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Women in the early medieval ages

Gwen Duralek

I spend a lot of time in my car (a lot!) and podcasts get me through the drive. So, of course a podcast about women in history is high on my list, and thought that this episode about Brunhild and Fredegund could really enhance our -- and our students' -- content understanding of The Age of Queens and supplement the Medieval Women lesson. The deliberate erasure of women from the narrative really piqued my interest, and hopefully can encourage an inquiry-based model of historical research in my own class. I would use this moment to encourage document analysis of why some stories are included and others erased. Including as many voices as possible with our doc study is my personal goal this year.

Ultimately, this all intersected when my daughter came home with a horned helmet for a niche Halloween costume. Which then turned into a whole history lesson for her.  I just had to share.

helmet

    

  •  this is a fascinating story I wasn’t familiar with. I listened to the podcast and saved it, along with the articles you suggested. I teach Big History, so the coverage of these topics will be limited, but they’re still worth including. I might integrate them into my students' presentations on ancient civilizations. I’m also trying to figure out how to incorporate more of these stories into my teaching.

    Addressing the erasure of women in history is another of my goals as a teacher. I previously taught Women’s Studies as an elective and often reflected on how different our understanding of history would be if we focused more on the women who were written out of public records. As historian Shelley Puhak said, it’s a matter of historical justice. It’s fascinating how these women's stories managed to pass down through legend, literature, pop culture, folklore, operas, and even Halloween costumes. Such an important topic!

  • I have now listened to two of these podcasts.  I really like its goal and it seems very smart.  I am unsure how to effectively use it in my course.  I do not typical teach about specific kings.   I imagine you focus on how these women rose to power and why they were erased.  

  • in reply to Eric Schulz

    I tend not to focus on individual rulers,  but work with my students to more broadly investigate who is -- and is not -- included in the historical narrative. Building an inquiry based classroom is one that I continue to develop, so that students can arrive at their own conclusions about that "Danger of a Single Story" that we all try to avoid. 

  • in reply to Gwen Duralek

    Thank you for responding.  This is a great way to approach this.  

  • Gwen Duralek said:
    I would use this moment to encourage document analysis of why some stories are included and others erased

    This is a great history skill to have students work on! Will give this podcast a listen for sure! I find that the BHP curriculum has been doing a good job incorporating the voices of those historically left out of narratives in the form of graphic bios. It is important to also use these lines of inquiry in our every day instruction. Your idea for document analysis is a great way to do this.