The IEM’s teaching range for 2020-2021

1st cycle teaching range:

The IEM will this year again be providing, in both semesters, and for a maximum of 3 students per semester, the Atelier de Iniciação à Investigação (I e II) (Initiation to Research Workshop I and II) as optional CUs. These workshops aim to integrate undergraduate students into projects taking place in the IEM, thus promoting their active insertion into the world of research work. This year, there are openings for students to collaborate on three high impact projects: CISTERHOR- Studying and characterising a medieval scriptorium (1 place), the project Diplomats and Diplomacy- Travel and Travellers (1 place) and the project carried out in collaboration with Princeton University, to complete the iconographic database of Portuguese materials (1 place). The objective here is to provide undergraduates with a vocation as medievalists with an introduction to the day-to-day work of research.

This year, in a new option for the first semester, other undergraduate students may also benefit from two new courses, one for research, taught in English, and open to 5 undergraduate students, and the other, here a more traditional course, taught in Spanish and with 25 places:

1. The Applied Digital Humanities: Exploring Medieval Text and Culture,  a seminar run by the Fernão Lopes Portal’s hosts, Amélia Hutchinson and Tiago Viula Faria, inviting students to discover the intersections between Literary and Historical Studies through studying the rich context and content of the Fernão Lopes Chronicles and working at the interface between more classical studies and the Digital Humanities. Students will be invited to work directly on the Fernão Lopes Portal and thus become familiar with the issues and problems derived from such an approach.

2. Didáctica de la Cultura Medieval Ibérica taught by Francisco Diaz Marcilla and aimed especially at students in the Spanish Studies module of the BA in Languages, Literatures and Cultures. The focus of this course is on didactics, with a view to improving pedagogic skills for the Spanish language classroom. Moreover, the CU will complement the “cultural” strand of this area of study, whereas the subjects linked to the Culture block of the LLLC aim only at the study of history. There is no specific chair for medieval Spanish literature and culture enabling the acquisition of knowledge about the first writings in vernacular languages (Castilian, Galician, Catalan or Basque), whether poetic, narrative or philosophic. The difference to this CU stems from the linkage of cultural contents with didactic methods and techniques as the means of deepening knowledge on Spanish culture.

In addition to the courses detailed above, in the 2020-2021 academic year, FCSH undergraduate students may also benefit from the opening of the following options taught by IEM researchers on FCSH programs (both 2nd semester):

– History of the Cultures and Mentalities of the Middle Ages;

– History of the al- Andalus.

2nd cycle teaching range:
This year, we are again running the two Ateliers de Investigação (I e II) (Research Ateliers I and II) for 2nd cycle students (in both semesters) in which selected Master’s Degree students are to work actively as researchers on the History, History of Art, Literature and Archaeology projects hosted by the IEM.

3rd cycle teaching range:
This year, and for the first time, the IEM is running a 3rd cycle Seminar. Taught by Paulo Lopes, the research seminar “Viagem, circulação e mobilidade na Idade Média: fontes, práticas, representações e imaginário” (Travel, circulation and mobility in the Middle Ages: sources, practices, representations and imaginary) aims to complete gaps in the literature addressing the critical study of travel, circulation and mobility in the medieval period. This is a highly pertinent topic, given the multifaceted phenomenon of migration that is today taking place, particularly in the Mediterranean basin and on the southern border of the United States. Throughout the sessions, doctoral students are to gain an understanding of how, contrary to the perspective prevailing for a long period of time, the medieval world was not closed off but rather incessantly traversed, both internally and in relation to places outside of Latin Christianity. In other words, the student should internalise the notion that, alone or in groups, travellers as diverse as the pilgrims, knights, ecclesiastics, explorers or the many merchants of the cities that emerged in the Europe of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries crossed paths and completed itineraries, exchanging experiences, techniques, knowledge and ideas which, as a whole, contributed to the progressive affirmation of a singular civilisation.

Find out about the contents of these CUs on the FCSH website and come and do your study and research with us!