methods
Final written paper, following the standards of scientific writing (critical apparatus, footnotes, annexes, argumentation). The assessment also takes into account the students' participation in the discussions during the seminar sessions and an intermediate presentation of the results in an oral presentation.
Other information
Students will use the bibliographical handout of the “Heuristics of the Middle Ages” course (part of “Heuristics of the various periods of Histoy” course).
Besides the libraries of the University, the students are invited to attend different major documentary deposits nearby (such as the National Archives of Belgium and the Royal Library of Belgium) or within a reasonable distance.
Attendance to the seminar sessions is mandatory.
Bibliography
La réalisation de la bibliographie, à partir d'amorces fournies par l'enseignant, fait partie intégrante du travail de l'étudiant-e.
The writing of the bibliography, starting from the leads provided by the professor, is an integral part of the students' work.
Faculty or entity
PHLB


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Bachelor in History