Module manager: Dr Rebecca Darley
Email: R.R.Darley@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as a discovery module
What would you draw if asked to make a map of your location right now? What would you include and what would you leave out? We see maps around us everywhere, from route planning in Google maps to the fire exit diagrams in public places. But has it always been like this? How did people understand and represent space before photography, satellites or global travel? The Middle Ages (c. 500-1500) is often stereotyped as a time when people had weird ideas about the shape of the world: it was flat, the sun rotated around it, people mixed up real information with myths and religious ideology. These are all misunderstandings about complex and sophisticated medieval ideas about space. They are also stereotypes perpetuated by myths of modern progress and mastery of the world - myths that supported colonial domination and exploitative strategies of globalisation. <p>Using examples drawn from East, South and West Asia, Europe and North Africa, this module examines different medieval ways of mapping and describing space. It will examine how people developed ancient cartographic techniques and invented new ones, how map makers gathered knowledge and sought to represent physical space and how people used travel guides and diagrams to move through the world. It will also unpack the representation of the world as part of larger systems of thought, whether Buddhist, Jain or Christian. Above all, we will explore the drawing of space as a political and discursive act. To represent space is to make claims on it and to assert truths about it. To understand how other people have drawn the world is to see better the ways in which political power and resistance is mapped out in our everyday lives as well.</p> <p>Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module. </p>
The objective of this module is to introduce you to different systems of medieval map-making from across Afro-Eurasia and to engage you with current historiographical debates about spatial representation as a strategy of power. The module also enable you to read medieval maps and geographical texts as expressions of space, time and identity; and to give you confidence analysing visual and textual sources from the Middle Ages.
On successful completion of the module you will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Identify and describe visual representations of space from several different Afro-Eurasian knowledge traditions.
2. Discuss maps and geographical texts as sources for exploring the worldviews, ideologies and knowledge strategies of the societies that created them.
3. Examine the political significance of map-making and representation of space in the Middle Ages and as a continuing theme in the present.
4. Write about mapping in the Middle Ages using appropriate historical terminology, style of expression and historiographical framing.
5. Apply fundamental standards and practices of historical study for research, discussion, and assessed work.
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 |
| Seminar | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Private study hours | 179.6 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20.4 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
You will receive formative feedback on their weekly exercises in order to enable you to choose the best three for expansion and final submission. You will be invited to an individual consultation with the module to discuss your approach to the assessed essay.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Essay | 60 |
| Coursework | Portfolio | 40 |
| 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: 12/05/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team