Academics

Students take two to four seminars during the semester, depending on the track selected below, in addition to the London Experience. The number of seminars taken is dependent upon whether or not a student is participating in the internship track. Each course typically meets once each week for 2.5 hours. The program’s resident faculty director teaches one course in his or her area of expertise and London-based faculty drawn from local universities teach five or six additional seminars. Each course uses London as part of the classroom, taking full advantage of museums, galleries, archives, architectural sites, and other resources.

Students on the program will choose one of the following three tracks:

  • Honors Semester in London with Internship
    • Take three Honors seminars while interning with an organization in London tailored to your interests and skills. Open to all UNC students meeting eligibility criteria.
  • Honors Semester in London without Internship
    • Take Honors Seminars satisfying your major and general education requirements at UNC’s European Study Center (Winston House). Open to all UNC students meeting eligibility requirements.
  • Shuford Honors Semester in Entrepreneurship in London – available during spring term only
    • Spend a semester living, studying, and working in London, considered the 3rd best startup city in the world (behind SF and NYC).  You will live in central London and be based at Carolina’s own Winston House.  Along with your Honors classes, you will take a class focused on what we love about London’s innovations in fashion, tourism, food, fintech, sports, auctions, art, and social enterprise. Company visits have included Matchesfashion.com, Monese, McLaren’s Technology Center, Sotheby’s, Founders Factory, The Ivy, and Greenhouse Sports. You will meet founders, innovators, company builders and UNC alumni. Students must complete ECON 125 before participating on this seminar.

All participants remain enrolled at UNC, earning graded Honors Carolina course credit for a full semester’s work. Courses count toward fulfillment of general education and major requirements. There are no prerequisites for any course with the exception of ECON 125 in order to be eligible for the Shuford track. Students on the internship track receive credit for the internship and take three academic courses in addition to the internship.

Courses

DRAM 120H | Contemporary London Theatre and its Origins (3 Credits)

Professor Clive Perrott
Making Connections: Visual and Performing Arts (VP), North Atlantic World (NA), Communication Intensive (CI)
IDEAs in Action Attributes: FC-AESTH

These classes will demystify the theatre and allow it to be fun and accessible. We will consider theatre as a craft rather than an art form. We will look at the practicalities of putting on a show: the choice of play, the venue, the director, the stage design, lighting, sound, the cast and marketing etc. Let us explore all the choices and decision making that goes into theatre production. We will apply these practicalities to aspects of our course work.

Let’s discover, for ourselves, why certain plays and playwrights endure. For example: Why are Shakespeare, Brecht and Pinter held in such high esteem? We will take classic, legendary and seminal plays off their historic pedestal, discover them for ourselves, deconstruct them and make them our own. Let us also look at the job of being an actor. We will, for example, find out how verse works. We will learn how to speak it and listen to it with pleasure and with insight. We will ask other questions: Just what is ‘Method Acting’? What is plot and subplot? What, for that matter, is subtext? What is Sense Memory and how is it used? What is ‘Endowment’, in a theatrical context, and when should the performer give or take focus?

Let us experience the challenge of deconstructing a play, building a character and making the playwright’s words our own from both the actor and the director’s POV. Theatre is visceral, vibrant and alive. So, let’s learn by getting up on our feet and doing it. We will take a text, place it in its social and historic context, read it, deconstruct it, understand and enjoy it and then, when we are ready, we will rehearse a scene or two as if preparing to perform.

When we have made the play truly our own, we will take a trip to the theatre and see how a professional company have faced the challenge of bringing the same play to life. We will then write a review and, love it or loathe it, we will write with authority and insight.

POLI 232H | Contemporary British Politics (3 Credits)

Professor Scott Kelly
Making Connections: Social and Behavioral Sciences (SS), North Atlantic World (NA)
IDEAs in Action Attributes: FC-POWER
Major Credit: Political Science 232 (Politics in England)

The course aims to give students a basic understanding of the changing nature of the UK state and politics both in a geographic and institutional sense as well as an appreciation of its political culture and values. This covers the way in which UK sovereignty is being eroded by devolution to its national regions and the process of creeping integration into the European Union as well as the transformation of its basic policy consensus from the post war period to the present. The aim is that students should understand how and why reform, change and “modernization” is taking place in a post imperial and global context and how this impacts on constitutional, economic and social issues. The objective is to encourage students to read newspapers, watch TV programmes and acquire an insight into current British politics as well as make use of textbooks, articles and internet for research purposes which should enable them to compare and contrast British political life with that of America and appreciate the similarities and differences. The approach will be to encourage both empathy and critical examination of institutions, policies and issues to promote a facility of independent judgment.

