Subject Area: History

"Ancient & Medieval Dynasties" explores the acquisition and maintenance of social status and political power by families in ancient and medieval societies of Europe and the Mediterranean. This course uses the rubric of the "dynasty" to explore the nexus between social and political history. It demonstrates how historians approach the study of family history, social status, and political legitimacy. The module will be divided into two sections: (1) an introduction to the historiography of dynastic history, including approaches such as prosopography, epigraphy, and numismatics; (2) the exploration of case studies in dynastic history using these approaches.