Learning Goals

• Experience the Act of Pilgrimage: To engage in and reflect upon the experience of pilgrimage, recognizing it as a deeply human activity with enduring significance.

• Take Historical Perspective:
  • Analyze similarities and differences in pilgrimages across cultures and time periods, recognizing the influence of specific contexts.
  • Understand how both historical and contemporary contexts shape individual and collective experiences of pilgrimage.
  • Recognize universal human experiences reflected through pilgrimage.
  • Understand how these experiences are expressed through diverse cultural and historical lenses.
  • Reframe “historical perspective” as a natural part of understanding human experience, distinct from biased judgment, and realize “fact” as the convergence of shared human experiences across time.
• Practice Historical Thinking:
  • Develop an understanding of responsible historical sourcing and critical evaluation of evidence.
  • Investigate gaps in the historical record and consider their potential impact on contemporary interpretations of historical events.
  • Actively seek out additional sources to deepen understanding and challenge initial assumptions.
• Use Modern Technology to Reframe Historical Narratives:
  • Challenge geographically and ideologically limited understandings of the “medieval” period.
  • Critically examine assumptions about the perceived “backwardness” of historical eras.
  • Recognize the multi-centered nature of historical development, specifically acknowledging that Europe wasn’t the sole source of innovation and urbanism.