2025-26, Term 1: Renaissance Europe

This interdisciplinary module, (formerly Movement, Revolution and Conflict), will introduce students to the complex ways in which Renaissance Europeans understood and interacted with the physical world around them. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of textual, visual, and archival sources, spanning broad geographical contexts (Spain, France, Italy, England, Germany, and the Americas), and disciplinary approaches (History, History of Art, Intellectual History, History of Science, Ecohistory and environmental studies, literature, and religion).

The Renaissance (1400-1700) registered profound transformations in people’s attitudes towards knowledge, artisanship, and nature. Innovative technologies in navigation and printing allowed people and information to travel faster and further than ever before. Humans became increasingly aware of their place in nature and their impact on the physical environment (seen both on a global scale and in the relationship between city and countryside). A utilitarian approach towards nature and its resources coexisted with broader cultural notions that saw humans and societies as microcosms, profoundly shaped by their environments. This was a period of religious reforms, of artistic developments, of interaction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ environments and frameworks of thought, of land interventions and unpredictable climatic shifts.

The course will expose students to a multitude of intertwined topics, including religious and magic views of nature; tensions between indigenous knowledge and dominant authorities; response to changes posed by specific climatic conditions and foreign ecologies; environmental configurations of the early modern society; food and exploitation of natural resources (hunting, fishing, and farming); gemstones and natural philosophy. By looking at the interconnection of Renaissance culture with its diverse ecologies, this course hopes to ultimately inform new ways of thinking about our present relationship with the natural world. Module convenor, Dr Delia Moldovan.

Classes are on Monday afternoons, 4-6pm, room tbc

Module codes are: RS201-15 (intermediate year students) and RS301-15 (final year students)i

Assessment method is 100% essay. Yr 2 students-1 x 3500-word essay chosen from a list of given titles; Yr 3 students-1 x 4000–4500 word essay, on a freely chosen topic determined in consultation with the module convenors and/or tutors.

To register your interest in either (or both) modules, please complete the short form HERE.