Dr. Paula R. Curtis

@cerydel is teaching a literature course right now, “Global Middle Ages” and having students create a website using StoryMap (an ArcGIS platform) to examine what a “literary history” of the “Global Middle Ages” might look like.

Rydel recognizes the title itself is a problem (what do we mean by GMA?), then, there’s the question of who’s qualified to teach global (see our previous thread about locking people into departmental boundaries). Also, aesthetic categories/lit genres are problematic/limiting.

In addition, for experimental courses like this, there’s a question of who gets to “experiment”—not everyone pre-tenure will get the chance to tackle this type of innovative format and its outcomes, or has the digital support specialists.

Core questions emerged about how to make this course inclusive (in content, in who (financially) can afford textbooks, etc.)

It's through speaking outside of literature to people in other disciplines that Rydel has been able to really round out issues of presentation when building a geographically inclusive syllabus.

Her syllabus asks 3 driving questions: 1) when are the “Middle Ages” and what happened? What were important places for "medieval" writers? How were they connected by trade, travel, pilgrimage? What languages/cultures/religions unite them? What conflicts separate?

2) Can we trace histories of literary genres c. 700-1500? Who wrote "medieval" literature that has entered the Anglo-American canon? What gets translated into English and anthologized? Emphasized? Excluded? How can lit analysis help to understand aesthetics, themes, etc?

3) Can we imagine a Global Middle Ages using European time to talk about N. Africa/Asia? How can we use research skills and lit analysis to read more widely? How can we participate in public humanities scholarship?

The course also incorporated this great interactive map of trade routes: https://merchantmachine.co.uk/medieval-trade-routes/ …

@cerydel seeks to center *space* and *geography,* not just time—in this way, the course structure disrupts the typical progression of literary history, anticipating a move from past to present.

Students have started putting together GIS projects and will eventually be developing StoryMaps with the travel narratives they read. They're able to link images, add captions and explanations to narrativize their experiences of the literature.

Part of this is acknowledges that time/periodization, of course, is an artificial marker that shifts, and we have to note that in the literature we may never get something truly “global” or totally representative.

This raises the question of what we SHOULD achieve—students get to ask this, and experience the frustrations that come with it! Which is a great thing for the learning process.