Mapping Medieval Adventures: Travel, Faith, and the Silk Road

Catalog description

This course explores how geography and religion shaped each other in the medieval world in several ways, including through the study of map-making in the Middle Ages to consider what they reveal about religious and cultural worldviews. We will also critically examine travel accounts of medieval travelers, considering how class, gender, cultural heritage, ethnicity, religion, economics, and politics shaped their perspectives, as well as use modern tools like ArcGIS and StoryMaps to create our own maps of the medieval world. Throughout the course, students will engage with historical documents, religious texts, and theological ideas to better understand sacred landscapes, diverse communities of faith, and the ways religious sites gained meaning across time.