CUL 385 Cultural Identities in Mediterranean Europe

IAU's January Term (J-Term) Traveling Seminar promotes visual literacy in the history, art and archaeology as well as philosophical literature from the Mediterranean Basin from Antiquity to Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. It cultivates strong research and critical thinking skills, and develops students? abilities to synthetize cultural, historical, political, and social information as it bears upon the visual arts. The academic component consists of a series of on-site studies made by academic experts from IAU in addition to local guides and experts in the field of history, art history and archaeology.

Course Objectives:
a) Understanding the historical development of the Ancient World and aspects of the Medieval and Renaissance periods;
b) Learning the disciplinary approaches of History from a critical perspective;
c) Knowing how to read and interpret primary sources (ancient texts) in the context of other surviving forms of evidence;
d) Understanding the major transformations in Europe from Antiquity to Renaissance in a social, economic, religious, and cultural framework.