Study Tour in France - Summer 2006
History 280 (Culture and Society in Medieval Burgundy)/
Religious Studies 280/Fine Arts 280/Humanities 280
This 200-level three-credit course will offer students an intensive and interdisciplinary exposure to the culture and society of one of the most important and influential regions of medieval Europe: Burgundy. The course will offer a topical approach to the study of the history, the religion, the architecture, the military history, and the art of medieval Burgundy, with an emphasis on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Cross-listed in three departments and one program, students can use the course to fulfill requirements in the History, Religious Studies, or Fine Arts. They also have the option of using the course to fulfill the 200-level Religious Studies requirement.
Students will be based at Pontigny, the site of the largest and most important Cistercian abbey in the region and the location of the founding of the Society of Saint Edmund in 1843. Thomas à Becket lived here in exile from 1164 to 1166, and Stephen Langdon was here for seven years (1208-1215). It is also the burial site of Saint Edmund of Abingdon. Pontigny has deep and lasting connections to Saint Michael’s College. The course will combine assigned readings, written assignments, tours to specific medieval sites, lectures by Drs. Dameron and Kinder, visits to museums and archaeological sites, and presentations by local scholars and guides arranged by Dr. Kinder. Students will have the option of adding a one-credit Applied Language Component to the normal three credits offered by course.
After several full days of study at Pontigny, students will begin to make periodic day excursions to significant sites. They may include journeys to Vézelay to tour the Romanesque basilica of La Madeleine, and to Tournus and Autun to study some of the most best examples of Gallo-Roman and Romanesque sculpture and architecture. Of major emphasis will be the study of the economy, history, and architecture of Cistercian and Benedictine abbeys in the region, especially Pontigny, Fontenay, Saint-Germain, and Paray-Le-Monial. Castles may also be on the itinerary.
For more information, see the course syllabus and brochure posted at the History Department Web site (http://academics.smcvt.edu/history/Burgundy2006.htm)
For more information, contact:
Dr. George Dameron
Department of History
Phone: 802.654.2318
fax: 802.654.2630
e-mail: gdameron@smcvt.edu