Seminars

July 15–Aug. 3, 2013

During the three-week session, your seminar meets every weekday morning, with the afternoons kept free for independent study. Choose one seminar from the following list:

Castles and Country Houses: A Social, Economic and Architectural Study

Study household regulations, servant hierarchy, social mores of English gentlemen, building texts and plans of selected residences, to discover why these buildings were erected.

The Devil's Chaplain: The Origins and Impact of Charles Darwin's Idea of Evolution by Natural Selection

Trace the ideas that led up to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection; the extraordinary impact this revolutionary concept had on Western culture; and its continued influence in science, politics, economics, popular literature and film.

Diggers, Dealers and Dilettanti: British Collectors and Classical Antiquities

Examine the activities and attitudes of British classical-antiquities collectors during the 18th century, and explore the wider influence of this process to the present day.

English Cathedrals and Monasteries in the Middle Ages

Examine the role of the monastery and the cathedral in medieval society and the differences among the monastic orders.

The English Detective Novel

Explore the fictional English detective from his first appearances in the compelling sensation novels of Victorian England, through the fin-de-siècle casebooks of Sherlock Holmes and into the so-called Golden Age between the world wars.

Globalization: A World of Opportunity or Decline? (CANCELED)

Through the basic analytic framework of international economics, venture into 19th-century history, international relations, political theory, sociology and social anthropology in a search to understand the important ways in which globalization is shaping lives throughout the world.

London, England (FULL)

Discover the stories behind some of London's most famous buildings: Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace. But also search for secret London—the alleys and underground tunnels, the ordinary homes, the remnants of the past that tourists rarely see.

Making Things, Making Britain (FULL)

Examine the way in which significant materials provided by the British environment changed the country's culture and development.

Mediterranean Shakespeare (FULL)

Explore Shakespeare's writing across his dramatic career in the context of Mediterranean culture and history, a setting that was fundamental to Shakespeare's creative imagination and provided him with some of his most unforgettable stories and characters.

Tudor Kings

Explore politics, culture, religion and society during the reigns of the three Tudor kings, looking in particular at the conduct of royal government, the impact of changes brought about by Protestantism in England and the spectacular image of kingship created at this time.

The Victorian Garden: Mess or Marvel? 

Explore the evolution of the Victorian garden, and examine the reasons why it has gained such an unfortunate and undeserved reputation.

The War for the World: Britain and France, 1789–1815 (FULL)

Examine the first modern struggle over the Old and New Worlds, in which the identities of Britain and France changed forever.