Topics

Join us for a summer of British culture and explore our world-leading research.

When you join the International Summer School, you will study many exciting topics across the four weeks you are with us. Each topic is delivered by an internationally-recognised member of academic staff at the University of Southampton working in partnership with one of our many enthusiastic postgraduate research students. Across three engaging and interactive classroom sessions, they will introduce you to their topic of choice, explaining why it is important to them and offering you an insight into the world-class research environment they work in.

You will find each topic is a friendly and engaging experience: you will normally study in groups with around 15 – 20 fellow students, allowing you to form good working relationships and have the opportunity to contribute and discuss in class.

The proposed topics are:

• A Brief History of the Gym: from Ancient Greece to the Modern Day - Dr Alastair Paynter will introduce you to the story of fitness to its Ancient Greek origins.
• A Different Perspective: Politics, Power and Painting - Using the Renaissance as a start Dr Jo Turney who how art was made an understood.
• Art, Mind, Cognition - Psychology of Aesthetics - explore one of the most important foundations of Western Culture.
• Asian Business Systems - Dr Bruce Hearn will introduce students to the principal business system across Asia.
• Experience British Explorers and Empire with Dr Christopher Prior.
• Think about British Moral Philosophy with Dr Brian McElwee.
• British Rock with Dr Amy Williamson.
• Contemporary Global Security Challenges - Steve Chisnall will provide you with an overview of the main security challenges facing the world today.
• Context, Critique and Communication - Dr. Jonathan W. Leader will equip you with the right strategies for future success.
• Creative Writing: poetry and form - you will work with Dr Will May and poet Joan McGavin on a range of poetic forms that have shaped our understanding of loss and love.
• Culture and communication in a globalised world - Dr Rob Baird will help you reflect on what 'culture' is and how cultural pracitices can differ.
• Culture and the Everyday - Dr Heidi Armbruster will guide you to examine the role of culture in everyday lives.
• Discuss Education in a globalised world with Dr. Marta Cristina Azaola.
• Entrepreneurial Governance and Finance - Dr Bruce Hearn will help you explore how to start a business.
• Ethical Fashion and Textile Design - learning to incorporate ethical practices at the process of design with Reem Alasadi.
• Experimental Publishing - Danny Aldred will help you examine some technologies from a multidisciplinary perspective and allow students to create their own post digital artist book.
• Exploring multilingualism: when and how humans become language learners - Dr Laura Domínguez explores possible situations in which humans learn a first or second/third/fourth language.
• Film Industries: An International Perspective - Dr Ruby Cheung will introduce you to the workings and academic discussion on film industries.
• Film Stardom, History and the Hollywood Ancient Epic - examine how the ancient past inspired Hollywood when its stars first emerged in the 1910s and 1920s with Professor Michael Williams.
• Financial Management for Businesses in a Globally Competitive Market - learn about fundamental financial management with Anita Krishnan.
• From Barter to Bitcoins: The Cultural Life of Money with Professor Nicky Marsh.
• Games Design and Art - Adam Procter introduces what games are, what the games industry is and where it could be going, through the process of making games.
• Get Rich or Die Trying? Learning to Be Good and Rich with Adam Smith (1723-1790) with Dr Jonathan Conlin.
• Global Disability and Culture - Dr Eleanor Jones and Dr Vivienne Orchard will help you explore how disability has been represented in contemporary cross-cultural contexts and what is at stake in those representations.
• Global Englishes - Dr Will Baker and Dr Sonia Morán Panero will help you explore how English has spread around the globe from its historical origin to colonial and postcolonial settings and, finally, to current global context.
• Global film noir and genre studies: American, European and East Asian - Dr Louis Bayman will introduce students to film noir in the classical Hollywood era and the contemporary global context.
  Green Politics with Dr Eloise Harding.
• Human-Environment Interactions with Dr Andrew Phillips and Dr Dianna Smith.
• Innovation and Contemporary Business Challenges - explore the impact of innovation, discruptive technologies and implications/opportunities with Richard Cartwright.
• International Politics Mastery: Speak Like an Expert with Dr Kamil Zwolski
• Introduction to TESOL, let Mary Page teach you about how to make learning the English language engaging and rewarding.
• Become well acquainted with Jane Austen in the company of Professor Stephen Bygrave.
• Law and Technological Transformation - PhD student Ekaterina Perevoshchikova, supervised by Dr. Hedvig Schmidt, will introduce you to digital transformation within law and discuss artificial intelligence, smart contracts, automation and more.
• Language in the City: Exploring Multilingualism in the Public Space - Dr Adriana Patiño-Santos will invite students to explore and document, through photos and artefacts, the presence of languages other than English in the public spaces of our city.
• LifeLab with Dr Kathryn Woods-Townsend.
• Migration in a Globalised World with Dr María Villares-Varela.
• Dr. Chloë McKenzie will introduce you to Monarchs: Icons of History and their Cathedrals, Castles and Country Houses.
• No Time to Die? The History of Death with Dr Jonathan Conlin.
• Philosophy of Religion - investigate interesting and difficult questions about the nature and existence of god with Dr Alex Gregory.
  
