C O U R S E D E S C R I P T I O N S
L G E N E R A L COURSES Resident faculty
presentations. During the semester, students compile bibliographies pertinent to their research interests and write summaries, outlines for oral presentations, introductions to their thesis topics, rhetorical analyses, and seminar papers. In addition, the basic techniques of public speaking are discussed, and students gain experience developing their own presentation styles.
Mary Beth L . Davis
Academic Writing for Medievalists I I
Writing the M.A. Thesis and the Research Proposal
This winter term course i n academic writing meets only four times as a full group, and during these sessions, the overall structure of the M . A . Thesis and the com
ponents of a successful research proposal are reviewed and analyzed. In addition, all students attend weekly writing tutorials during which they review and revise the required assignments, namely, the thesis chapter that presents the "critical evalu
ation of the sources," a research proposal, and the academic excursion essay.
Mary Beth L . Davis
Ph.D. Advanced Academic Writing: Writing for the Profession
This course is required for all "probationary Ph.D. students" as it is designed for advanced graduate students who intend to continue i n the academic profession after obtaining the Ph.D. degree, whether teaching at universities or as researchers at institutions. In addition, the overall purpose is to prepare students to write for an international medievalist audience. Thus, individual classes focus on such topics as the book review, the conference paper and abstract, the journal article and query letter, the research proposal, the curriculum vitae, and project descriptions. The course is also a "workshop" in which students prepare materials from their previous research with the purpose of publication and/or conference presentation.
József Laszlovszky Excursion Consultation
The Academic Excursion credits imply the preparation for the field trip (April 19-25, 1998) to important archaeological, historical and cultural monuments of the region, and include the presentation of a background paper on one of these sites or related problems as well as the participation in compiling a field trip guide (ground plans, literature, major dates etc.). Every shident is also assigned some scholarly task during the excursion.
During the excursion of this academic year we are going to visit north-eastern Hungary, Slovakia and southern Poland. Introductory lectures related to this regions are offered in the first part of the semester to help students to find their excursion
topic. The list of excursion topics are given to the students i n the first part of Octo
ber. Every student should select one topic from this list and work on the excursion paper with the help of professors indicated i n the topic list. The written assignment for the first semester is to submit the preliminary bibliography of the selected topic.
Practical questions related to this bibliography are discussed by Mary Beth Davis i n the Academic Writing course.
II. R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S Resident and visiting faculty
Introduction to the Sources and Bibliography of Medieval Studies
This course, the core of the Research Methods program, aims at familiarizing the students with the major reference works i n medieval studies, especially the general and special source collections and the different repertories, bibliographies, and other aids (dictionaries, glossaries, etc.). The first few weeks are devoted to an overview of written and non-written sources ("typology") and the structure of the great collec
tions (MGH, Patrologia, etc.). Thereafter, the tools for the study of written sources (palaeography, epigraphies, diplomatics) and the major reference works for different fields of medieval studies (art, archaeology, everyday life, economic history, Latin and vernacular literatures, philosophy, theology, and so on) are introduced. Consid
ering the limited time (usually one session per "field"), instructors concentrate on pointing out the advantages and shortcomings of the reference works and handbooks and supply a selected bibliography (collected i n a. Handbook for the course, which also lists the shelfmarks in Budapest libraries). It is hoped that these short introduc
tions will enable students to start finding information on a specific issue of medieval civilization even outside their main field of study. Assignments demand work i n the libraries, the use of reference works i n different ways, and familiarity with various types of sources and literature.
Tamás Faragó
Historical Demography
This course is a comparative study of historical demography extending from Germany to West to the border of European Russia in the East. Regular themes of the historical demography and population history are discussed. Emphasis is placed on sources and on new historical methods and problems, rather than on chrono
logical events. The lectures provide a brief introduction to the assigned topic: give structure, definitions and pose the important problems. We also analyse a couple of
contemporary sources (short texts) or some subsequent primary/secondary source publications (maps, tables or graphs).
