MedRen 2211 - Medieval Kyoto: Landscapes and Portraits

Description: Kyoto was the capital of Japan from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. Today it continues to be the site of many temples, shrines, gardens, and other cultural monuments that attest to Kyoto’s enduring cultural practices and values.  UNESCO collectively recognizes seventeen “Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto” as World Heritage Sites.

This course specifically focuses on the city’s medieval period, from its founding in 794 to the late 16^th century. This was a period in which Kyoto’s cultural identity emerged, and, in view of Kyoto as the site of national authority during this duration, the broader Japanese cultural identity.  Studying this timespan in the life of Kyoto lets us follow transformations in the lived environments of the city as it moves from imperial to shōgun military rule.  By examining literary and other works of art, we’ll also address similar cultural transformations involving aristocrats, warriors, Buddhist institutions, and merchants.  Students will have the opportunity to reflect on practices of urban historical preservation through the contemporary efforts of Kyoto’s citizens to preserve the heritage of the city.

Class: 34490
Time: TR 2:20-3:40PM
Room: Mendenhall Lab 125
Instructor: Naomi Fukumori (East Asian Languages and Literatures)

Required Texts:

1. Clancy, Judith. Kyoto City of Zen: Visiting the Heritage Sites of Japan’s Ancient Capital. Tokyo and Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle, 2012.
2. Dougill, John. Kyoto: A Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 2006.
3. Stavros, Matthew. Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan’s Premodern Capital. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014.
4. Selected literary works, including excerpts from The Tale of Genji, The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, Account of My Hut, and The Tale of the Heike

GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course

MedRen 2618 - Travel and Exploration: Narratives of Travel and Intercultural Contact in the Age of Discovery (CANCELLED)

Description: What do you know about the man who the city of Columbus is named after? This spring semester, explore the writings of Renaissance explorers like Columbus and learn how to share your findings using ArcGIS StoryMaps. This course examines how travel narratives in the “Age of Discovery” shaped Europeans’ perceptions of their own and other cultures, generated and perpetuated stereotypes, and reflected and/or challenged imperial, colonial, and nationalist discourses.

Assignments include a presentation, an essay, and an ArcGIS StoryMap.

Class: 34488
Time: TR 11:10AM-12:30PM
Room: Baker Systems 148
Instructor: Lisa Voigt (Spanish and Portuguese)

Required Texts:

1.  Mancall, Peter C., ed.  Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery: An Anthology. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.
2. Endo, Shusaku. Silence. Trans. William Johnston. New York: Picador, 2016.

GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course

MedRen 2666 - Magic & Witchcraft

Description: This course will investigate the history of magic and witchcraft from late antiquity up through the eighteenth century, when the Enlightenment supposedly disenchanted the world. We’ll be particularly attentive to three questions: how people thought about magic and what it could (and couldn’t) do, how people who could supposedly cast magic were regarded and treated by those who could not, and how magic relates to the other major ways of understanding the world: religion and science. Most of us probably don’t believe (or at least completely believe) in magic, yet millions of people in the past who were every bit as smart as us did. We’ll try to understand why and how that belief might have made enough sense in their world that some of them turned to magic to improve their lives or harm their enemies and others felt so compelled to oppose magic that they were willing to hunt down and execute those they regarded as witches. Course requirements will include regular short informal writing exercises, some of which will require you to consider the beliefs and practices we’re studying as if they were your own.

Class: 28737
Time: TR 9:35-10:55AM
Room: Hagerty Hall 180
Instructor: David Brewer (English)

GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course
GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course

Required Texts:

Kiekhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781108796897

Copenhaver, Brian P. The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. London: Penguin Classics, 2017. ISBN: 9780141393148

Levack, Brian P., ed. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2015. ISBN: 9781138774971

MedRen 5695 - Foodways of Medieval and Early Modern Europe and the Mediterranean

Description: Students will research the foodways of medieval and early modern Europe and the Mediterranean from multiple disciplinary perspectives, especially through literary and historical texts, archaeological evidence, folkloric and anthropological lenses, manuscripts and early printed books, hands-on re-creations of recipes and technologies, and the methods of experimental archaeology. Students will regularly present primary and secondary sources to the seminar. For those who are registered under the MedRen call number, the final research project may take the form of a scholarly paper, an online exhibit, or the documentation and sharing of a re-creation of a recipe or a food-related technology. The seminar experience will be enriched by guest speakers, a session in the Instructional Kitchen in the Ohio Union, and potentially field trips. (Any enrichment events that take place outside the scheduled class time will be optional.)

Readings will be made available on Carmen or through OSU Libraries. As of now, there is no plan to have students registered under the MedRen call number purchase any required textbook.

Class: 25782
Time: T 4:10-6:55PM
Room: Denney Hall 206
Instructor: Leslie Lockett (English)

MedRen 7899 - Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia

Description: MEDREN 7899 will consist of 1 credit hour per semester for attending CMRS lectures, faculty colloquia and subsequent discussions. This will amount to: 4 1-hour+ lectures by visiting professors and at least 1 internal lecture and subsequent discussion (total 3 hours per event); at least one lunch with visiting faculty member (2 hours); active involvement with the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association and its activities; and meetings with the Center director (one hour once per term). With permission of the Director other professional activities (such as attendance at appropriate conferences, on- or off-campus) may be substituted.

Prereq: Grad standing. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.

Class: 25779
Time: generally F 4:00-6:00 (in line with scheduled lectures and faculty/student colloquia)
Room: Varies - please consult the CMRS Events page for additional info
Instructor: Christopher Highley (English)