Module manager: Dr Catherine Batt
Email: c.j.batt@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as an Elective
In this module you will explore medieval culture’s profound interest in the human body, which is conceptually grounded in understandings of medicine, of (more permeable) boundaries between the human and the non-human, of ethnicity and of gender, different from modern assumptions. You will engage interdisciplinary with a range of evidence--textual, visual, and material—to appreciate what distinguishes medieval from post-medieval culture and how knowledge of the former nevertheless enriches and informs our present.
To help students understand cultural approaches to the Middle Ages, providing methodological underpinnings for their research. It will introduce them to working with evidence in different media: (1) textual, (2) visual and (3) material evidence. It will introduce them to working with different themes: for example, hagiography; spiritual selfhood; the monstrous; interactions between Christians, Jews and Muslims; medicine; and medievalism. It will introduce them to key readings in cultural theory: for example: gender, ethnicity, postcolonialism, disability studies, animal studies.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Critically analyse ancient and medieval theories and perceptions of the body.
2. Assess effectively a wide range of medieval cultures, of different social strata, both within and beyond Western Europe.
3. Evaluate and engage productively with advanced theoretical models in a chosen historical context.
4. Compare and reflect on a range of media and genres through which medieval people constructed the past, and how their choice of medium/genre shaped that construction.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
5. Academic: handle a variety of data sets and applying (even interrogating) theoretical principles to them.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Lectures | 10 | 0.5 | 5 |
| seminars | 10 | 1.5 | 15 |
| Private study hours | 279.6 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20.4 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
You will be given written feedback on two in-class presentations (both typically using slides). The first presentation will be on a visual primary source early in the module and will help students prepare for the primary source essay. The second presentation towards the end of the module will be on the same topic as their second summative essay, which is conceived as scaffolding activity for the essay.
You will also have the opportunity to meet with your tutor for one-to-one meetings to get feedback on your approach to each assignment prior to the deadlines.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Primary source analysis | 40 |
| Coursework | Discursive essay | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 28/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team