Category: King’s College London

“Harry had never been to London before.

Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going,

he was obviously not used to getting there in the ordinary way.

He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground

and complained loudly that the seats were too small

and the trains too slow.”

– Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

From Peter Pan to Harry Potter, Rudyard Kipling to Roald Dahl, children’s literature continues to enchant us with enduring magic. But only Wonderland: 100 Years of Children’s Literature gives you the opportunity to study your favourite childhood tales in the vibrant heart of modern-day London.

Together we will read and analyse a diverse variety of novels, plays, poetry, fairytales, fables, and nonsense rhymes, as well as comics, film, and fan fiction, from the naff to the nostalgic, the obscure to the absurd, and the safe to the scandalous.

Driven by lectures, seminars, and excursions students will engage in debates, craft their own short stories, discuss the historical, political, and moral infrastructures contouring the production of children’s literature and survey the landscape of this exciting and challenging canon through the optics of Marxism, psychoanalysis, gender theory, and critical race discourse.

Moving beyond the classroom, we will visit some of the capital’s most spectacular museums, delve into the archives, enjoy a West End extravaganza, and roam the streets of London on the hunt for Harry Potter’s magical world.

So venture down the rabbit hole, board the Hogwarts Express, aim for the second star to the right and join us in London for King’s College Summer School 2015.

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Dr Victoria Carroll

 

 

“I would have every young [person] of your condition in life acquainted with the manners and amusements of London.”

Austen knew all about the importance of sociability and understood well the allure of London: all her most dashing and irresponsible characters are drawn to the metropolis, which becomes a by-word for modernity and excess. London remains a city of an extraordinary magnetism – it gets under your skin with a mixture of delight and trial. It is the very place to learn about the world of the eighteenth century and Regency in which Jane Austen grew up and about which she wrote, not least because traces of that era can still be identified in the modern city and can be recaptured by the Austen enthusiast.

We will immerse ourselves in the culture of the late eighteenth century as we meet the great figures of politics, literature, society, theatre and science, and build an in-depth picture of the world that informed Austen’s writing. By visiting Chawton and Bath, we also re-trace the other major locations that defined Austen’s life and work, a situation that is unique to studying Austen in England.

In addition to building a deep contextual knowledge of Austen’s world, we will also explore some theoretical and critical approaches to Austen in order to help develop a rich critique of her work, particularly in relation to her contemporaries.

This course is all about enjoying the richness of Austen’s world and discovering her England – and, at the same time, sharing the sensations of awe and wonder with her own characters in the experiences of visiting Bath and London for the first time.

Emma Newport

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