• Pianoforte: Centre Stage - Professor David Owen Norris will trace the genealogy of the pianoforte, from Cristofori’s 1709 fortepiano to modern day Casio keyboards.
• Refugees and the Politics of Asylum: Past Present and Future - Professor David Owen traces the emergence and development of the current international refugee regime.
• Scale Invariance in the Real World - Professor Marika Taylor will introduce the mathematical and statistical physics concepts used to describe scale invariance.
• Sex and Desire in French Literature with Dr Aude Campmas.
• Shakespeare - look at Shakespeare's plays in the original historic and social contexts with Dr Stephen Watkins.
• Shifting Black British Identities: Immigration, nationality, race on film in the 70's and 80's with Dr Michael Hammond.
• Social Innovation through Social Enterprise - Do you want to learn the basic skills to design a social enterprise or third section organisation?
• Social Leadership for Impact - Are you interested in leading initiatives for social change?
• Sonic Explorations: Composing Soundscapes - with Dr Brona Martin you will explore soundwalking, field recording and composition developing and enhancing our listening skills
• Explore Stonehenge and the Ancient World with Dr Josh Pollard.
• The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation - this topic will look at two broad questions: what exactly is cultural appropriation? And when is it wrong culturally appropriate, if ever? With Dr Nils-Hennes Stear.
• The Gothic in British Literary and Visual Culture - With Dr Marianne O'Doherty you will consider questions such as: what is (and what is not) Gothic? What makes the Gothic so compelling as a literary and visual mode? How has the Gothic been reinvented over time and in different media and genres.
• The World Turned Upside Down - Writing the English Revolution - explore with Dr Stephen Watkins how writers and poets wrote about their world as it was turning upside down.
• Thinking About Music with Dr Laura Abbatino.
• Transformations of Citizenship in a Globalizing World - Professor David Owen will describe, explain and evaluate these transformations of citizenship before considering how they may play a significant role in reshaping global political order in the future.
• Understanding Business in a New World - the importance of the 'big ideas' with Dr Alessia D'Amato.
• When America was Great?: The United States in the 1950s - examine the complexities and contradictions of one of the most interesting decades in American history with Dr. Alex Ferguson
• Be inspired by Women On Screen and Off Screen: British Cinema's Missing Stories with Sarah Louise Smyth.

 

Our social programme includes seven cultural excursions which is relevant to the studies you are undertaking, helping you to put the knowledge you have gained into a real-world context.

You will receive supporting materials in advance of the topic so you can feel well-prepared and you will be provided with a pack of information so you can continue to explore the topic and develop your interest afterwards.

Recognition
At the end of the course, all students will receive a certificate of attendance.  You can choose to complete the assessed exercises for the International Summer School.  If you complete the assessments, you will receive a transcript from the University of Southampton worth 5 ECTS credits.  The assessments will test your engagement and understanding of each topic you choose to study, and confirm that you have engaged with the cultural experience of joining us at Southampton.  Though subject to confirmation, it is likely this include a multiple choice test, completing a reflective log, and taking part in a group presentation. You should speak with your university to confirm that the ECTS credits can count towards your studies at your home university.

Availability and Choice
The topics available on the summer school are indicative of rich and varied curriculum you will engage with at Southampton. Due to timetabling constraints, some topics will not be available in combination with each other. To ensure a positive experience, spaces on each topic will be limited and places allocated on a first-come-first-served basis after receipt of deposit and response to request for information. No commitment can be made that a particular topic will be available; if you have particular concerns about this, please get in touch using the contact information provided.   All topics and tutors are subject to change.