Schools in Transition

About

How did early monasticism transform, adopt, and adapt patterns of schooling in the ancient world? How was it innovative in its approach to education?

This interdisciplinary and international summer school introduces students to the study of this key transition in Western intellectual and religious history through the study of a broad range of textual and material evidence, current approaches to situational learning, and results in the study of early Western monasticism.

Comparison with the contemporary institution of the Late Antique school introduces students to the cultural and social worlds in which monasticism developed, and prompts reconsideration of continuities and discontinuities between these two institutions of formation.

The school’s research-based approach introduces the structures, resources, ritual practices, disciplinary programs, textual practices, materials (including manuscripts), and spaces of situated learning. Through expert-led tours of the Vatican Library, late antique sites of Rome, and the Abbey of Montecassino, students gain on-site experience of sources and sites important their own research. Time is provided for participants to undertake their own research while in Rome.

The school, which is offered through the Dutch Research School of Medieval Studies and the University of Groningen Summer Schools, is a collaboration with the students and faculty of the Medieval Institute and the Center for Italian Studies of the University of Notre Dame (USA).

Course leader

Dr Andrew J. M. Irving (University of Groningen), Dr Sabina Rosenbergová (University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân) & Prof. W. Martin Bloomer (University of Notre Dame)

Target group

The school is designed for PhD researchers, and MA students. It is explicitly interdisciplinary: medieval studies, history, classics and philology, manuscript studies, religious studies and theology, history of architecture/archaeology, or with an interest in the history of schooling and/or monasticism.

It is expected that the participants have a sufficient command of the English language to actively participate in the discussions and to present their own work in English.

Course aim

After this course you will be able to:
1. Identify key concepts, texts, and figures in transitions in schooling in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages
2. Critically situate scholarship on schooling and early monasticism in historical scholarship
3. Identify and evaluate shifting spatial pratices in situated learning in the period
4. Identity and apply at least one methodoly/approach outside their home discipline to their own research agenda in the field
5. Identify and apply at least one new theoretical approach to the study of situated learning in the period.

Workload
- Preparation: 40 hours
- Lectures, presentations, and tours: 56 hours
- Short paper: 44 hours

Upon successful completion of the programme, the Summer School offers a Certificate of Attendance that mentions the workload of 140 hours (28 hours corresponds to 1 ECTS). Students can apply for recognition of these credits to the relevant authorities in their home institutions, therefore the final decision on awarding credits is at the discretion of their home institutions. We will be happy to provide any necessary information that might be requested in addition to the certificate of attendance.

Fee info