| Project Title | Producing and Integrating Open-Access Resources on Real People in the Past in Introductory Ancient History and Archaeology Courses |
| Principal Investigator | Megan Daniels |
| Faculty | Arts |
| Funding Year | 2021 |
| Project Summary | The proposed project aims to build a series of online resources in the form of podcasts, videocasts, and blogs focused on real people in the past, to be incorporated into the 100-level introductory course, CNRS104: “Temples, Tombs, and Tyrants: The Archaeology of the Middle East, Greece, and Rome”. This course introduces students to the methods and concepts of archaeology, and presents a major geographical and chronological overview of the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The challenges of this course include (1) the breadth of topics, regions, and histories covered, which are difficult to capture accurately and in up-to-date fashion in a single textbook; and (2) the need to give students the tools to critically engage with historical and archaeological problems within these regions and time periods. In particular, while the course is titled “Temples, Tombs, and Tyrants”, ongoing shifts within the disciplines of archaeology and ancient history (broadly construed) necessitate bringing in diverse voices and perspectives to teaching and research, both from people in the past who are often left out of curricula and textbooks (beyond the “Temples, Tombs, and Tyrants”), and from people in the present who study the past, especially scholars from underrepresented groups. The platform to be used for developing these digital tools is Peopling the Past, an online public scholarship platform launched in September 2020, of which I am a founding member. Peopling the Past (PtP) is composed of a grassroots team of Canadian historians, archaeologists, and art historians working on various aspects of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds, and teaching at institutions across North America. Through a central web platform (www.peoplingthepast.com) and various social media channels, PtP aims to highlight aspects of human history often omitted from more traditional curricula, which are vital for fostering inclusive and socially just scholarship and teaching (examples of recent content include disability in the ancient world and female labourers in ancient Greece). The multimedia formats include podcasts, short YouTube videocasts, and blog posts. While PtP already has a growing library of material, this particular project aims to develop a series of videocasts, podcasts, blogs, and accompanying pedagogy packages to replace the more traditional textbook for CNRS104, focused on a series of weekly discussion problems about real people and lived experiences in the ancient world, and the techniques and methods used to study the past (please see outline below). Through this project, students can engage with the voices of active scholars presenting up- to-date research, develop understandings of a variety of methodologies for studying the past, and participate in problem-based approaches to understanding real people and their livelihoods in the ancient world. Furthermore, these tools will be freely available to educators teaching a wide range of courses on the ancient world. This project represents a step towards a larger aim of PtP, which is to develop a fully online, open-access, interactive and adaptable series of teaching modules for educators using video, audio, and written content. |
| Grant type | Rapid Innovation |
| Funded Amount | $1,823.00 |
» Home » Producing and Integrating Open-Access Resources on Real People in the Past in Introductory Ancient History and Archaeology Courses
Except where otherwise noted, this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.