Course Finding the untold stories: invisible people of the past

Description:

Past scholarship has often explored the life of elite groups: archaeologists and historians studied the monuments, houses, sculptures, and literary sources in relation to the rich and powerful of societies. Research on past societies and their material and written records, however, needs to be aware also of less visible groups, very often from the lower class, and how they actively shaped the socio-economic environment they lived in. 
 
Some groups are invisible because they leave little footprints in the material and written record. Others are invisible due to the research focus on the elite groups and their lives. Researching these understudied groups will help us to understand ancient societies in all their complexity. In this course we will shift the emphasis towards invisible groups, such as the poor, unfree, or marginalised, and on new interdisciplinary methodologies to uncover their lives. 

This course will be open to PhD students with an interest in marginalised non-elite groups and to those who want to include a different perspective to their research topic. The course will help PhD students to see their own research under the premise of certain research biases, and to gain a better understanding of the influence the marginalised groups have on their research topic.
 
In the first part of the course, the archaeological and written evidence of less visible and understudied groups will be discussed, to showcase approaches to the topic. We will focus on the reevaluation of previous research, and explore how new research agendas and a shift in research can help our understanding of lesser known groups; and we will show how this can be beneficial to build a more complex and realistic picture of ancient societies. 
In the second part of the course, the PhD students will actively contribute to the course by presenting their own research. In so doing, the course aims to provide the participants with a forum to discuss their work with peers and specialists and to receive feedback. 

Aim:

The aim is to encourage students from archaeology, history, and related disciplines from the humanities to consider and discuss the potential of applying a wide range of approaches to their own research.
The course will offer research-led teaching on case studies, methods and techniques for the study of less visible groups of societies. It will focus on three main objectives:

• To reassess former research in a new light
• To explore the importance of researching invisible and understudied groups for the understanding of ancient societies and their economy
• To provide useful approaches to be applied on archaeological and historical evidence 

Target group:

Early and late stage PhD

Form:

Lectures and presentations

Lecturers:

Julia Steding (j.steding@cas.au.dk)

Irene Bavuso (irene.bavuso@cas.au.dk)

Guido Furlan (g.furlan@cas.au.dk)

Petra Heřmánková (petra.hermankova@cas.au.dk)

James Harland (dharland@uni-bonn.de)

Melania Gigante (melania.gigante@unipd.it)

Venue:

Centre for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University (Campus Moesgaard), building 4230-232

Application:

When you have signed up please submit the following documents by 1st April to Julia Steding: j.steding@cas.au.dk

•  A case study of 3-4 pages (including bibliography), which deals with the topic of the course. The cases can relate to an own project, previous experience, or a case inspired by academic literature.These will be pre-circulated among the participants of the course by 17th April.
• A max 2-page CV
• A max 1-page cover-letter, motivating the reasons for participation
• Field of research (e.g archaeology or history)

Course dates:

• 04 May 2022 08:30 - 17:00