IMC 2009: Sessions

Session 1213: Teaching Medieval National Identity: Opportunity or Problem?

Wednesday 15 July 2009, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	HEA Subject Centre for History, Classics & Archaeology
Organiser:	Andrew P. Roach, School of Humanities (History), University of Glasgow
Moderator/Chair:	Andrew P. Roach, School of Humanities (History), University of Glasgow
Paper 1213-a	Wallace, Bruce, and the Wars of National Identity as Fought by Contemporary Under-16s (Language: English) Kim Lorna Esdaile, University of Glasgow Index terms: Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Teaching the Middle Ages
Paper 1213-b	Who Are Those Scots?: Teaching about National Consciousness during the Wars of Independence (Language: English) Sonja Cameron, CTI Centre for History, Archaeology & Art History, University of Glasgow Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Teaching the Middle Ages
Paper 1213-c	The Middle Ages and Modern Polish Identity (Language: English) Przemyslaw Urbanczyk, Institute of Archaeology & Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsazwa Index terms: Archaeology - General, Historiography - Medieval, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Teaching the Middle Ages
Abstract	The perception that national origins or identity lie in the Middle Ages attracts many students to the medieval period. Moreover, 'national history' is a strong feature of school and university curricula in Europe and beyond. However, medieval identities are a complex and controversial subject for modern scholars. This session brings together two teachers of Scottish history at school and university respectively, with a historian and archaeologist of Central Europe whose book on Poland's origins challenged many cherished features of a national myth.