Interdisciplinary Program Brings New View to an Old Story
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The term “medieval” is often colloquially used to describe something old, out-of-date or out-of-touch with modern times. Sometimes it can connote a meaning more sinister, implying something is barbaric or inhumane, stemming from “the Dark Ages.” Or maybe it brings to mind images of knights wearing armor and jousting while onlookers cheer between bites of a giant turkey leg.
None of these depictions or even a day at a renaissance fair, however, reflects how society really was across the globe during the medieval and early modern period, spanning the years between about 400 to 1750.
“For folks who come through western tradition, the Middle Ages is this dark period when there isn’t worthwhile artistic output,” said Mikhaila Redovian, a graduate assistant in the Medieval and Early Modern Studies program at UC Davis. “It’s very Eurocentric in the first place but also really discounts a lot of the things that are happening. The renaissance doesn’t just come out of nowhere.”
Scholars in the Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) program are working to dispel the caricatures of this era by de-centering European history from the discourse and showing how, in fact, much of the world was experiencing acculturalization, or borrowing, adapting and mixing traits from various cultures.
While there were great tragedies such as the Crusades, the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War, there were also great accomplishments. This period saw the establishment of new commercial exchanges as well as large-scale migration and transfer of knowledge. It also gave rise to many modern social institutions such as universities, legal systems and capitalist economies.
Along the Silk Road, for example, Arab, Indian, Chinese, Persian and Turkish peoples, as well as Europeans, encountered and traded with one another.
"The early modern period is really cosmopolitan,” Redovian said. “It’s something that’s happening globally. There’s a lot of interchange and it’s really an exciting period that, I think, has a lot of resonances to our modern moment.”
Whether we realize it or not, the contexts in which we live in today and even our cultural habits come out of these earlier moments in time.
Shifting perspectives in the field
The MEMS program seeks to expand its traditionally Eurocentric focus by allowing students to take courses from across multiple disciplines, giving them a more nuanced and holistic perspective on this period in history.
Course descriptions are being updated to reflect these changes, according to Tiffany Jo Werth, the MEMS program director and a professor in the Department of English.
The program’s core course titles and descriptions are among those being changed. “Early Medieval Culture” (MST 020A), which included Eurocentric readings such as Beowulf and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, now also includes readings from the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Americas. The course title will change to “Intro to Late Antique and Early Medieval Worlds” (MST 020A).
Part of the proposed description states “the premise of this course is that it is impossible to understand premodern Europe without understanding major cultural and economic trends occurring elsewhere in the world, from the late antique to the medieval.”
Even the name of the program, “Medieval and Early Modern Studies,” may change in the coming years to reflect a more global history and society.
“It’s important to shift the focus to one that is more embracing of multiple cultures and we’re lucky enough at UC Davis to have the faculty to back that up across different departments,” Werth said.
Those departments include: Art and Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Cultures, East Asian Studies, Economics, English, French and Italian, German, History, Middle East and South Asian Studies, Music, Religious Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, Theatre and Dance.
Within academia, there’s debate about what programs like UC Davis’ MEMS program should call themselves and, even, how to determine the time period covered because that too is based on Eurocentric ideas.
“We are teaching our students how to be global citizens, which means learning how to talk to different cultures, how to understand different cultures and to learn within the context of different cultures. Medieval and Modern Studies is one of the few programs that really encourages students to take courses across different cultures from the same period.” – Tiffany Jo Werth
Werth hopes the program will continue to be an intellectual hub and act as a place to facilitate cross-disciplinary research and conversations between faculty and students.
A digital collection of texts and objects
Those curious about texts and objects from around the globe during these early periods can feed their curiosity by viewing Worlds Encompassed: Premodern Making and Mingling, an online exhibit based on a previous installation at the UC Davis Library that was on display from the spring quarter through September.
Inspired by Associate Professor of Chinese Yuming He’s class “The Culture of the High Middle Ages,” the exhibit is split into five sections: objects in circulation, peoples and other beings in representation, cartographical thinking, the rise of vernacular languages and literatures, and the workings of technology. It features a selection of rare books and materials from UC Davis Shields Library’s Archives and Special Collections as well as student and faculty work.
While objects in the display cases were facsimiles of older objects and texts, the library’s collection has a plethora of resources from and about this time period. For example, the Tabula Peutingeriana, a collection of 4th Century journals and texts from Padua, Italy, is estimated to be from 1195-1231. The collection also includes a copy of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies from 1632 and a facsimile of an ancient Mexican codex, Codex Nuttall, from 1902.
“One really interesting and really important element of studying these older texts is to commune with the shared challenges of what it is to be human,” Redovian said. “Because so much of our contact with the premodern comes through manuscripts, maps, and other physical materials that have survived. Utilizing the depth of resources available on campus can lead to a richer understanding of the time period."
Check out the ‘Worlds Encompassed’ online exhibit.
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