Medieval Women

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

The aim of the course is to explore the lived experiences and the textual representations of medieval women through the close examination of a range of contemporary sources.

Course objectives:

• To understand the social, cultural and political forces shaping women’s lives and experiences in the Middle Ages.
• To examine, through the study of case studies, the ways in which different medieval women conformed to or deviated from accepted social norms.
• To recognise and assess potential biases in medieval writing and the problems of historical interpretation.

The course is taught through informal lectures using PowerPoint, group discussion and small group exercises. A small amount of reading will be set each week.

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

• be familiar with a range of well-known and lesser-known female figures from medieval history, and understand how each fitted into her social, cultural and political milieu.
• have developed an ability to critically assess and evaluate the evidence for women’s lives in a range of primary sources.
• understand how medieval women were perceived and represented by their contemporaries, and appreciate the difficulties in analysing the ways in which women of the period chose to present themselves.

Students are required to write a 1500 word essay on a topic of their choice, to be agreed in advance by the tutor. They are encouraged to prepare a formative 500-word essay plan 2-3 weeks before the deadline so that feedback can be given.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Most of the Department's weekly classes have 10 or 20 CATS points assigned to them. 10 CATS points at FHEQ Level 4 usually consist of ten 2-hour sessions. 20 CATS points at FHEQ Level 4 usually consist of twenty 2-hour sessions. It is expected that, for every 2 hours of tuition you are given, you will engage in eight hours of private study.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)