This course is for students who would like to deepen their knowledge of some aspects of Medieval and Germanic Philology and train the competences and skills of philological work. Students attending this course will also train their teaching and researching skills by participating in the planning and organization of some selected lesson units.

You will learn how to:

- sharpen your focus on those topics and issues of Medieval philology that attracted your attention in the Germanic Philology I course; take into consideration some questions that arose in you last year so to deepen your knowledge and reach to new insights on them;

- choose a research path and develop it with the teacher's and co-students' help;

- test the applicability of the philological methods also to academic and 'every-day life' fields that are apparently unrelated to philology.

The overall contents of the program are a selection from those of Germanic Philology I (see the link); however, your participation modes will greatly differ from those of the first-year students. 

How you will participate in the program:

1) at the beginning of the course (FIRST WEEK):

according to your personal interests, select one topic from the overall program of Germanic Philology I. You may select ANY of the contents of sections A to C (included). Then pick up the literature indicated in the Literature List (s. moodle), read it thoroughly (!), and contact the teacher. The teacher will involve you in preparing the lesson relating to that topic, for instance through co-preparing the presentation, or co-preparing the exercises to be given in class, or both. 

2) in the second month of the course: 

according to your personal interests, select one of the Labs proposed at point D of the program. Then communicate your choice to the teacher. Accordingly, you will pick up the literature indicated in the Literature List (s. moodle), read it thoroughly (!), and contact the teacher again. The teacher will involve you in organizing the Lab activities.

Here is an overview of the Dublin Descriptors for the Bachelor level as they are practiced in this philology course (adapted to philology from the Appendix III, pp. 1-2, to the EHEA Paris 2018 Communiqué):

DD1: acquire (demonstrate) knowledge and understanding in philology. Students learn the principles and practice of philological work.

DD2: apply knowledge and understanding within philology and related fields; basing on knowledge from DD1, demonstrate the competence  to sustain arguments and  solve problems in  other fields. Students learn to apply the principles of philological work on texts from non-Germanic and non-ancient cultures and learn to make connections with academic fields outside philology.

DD3: gather and interpret relevant data within philology to inform judgements that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues. Students become aware of the ethical implications of some fundamentals of philology in present-day society: for instance, respect for the authenticity of sources as pursued in philology as a means to detect fake-news and source manipulation in power-led human interactions, or the relevance of the hermeneutical ability to 'understand through contextualizing' as applied in real-life situations besides their philological work.

DD4: can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences within and outside philology. Philology students acquire high confidence in their own linguistic skills through thorough linguistic analysis of sources; they train their rhetorical skills by analyzing the rhetorical component of texts as well as preparing written and oral presentations. They train these competences both in the regular course and in the labs. They also train them by co-organizing the teaching units.

DD5: have developed those learning skills that are necessary for them to continue to undertake further study and undertake investigations also outside philology with a high degree of autonomy. Students learn and train these skills in this philology seminar by designing their own interest-driven examination project.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

The learning and teaching principles of this course are:

- tot. 1/3 frontal teaching (with exercises and discussion) during the introductory lessons (to achieve the outcomes requested especially by the Dublin Descriptors 1 to 3);

- 2/3 student-centered learning according to the principles of interest-driven learning, project-based learning, collaborative learning and design thinking applied to higher education (to achive the outcomes requested by the Dublin Descriptors 1 to 5).