This seminar is an introduction to some dimension of the history of a nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon selected by the respective instructor. Students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors prioritize critical reading, engaged participation, and focused writing assignments.

From its origins in thirteenth century France, inquisition as a way of combating unorthodox religious beliefs and customs would become part of many European societies for centuries afterward. This course considers how a variety of agents used this procedure to identify, prosecute and punish heretics, along with other religious or social deviants. While doing so, inquisition also serves as a lens to explore other aspects of medieval society, seeing how inquisition shaped, and was shaped by, the world in which it operated. It begins with basic ideas about heresy and orthodoxy and the historical context of the traditional “founding” of inquisition as a means of combating religious dissent. Then, it looks at the functioning of inquisitorial structures and procedures. Next, it turns to how inquisition was also used to identify saints, not just sinners, yet at the same time it played a key role in facing, and sometimes helping to manufacture, new “threats” to Christian society. Finally, it moves beyond the Middle Ages to look at the Spanish Inquisition, and the enduring influence of inquisition into the modern era. Instructor bio: Robert Iafolla is a historian of the politics and political culture of late medieval Europe, focusing on the Kingdom of Castile and the Iberian Peninsula. In his recently completed dissertation, Castile serves as a case study for examining how political power possessed, or wielded, by rulers, nobles and other actors was defined amid disputes in the consolidating, yet contested, monarchies of late medieval Europe. While completing his graduate studies at UCLA, he enjoyed sharing the appreciation for the Middle Ages which underlies his research with students in the classroom.

This seminar will open for enrollment on Tuesday, July 19.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills