This senior seminar will focus on Marco Polo's Description of the World as a source for understanding Asia in the late thirteenth century. After reading Marco Polo in translation, we will look at the controversies surrounding the book and the uses scholars have made of it. The first four weeks will be devoted to common readings to give us all a solid foundation in the topic. During the next two weeks, students will begin their research project by reading first another primary source, then another major secondary source, and reporting on both orally in class. The last three weeks will be devoted to discussion of drafts of the research papers.

Grading: 50 % participation, 50% research paper

Participation includes discussion of readings, posting comments and questions about the readings online, oral reports of other readings, and critique of the first draft of three other students' papers.

Research papers should draw on Marco Polo or engage Marco Polo issues in some other way. Below are some possible starting points:

1. Compare two or more early foreign perspectives on the Mongols or the Chinese (or some facet of Mongol or Chinese culture or society).

2. Compare two or more early travel accounts concerning a specific subject (trade, religion, social relations, and so on) in several countries.

3. Analyze evidence concerning Eurasian long-distance trade from one or more early travel accounts.

 4. Analyze ways of conceptualizing cultural difference from one or more early travel account

5. Analyze how Christian ideas and practices shaped Marco Polo's understanding of the societies and religions he encountered.

6. Analyze the European reception of Marco Polo's book in a specified period.

Many other topics would also make good research papers. Do not feel limited to these ones, but do check with me if you want to go in a different direction. My one requirement is that students take topics that require them to do original research in primary sources, albeit translated ones, rather than rely primarily on modern studies. Aim for a length of 15 to 20 pages.

Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo

Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World

Wood, Did Marco Polo Go to China?

Other  readings are available online.