{"id":225,"date":"2018-07-18T15:38:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T15:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/?p=225"},"modified":"2023-12-12T17:16:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T17:16:01","slug":"we-are-the-city-kings-summer-programmes-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/2018\/07\/18\/we-are-the-city-kings-summer-programmes-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"We are the city: King\u2019s Summer Programmes in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dr Sarah\u00a0Williamson, Director of Summer Programmes<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Cities, like universities,\u00a0are the sum of their parts\u00a0and\u00a0London, like King\u2019s,\u00a0is very much a product of its people.\u00a0London\u2019s\u00a0citizens\u00a0have long\u00a0built bits on,\u00a0growing the city outwards and upwards\u00a0not on any grid system, but\u00a0expanding\u00a0it\u00a0organically\u00a0from its medieval footprint.\u00a0London is not a city that was built\u00a0then the people moved in; they built it from the inside out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of city London is.\u00a0It has a mindset that resists definition and a momentum\u00a0that evolves\u00a0in\u00a0ways that are too exciting to be\u00a0corralled.\u00a0Just how\u00a0London\u00a0has been shaped and honed\u00a0has\u00a0become\u00a0even more apparent in the\u00a0last 20 years. Glorious, majestic\u00a0spaces, like Somerset House, have been reclaimed\u00a0as public spaces, becoming areas for\u00a0public\u00a0thinking\u00a0and doing.\u00a0Those reclaimed public spaces now influence public discourse\u00a0and from there the city self-defines its future development.\u00a0A city\u00a0is a thinking space\u00a0and the university within the city is\u00a0an ideas lab, where those thoughts\u00a0are grouped together to become ideas\u00a0and shaped into actions.<\/p>\n

Everyone who comes to London\u00a0comes knowing it\u00a0has a life blood that\u00a0its\u00a0citizens\u00a0both create and draw from.\u00a0This is what\u00a0makes it\u00a0such a strong magnet for creative thinkers and therefore\u00a0creative learners.\u00a0To\u00a0be\u00a0connected with\u00a0and submerged into the flow of\u00a0the city\u00a0was always\u00a0an elemental component\u00a0in the\u00a0makeup\u00a0of\u00a0our\u00a0academic\u00a0summer programmes\u00a0at King\u2019s.\u00a0London\u00a0is our classroom\u00a0not just because it is our location; it\u2019s because it is our inspiration and definition.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0an\u00a0ever-greater\u00a0co-contributor to the\u00a0summer\u00a0classes\u00a0in\u00a0our\u00a0sector-leading\u00a0programmes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For those seeking a starting point more profound than\u00a0a\u00a0traditional\u00a0tourist route,\u00a0having a chance to explore the city\u00a0through\u00a0applied study\u00a0is\u00a0strongly\u00a0attractive.\u00a0No student focused seriously on their academic career doesn\u2019t think very carefully about how they, as global citizens, as global thinkers, will need to understand and use the city in their future as they become\u00a0workers in their fields.\u00a0But how to do this if you live\u00a0elsewhere?\u00a0What can you do to count\u00a0yourself amongst\u00a0the number of Londoners making waves in the world\u00a0if your postcode is\u00a0usually\u00a0well\u00a0beyond the\u00a0M25?\u00a0One neat answer is to\u00a0join a summer programme at King\u2019s.\u00a0Short courses,\u00a0run on King\u2019s campuses over the summer season\u00a0give a compact but powerful injection of intellectual rigour and dynamic\u00a0personal development embedded so firmly in\u00a0London\u2019s ecosystems\u00a0that your credentials as a\u00a0Londoner\u00a0become as established as\u00a0they do as a King\u2019s alum.<\/p>\n