György Geréby and Ben Schomakers Medieval Philosophy
The course serves as an introduction to some basic issues i n the philosophical thought of the Latin West between the 11th and the 14th centuries. Presentations are based on short texts (if possible, i n translations, but in some cases we read latin texts), introduced by a general analysis of the problem to be discussed, and followed by discussion of the problems.
The following topics are discussed: the organisation of philosophical and theological learning at the medieval universities; Aristotle and Plato in the Middle Ages; the idea of language and the role of logic. Special attention is paid to the topic of the universals, to faith and reason: the case of Aquinas and Ockham, to the concepts of illumination and abstraction (Augustine and Bonaventura vs. Aristotle and Aquinas). A n overview on contemporary views on natural philosophy: creation and the eternity of the world, the problem of divine omnipotence as well as the soul and the problem of the active intellect is also provided.
Gerhard Jaritz
Computing for Medievalists
The course concentrates on the application of databasing i n medieval historical research, particularly by using the database management system "KLEIO" that has been developed at the "Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte" in Göttingen (Germany). We combine methodological discussions with extensive possibilities for practical work.
At first, the example of the description, documentation and analysis of pictorial sources play the main role, followed by the management of the contents of written sources like account books, testaments, inventories or chronicles. The usage of the students' "own" sources being relevant for their master theses, for their research projects, etc. is appreciated and supported. Major emphasis is put on the necessity to stay as close to the sources as possible.
We concentrate on the following features: Easy and more complex data retrieval, indexes, catalogues and codebooks, full text analysis, the integration of pictorial sources, and digital image analysis.
Gerhard Jaritz
Gender in the Middle Ages
The course concentrates on the phenomenon of gender as a social category in the Middle Ages. It deals with the female and the male, and their roles i n medieval society. The female, domestic and the male, non-domestic space played a decisive part as criteria of différenciation. Various extensions of domestic space, however, may have lead to relevant spheres of women i n non-domestic; "public" life.
Naturally, any levels of power were well connected with components of gender. The phenomena of ideal, image, norm and practice, and their representation is considered and analysed; their differences, ambuiguities, and ambivalences are interpreted. We discuss developments and changes. Problems of the perception and image of sexuality are also dealt with. At the end of the course, it should have become evident that any field of medieval history has to be seen as indispensably and decisively connected with various gender-specific phenomena.
Gábor Klaniczay Historical Anthropology
The aim of the course is to present this fairly new approach to historical sources and problems. We discuss together writings by anthropologists on historical problems and by historians using anthropological methods. The first classes concentrate on defining the aims and methods of historical anthropology such as ritual, symbol, body, marginalty and witchcraft. Discussions on the individual topics emphasize the methodological relevance of anthropology. The course also aims at making the participants experiment with similar questions on their own materials.
József Laszlovszky
Medieval Archaeology and Architecture
The aim of the course is to present the basic methods of medieval archaeology' i n the form of case studies. The first part of the seminar is the description of methods (dating, stratigraphy, cemetery analysis, etc.) and the case studies represent different fields (church archaeology, settlements, castles, etc.) of medieval archaeology as well. In the second part of each seminar archaeological documentation are discussed.
The other aspect of the course is the connection between architectural history and medieval archaeology. We examine medieval monuments and pay special attention to the methods of architectural archaeology (archaeological interpretation of standing buildings). The purpose is to understand the relationship between the methods and techniques of monuments analysis and field archaeological methods.
Balázs Nagy and Hanna Zaremska Economic and Social History Part 1 - Economic History
The economic history course concentrates on the economic changes of the countries of East Central Europe between the 10th-14th centuries. The main task of the course is to follow the economic-commercial integration of the countries of the above mentioned region. The method of the instruction is determined mainly by the parallel analysis of sources and literature. The program of the course starts with the 'prehistory', i.e. from the late Carolingian period and continues with the later development. It includes: Commercial connections i n East Central European (before the 13th century) mining of precious metals and its consequences, trend of economic integration in the 14th century, commodities in the transcontinental trade, the role of south German and Italian merchants in the region, effects of the Black Death and the influence of the economic crisis of the 14th century, economic activities i n East Central Europe as reflected by the accounts of foreign travellers and merchants.