Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2020 - HUM 340 D200

Great Cities in Their Time (4)

Constantinople/Istanbul

Class Number: 8150

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 9 – Dec 8, 2020: Tue, Thu, 11:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 19, 2020
    Sat, 7:00–10:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An exploration of the cultural and intellectual accomplishments of a specific city that achieved prominence in a particular time period, and had substantial impact and influence on human civilization. Examines the political, social, religious, and cultural factors that help to explain a city's significance and investigates the achievements of its citizens. Students may repeat this course for further credit under a different topic. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:



Great Cities in their Time (Constantinople/Istanbul)

In the twilight of the ancient world, less than a century before the sack of Rome by the Visigoths (410 CE), the Romans built a New Rome in the East (11 May 330 CE). They named it Constantinople after its founder, Constantine, the first emperor to adopt Christianity. The Queen of Cities, as it came to be known, was to become the capital of two powerful polities, Byzantium and the Ottoman empire.

This course looks at this new Roman capital from the perspective of the emperors and sultans that shaped it but also in relation to the people – rich and poor, men and women, clerics and lay, who walked its streets and, to this day, remain in its thrall. From the official adoption of Christianity by the Roman state early in the 4th century to 1453, when Mehmet the Conqueror turned Constantinople into the Ottoman capital and adopted the title of Augustus even as he became leader of a vast Muslim world, we ask: How do “capitals” function within the states they help manage? How do their monuments “speak” to subjects and to posterity? How are urban history and landscapes turned into “texts” that evoke “pasts” out of which new identities are forged? How does one city come to be associated with larger states, which it inexorably marks with its economic and cultural power. As we investigate these questions, we will also learn how to handle the different kinds of sources that have survived. Most sessions will combine literary sources, archaeology, art history, and modern scholarship. We will focus on the development of critical skills for analyzing sources and of informed imagination for what our sources do not tell us.

This class is a blended course. Introductory-lectures and discussion sessions take place on the set class day and time of the week online via zoom. Take-home assignments/papers as well as online canvas quizzes are also part of the class experience.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:


  • Students will gain an interdisciplinary insight into the history and culture of late antiquity, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires through examination of sources from this era and the study of modern scholarship on the subject at hand.
  • Students will learn to analyze art, architecture and literature from Byzantium and, to a lesser extent, the Ottoman Empire, and interpret it in comparison with similar material related to different cities and empires, past and present.
  • Students will evaluate our ideas about capitals and empires in diverse contexts (political, ideological, economic), and how these ideas shape our beliefs about empires today.

Grading

  • Informed seminar participation 15%
  • Online quizzes 10%
  • Detailed paper outline 15%
  • In-class material presentations 15%
  • Paper proposal 10%
  • Final paper 35%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Readings will be provided in PDF form on Canvas. Alternatively, readings will be available as electronic resources on the university library website.


Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN FALL 2020

Teaching at SFU in fall 2020 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).