All\u00a0of our 1,800 summer alumni\u00a0this year will have explored their subjects with the help of London. Academic excursions, guest speakers from across London\u2019s industries enrich\u00a0the London campus-delivered academic\u00a0content of courses.\u00a0From the Victoria & Albert Museum, historic Fleet Street or crowded Brixton. A diverse range of places and encounters await the summer student and life-long Londoner alike. London can be a gateway to the wider world through its London headquarters of global powerhouses like the UN Refugee Agency, teachers on our Human Rights undergraduate summer school. Our popular and long-standing summer module \u201cMuseum of London: Curating the City<\/a>\u201d with daily sessions at the museum led\u00a0by its\u00a0curators,\u00a0is a passport\u00a0behind the scenes of one of the capital\u2019s most innovative museums.\u00a0What\u00a0do\u00a0the collections\u2014ranging from art to architecture, fashion to film, music to media, giant\u00a0fatberg!\u2014tell us\u00a0about London over the last century? What sorts of histories do these collections tell? What stories do they leave untold?\u00a0Who\u00a0are\u00a0the people\u00a0choosing these collections\u00a0and making particular\u00a0stories public? What is the impact of\u00a0their\u00a0decisions on London\u2019s present-day reputation as a centre of creativity and cultural exchange?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For\u00a0an\u00a0intellectually challenging, often assessed\u00a0summer school, this is never about glorified tourism. With its highly international King\u2019s summer student population from more than 50 countries,\u00a0London\u00a0connections\u00a0need to be academically\u00a0meaningful and relevant.\u00a0Rather, it is the case that\u00a0lecturers\u00a0explore their subject through the prism of London\u00a0in\u00a0undergraduate-level courses such as London & Film<\/a>, where\u00a0London as a cinematic city, the divergent spaces of London, and\u00a0the\u00a0capital\u2019s relationship to film genres\u00a0are explored\u00a0in turn.\u00a0Students\u00a0reflect on\u00a0the relationship between London, the advent of moving images and the birth of the cinema industry; the cultural role of cinema within the capital through\u00a0the strength of\u00a0its\u00a0institutions, among them\u00a0Film London, the National Film Theatre and the British Film Institute.\u00a0London\u00a0is both, a\u00a0\u2018realist\u2019 and \u2018fantasy\u2019 wonderland.\u00a0The evolution of London (as relayed on film) as a thriving urban space marked by increased gentrification, cosmopolitanism and architectural redevelopment\u00a0is\u00a0considered\u00a0as well as\u00a0the\u00a0restaging of London\u2019s cityscape as the\u00a0set\u00a0for\u00a0blockbuster cinema.<\/p>\n

Inviting new audiences to King\u2019s, Dr Alana Harris,\u00a0Lecturer in Modern British History\u00a0and\u00a0convenor of\u00a0a group looking specifically at the integration of London in the learning experience, is this year for the second time leading a King\u2019s Summer Weekend course with The National Archives. This\u00a0weekend\u00a0course is for everyone who wants to expand their research into their family tree. It combines instruction on practical researching techniques with academic insight into how key historic events shape stories across generations.\u00a0Those that are interested can read more about this\u00a0in\u00a0a recent King\u2019s\u00a0SummerTimes<\/i>\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0written by\u00a0Mark Pearsall,\u00a0one of the course contributors from\u00a0among\u00a0The\u00a0National\u00a0Archives\u00a0staff.\u00a0He\u00a0describes how this summer collaboration led to a podcast on the Public Record\u2019s Office history in what is now King\u2019s splendid Maughan Library.\u00a0The city defines its history through its people\u2019s stories.\u00a0The\u00a0university defines the city through its understanding of those stories and\u00a0equips its citizens to\u00a0continue to\u00a0draw\u00a0out\u00a0their\u00a0ideas\u00a0of how the city will evolve\u00a0in the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alongside the large King\u2019s summer programmes, some of the biggest in Europe, a\u00a0group of cultural intelligence courses offer\u00a0invite\u00a0student groups from King\u2019s university\u00a0partners\u00a0to\u00a0explore London\u2019s people, institution and power in innovative ways. The rationale behind these courses is powerfully simple: they use the unique dynamism of the metropolis to empower students to reflect on their own agency and take steps to be empowered in their own lives back home. Long term Londoners come into the classroom and\u00a0change\u00a0perceptions.\u00a0New Londoners soak up inspiration\u00a0and ideas and\u00a0carry a bit of London\u2019s\u00a0esprit de corps<\/i>\u00a0with them\u00a0wherever\u00a0they go next.\u00a0We\u00a0are the city\u00a0and the city\u00a0is\u00a0us.\u00a0#everybodywelcome\u00a0#summeratkings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarah\u00a0Williamson, Director of Summer Programmes Cities, like universities,\u00a0are the sum of their parts\u00a0and\u00a0London, like King\u2019s,\u00a0is very much a product of its people.\u00a0London\u2019s\u00a0citizens\u00a0have long\u00a0built bits on,\u00a0growing the city outwards and upwards\u00a0not on any grid system, but\u00a0expanding\u00a0it\u00a0organically\u00a0from its medieval footprint.\u00a0London is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,14,25,11,13,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-kings-college-london","category-london","category-pre-university-summer-school","category-summer-school","category-teaching","category-undergraduate-summer-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}