Europe in the Early Middle Ages
Overview
A sample course outline may include the following topics.
Note: Content may vary according to the instructor’s selection of topics.
- Introduction
- The Roman Empire and the Crisis of the Third Century
- The Transformation of the Late Roman Empire
- From Empire to Tribal Kingdoms
- Missionaries and Monasteries
- Mediterranean Worlds
- Empire in the West: The Carolingians
- The End of the World? Division, Invasion, Reorganization
- Manors, Farms and Fields
- Economic Revival: Towns, Trade and the Clash of Cultures
- Consolidation: Kings and Emperors
- Rulers, Renewals and Revivals
- Looking Forward, Looking Back
Class sections will be divided between lectures and seminar discussions. The seminar discussion sessions will serve as a forum for the analysis and discussion of scholarly literature and as a testing ground for student hypotheses. The instructor will encourage students to elaborate, refine and revise ideas. Discussion sessions will also include tutorials in conducting historical research, the exploration of primary source documents, and practice in oral presentations. Participation in both lectures and seminar discussions is required for the successful completion of the course.
Assessment will be in accordance with the Douglas College student evaluation policy. Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.
Students will have opportunities to build and refine their research capacity and historical thinking skills through assessments appropriate to the level of the course. There will be at least three separate assessments, which may include a combination of midterm and final exams; research essays; primary document analysis assignments and essays; quizzes; map tests; in-class and online written assignments; seminar presentations; student assignment portfolios; group projects; creative projects; class participation.
The value of each assessment and evaluation, expressed as a percentage of the final grade, will be listed in the course outline distributed to students at the beginning of the term. Specific evaluation criteria will vary according to the instructor’s assessment of appropriate evaluation methods.
An example of one evaluation scheme:
Attendance, Participation, In-Class Work 15%
Seminar Presentation 15%
Primary document analyses 25%
Short analytic paper 10%
Research essay and presentation 20%
Final summative assignment 15%
At the conclusion of the course, successful students will be able to demonstrate historical thinking skills, research skills, critical thinking skills and communication skills appropriate to the level of the course by:
- Locating, examining, assessing, and evaluating a range of primary sources and secondary scholarly literature critically and analytically (reading history).
- Constructing historical arguments, taking historical perspectives, and interpreting historical problems through different types of writing assignments of varying lengths (writing history).
- Participating in active and informed historical debate independently and cooperatively through classroom discussion and presentation (discussing history).
- Independently and cooperatively investigating the ways that history is created, preserved and disseminated through public memory and commemoration, oral history, community engagement, and other forms of popular visual and written expressions about the past (applying history).
Textbooks and Course Readers may be chosen from the following list, to be updated periodically.
An instructor’s custom Course Reader may be required. Additional online resources may also be assigned. Additional reading lists and links to specific resources also may be provided online or in the instructor’s course outline.
Backman, Clifford R. A Medieval Omnibus: Sources in Medieval European History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Backman, Clifford R. The Worlds of Medieval Europe. 3rd. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Rosenwein, Barbara H. A Short History of the Middle Ages. 5th ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
Rosenwein, Barbara H., ed. Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
Requisites
Prerequisites
One 1000-level History course or permission of the instructor
Corequisites
None
Equivalencies
None
Course Guidelines
Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.
Course Transfers
These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca
| Institution | Transfer details for HIST 2203 |
|---|---|
| Alexander College (ALEX) | ALEX HIST 2XX (3) |
| Athabasca University (AU) | AU HIST 371 (3) |
| Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) | KPU HIST 2101 (3) |
| Langara College (LANG) | LANG HIST 1113 (3) |
| Okanagan College (OC) | OC HIST 120 (3) |
| Simon Fraser University (SFU) | SFU HUM 219 (3) |
| Thompson Rivers University (TRU) | TRU HIST 2XXX (3) |
| Trinity Western University (TWU) | TWU HIST 2XX (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) | UBCO HIST_O 2nd (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) | UBCV HIST_V 1st (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) | DOUG HIST 2203 (3) & DOUG HIST 2204 (3) = UBCV HIST_V 101 (6) |
| University of Northern BC (UNBC) | UNBC HIST 231 (3) or UNBC HIST 2XX (3) |
| University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) | UFV HIST 2XX (3) |
| University of Victoria (UVIC) | UVIC HSTR 236A (1.5) |
| Vancouver Island University (VIU) | VIU HIST 2nd (3) |