This is my first year to work with the Summer School. Although I have taught Modern European History for four years at King’s College, I am very excited at the prospect of teaching a truly global module with the course ‘A History of Revolutions: From the French Revolution to the Arab Spring.’
Myself and my colleague, Giuditta Fontana created this course with an international audience in our minds. Too often revolutions are studied separately in different academic departments, yet we felt that it is time that a course addresses the contemporary phenomenon of revolutions since we are living in historic times where revolutions and insurrections from Egypt to Ukraine are common day appearances in the news. Each of our international students will be able to contribute to the course by sharing the history of the country they come from, thus making it truly global.
We are lucky that our course will take place at the Strand Campus, a prime location in London. With this advantage, we have access to the Imperial War Museum, the British Library and the extensive historical archives in King’s College. Both myself and Giuditta are very excited to announce our collaboration with the Archives Centre at Kings: they are helping us to develop a workshop on revolutionary propaganda, including exclusive access to documents on the British Fascist movement and India’s transition to from colonial rule to national independence.
This is a wonderful time to be studying the underlying causes of revolutions and their course in historical and contemporary perspectives. We will be examining the politics, culture and society of Europe and the Middle East over the past two centuries, and how revolutions have defined the unique development of these two diverse continents. Whether you want to understand the Russian revolution or the Arab Spring, we hope you are ready to take up the challenging and complex world of revolutionary history.
I look forward to meeting you all.
Gillian Kennedy