Pillagers, Traders, Farmers, and Dragons: A Journey through the Viking World
Across the seas, in the Early Middle Ages, came the most vicious threat that the world had known to that point, at least if we believe those who wrote about the Vikings. Their raids, their myths, and their horned helmets have become part of their legacy, at least in our imaginations and in popular culture. This seminar will examine what has become known as the Viking Age. We will see it was more complex than simply being a time of raiding and pillaging. The sessions for the week will look at Scandinavian society, culture, religion, women, and many other topics from the eighth through eleventh century. After challenging our preconception and determining what life was like for Vikings, we will examine their impact on medieval Europe and the modern imagination, including the misappropriation of them in our own world. On our journey, we will see long boats, dragons, a trickster, the formation of democracy, slaves, heroes, bodyguards, and even the New World. Join in on a trip to the corners for the physical, spiritual, and perceptual corners of the medieval world.
Instructor: Nikolas O. Hoel ’99
From Sesame Street to Snap Chat: Exploring the impact of media and technology on developing children and teenagers
Over the past four decades we have seen a technological revolution, with advances in all forms of media including music, television, movies, the internet, video games, smart phones, social platforms, and much more. Children today have more access to the digital world than any generation before and tend to vastly outpace their parents’ abilities to keep up with and monitor their technology use. In this seminar we will explore child and adolescent development through the lens of daily technology exposure. Topics covered will include: infants and television viewing, young children and the internet, teens’ use of social media and smart phones, plus much more. This seminar will close with an understanding of the positive and negative influences of technology. We will discuss developing strategies that can help us protect young people as they navigate the digital world around them.
Instructor: Rachel Birmingham-Hoel, PhD
Heloise and Abelard: Loves and Lusts in the Long Twelfth Century
Heloise and Abelard -- lovers, teachers, philosophers, monastic founders, and companions inseparable even in death. Theirs is a bittersweet story of equals in passion and intellect that is emblematic of their time and place and also forever immortalized in paintings, movies, even opera. This course will explore their entangled lives first within a twelfth-century context. As we read their love poetry, letters, and monastic writings, we will examine the great Gothic cathedrals of France, other towering intellects of university circles, charismatic leaders of new monastic foundations, and cultural cross-pollination resulting from the Crusades. Finally, we will consider modern re-interpretations of Heloise and Abelard on screen, canvas, and in print as these two medieval creators continue to inspire people across the ages.
Recommended reading:
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. and ed. Betty Radice, Penguin Classics.
Instructors: Danielle Joyner and Catherine Keeneq