This ITEL Open Grant proposal aims to develop modules that fit not only Georgetown's envisioned new "The Global Middle Ages," course, but also offerings of nine or ten Georgetown departments. The key conceptual innovation is to expand how the Middle Ages is normally taught from a Eurocentric focus to include all of the ultimately inter- connected Old World—from Ireland to Japan, Beijing to Sri Lanka, Paris to Timbuktu. The project team, led by David Goldfrank (Prof. History/MVST), Stefan Zimmers (Asst. Dean, CAS), and Sandra Strachan-Vieira (Res. Assoc. Medieval Philosophy), aims to enhance student learning by integrating advanced technologies in order to make the experiences of distant times and places come alive without sacrificing traditional academic rigor. Using lectures, interviews, debates, and roundtables, specialists in Art History, Theology, Philosophy and a host of medieval languages and literatures will join historians to create single- or cross-civilization, graphic-enhanced modules.
The project aims to enhance student learning by developing, for a variety of Georgetown courses in different departments, digitized modules that feature Georgetown subject matter experts, and also by linking with GU-Qatar for live scholar/audience exchanges and peer-to-peer sharing of cross-cultural perspectives in a new, umbrella course, "The Global Middle Ages." By applying such tools to this subject matter, faculty can appreciably improve student learning and engagement with the material and meaningfully influence the development of cross-cultural perspectives.
