The medieval summer programme in Cambridge offers students from all over the world the opportunity to work with the finest British medievalists

Now in its 20th year, this programme offers an unparalleled opportunity for students to work with the finest British medievalists. Course Directors encourage you to develop your own arguments about big historical issues while helping you to understand the complexities of the chosen field.

 

Medieval Studies Summer Programme
30.07.2016 – 13.08.2016
Programme Director: Dr Rowena E Archer
Application deadline: 10.07.2016

The academic programme

Four special subject courses (two for each week)
Plenary course KN0: Towns and Cities

Evening talks
Special subject courses

Courses are offered in defined topics in art, architecture, history, literature, religion, trade and health. You choose two courses per week, each has five sessions. Courses are led by recognised experts from the University of Cambridge and other British universities.

Week 1:
11.00am – 12.30pm
Ka1 – Scandal, politics and glamour: courts and courtiers in medieval Europe, 1200-1500
Ka2 – England’s wine: vineyard to table
Ka3 – Women and the medieval book: writers, makers and readers
Ka4 – Discovering the medieval world through Chaucer

2.00pm – 3.30pm
Na1 – Scandal, politics and glamour: courts and courtiers in medieval Europe, 1200-1500
Na2 – Medieval libraries
Na3 – The Early Anglo-Saxons, before Alfred the Great
Na4 – Pigments: hidden sources of power in medieval paintings

Week 2:
11.00am – 12.30pm
Kb1 – The reform and rise of the papacy, 1000-1215
Kb2 – The medieval palace
Kb3 – Opposing the king in later medieval England
Kb4 – Reading medieval letters

2.00pm – 3.30pm
Nb1 – The reform and rise of the papacy, 1000-1215
Nb2 – The Black Death
Nb3 – Reading Old English poetry, now and then
Nb4 – Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Gascon Question, 1152-1453

Plenary lectures
All participants attend the plenary lecture series given by recognised experts focusing on Towns and Cities. Subjects will include medieval Paris, Byzantium and London; town law, taverns and trade; and the archaeology of towns and cities. These lectures form an additional integrated course, for all participants. Invited speakers and provisional include:

Professor Carole Rawcliffe: History down the drain: a new approach to late medieval urban health
Professor Carole Rawcliffe: ‘Poky pigges and stynkyng makereles’: food standards in late medieval English towns and cities
Dr Rowena Archer: Medieval Paris
Dr Ted Powell: “Havoc! Havoc! Smyte fast and gyf gode knocks!” Urban disputes in late medieval England
Dr David Rundle: Urbanity: what civilisation owes to 15th-century cities
Dr Francis Woodman: Novgorod: East meets West
Professor Caroline Barron, on London
Julian Munby, on town archaeology
Dr Mark Whittow, on Byzantine cities

Evening talks
Other talks of general interest are shared with participants on concurrent programmes. Planned topics include:

• A conversation with Louis de Bernières
• Remembering Shakespeare
• An introduction to Cymbeline