HIST 229H: The History of London 43-1666 (Fall 2024)

Professor Dr. Marcus Bull
Making Connections: Historical Analysis (HS), World Before 1750 (WB)
IDEAs in Action: FC-KNOWING or FC-PAST

This course is an opportunity to take a deep dive into the fascinating history of the very city where you will be living, studying and working. We shall begin with the foundation of “Londinium” by the Romans, and conclude with the Great Fire, which swept through most of the city in 1666. An emphasis throughout will be on studying documents and other pieces of evidence from the time. There will also be opportunities for site visits – for example to the remains of the Roman amphitheater, Westminster Hall, the British Museum and the Museum of London.

ECON 327H.02S: London Loves (Spring)

Professor Jed Simmons
IDEAs in Action Attributes: HI-INTERN 

The course focuses on life as an entrepreneur and what we love about London. The class explores innovation in areas such as fashion, tourism, food, fintech, sports, art, media, and social enterprise. During the semester students meet founders, innovators, company builders, and UNC alumni. Company visits include innovators like Matchesfashion.com, Monese, McLaren, Sotheby’s, Founders Factory, The Ivy, YouTube, Imperial College, Charlotte Tilbury, OneFineStay, and Greenhouse Sports.

MEJO 447H: Media in the UK

Professor Owen Bennett-Jones
Making Connections: Social Science (SS)
IDEAS in Action Attributes: FC-GLOBAL
Major Credit: Media and Journalism

An introduction to media in the UK including the history of the press, media law, and the political and social context in which the British media operate. Using examples from recent news stories, the course will also cover ethics and the key journalistic prin­ciples of objectivity, impartiality and balance. Students will explore how stories make it into the news and how they are then treated by papers and broadcast media. There will be a chance to compare the UK and US media and examine how the West treats news from the developing world. The impact of social media and “citizen journalism” on the flow of information to (and from) the public will also be examined.

HNRS 370 | The London Art World (3 Credits)

Professor Linda Bolton
Making Connections: Visual and Performing Arts (VP), North Atlantic World (NA)
Major Credit: Art History

This course examines some of the dazzling array of art on view in London’s museums and public galleries, its smaller art centers, commercial galleries and auction houses, and in public spaces. It is possible to see both historic and contemporary art from round the world in London, this most diverse of world capitals, and we will be exploring famous galleries such as the National Gallery and Tate Modern, as well as going to a variety of different London neighborhoods.  Our focus is two-fold: both on the diversity of art on display, and on the nature of contemporary art displays.

By the end of the course, you will be confident about looking at previously unfamiliar art works and discussing them, both verbally in the group and in the journal that is a major component of the course grade. You will be familiar with a range of art terms, will be able to analyze the labels, wall panels and leaflets that accompany art displays, and will have a good sense of what there is to see in London and how best to understand it.

ENGL 253H | Imagining Literary London (3 Credits)

Professor Laurence Scott
Making Connections: Literary Analysis (LA) *pending approval
Major Credit: English and Comparative Literature

This course traces the evolution of ‘imagined’ London as the setting and inspiration for literary works, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. A key theme is the way in which London writers have responded to periods of extreme violence. We will consider, for example, Dickens’s articulation of the French Revolution, Modernist expressions of the horrors of the First World War, and how London writers past and present have represented the rise of European fascism and the subsequent terror of the Blitz. Students will explore the city in ways complementary to course material, while being introduced to important concepts in urban literary studies.

ARTH 279H | The Arts in England (3 Credits)

Professor Dr. Tatiana String
Making Connections: Visual and Performing Arts (VP), World Before 1750 (WB)
IDEAs in Action: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST

This course explores the visual culture of England during the reigns of the Tudors and early Stuarts. King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, and Charles I are some of the best known and most notorious monarchs in history and their representations in portraits, printed books, and scuptural monuments will be amongst the types of objects under discussion here. We will also have many opportuinites to see these works of art and architecture in person with visits to the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, Hampton Court Palace, and the remains of Whitehall Palace. In addition to studying these monuments for their historical and stylistic significance, the course is very much concerned to identify and deal with theoretical issues related to gender, class, communication, and power.

HNRS 378 | The London Experience (1 Credit)

 

HNRS 393 | Internship (3-5 Credits)

Making Connections: Experiential Education (EE)

Students can elect to complete an internship for 5 credits (20 hours/week), 4 credits (15 hours/week), or 3 credits (10 hours/week).