Women in the Renaissance, 1350-1550

3 credits · Undergraduate

(3 hrs Lecture/Seminar) This lecture/seminar course examines the varied experiences of women in Renaissance Europe. Fundamental to this course is the analysis of traditional periodization as we attempt to answer Joan Kelly's question, "Did women have a Renaissance." Women of the Renaissance period are appraised in a broad range of roles: as members of the labouring classes and as intellectuals, as queens and as paupers. Using primary and secondary sources, students evaluate social, political, legal, and economic conditions in women's lives to determine how these variables could be interpreted in redefining the period known as the Renaissance.