Honors London Classic Track

Fall 2025 Dates

September 6 – December 13, 2025

Faculty Director

Jonathan Weiler, UNC Department of Global Studies

Dr. Jonathan Weiler received his PhD in political science from UNC Chapel Hill. He has written four books, including Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2009), co-authored with Marc Hetherington), which won the Philip Converse award from the American Political Science Association in 2016, in recognition of the book’s lasting impact on the field, and Prius or Pickup: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide (2018), also co-authored with Marc Hetherington. He teaches courses on economic globalization, sports and globalization and human rights.

Highlights

The Honors Semester in London is based at UNC’s Winston House in historic Bedford Square.

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.

Internship opportunities are available in fields ranging from global finance to healthcare and the arts. When combined with academic coursework, internships provide a valuable educational experience and allow students to engage actively with British society.

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 as well as major requirements.

Students on the program will choose one of three tracks:

 

For more information on the Shuford Honors Seminar in Entrepreneurship track, check out this webpage. 

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.

ECON 327H.02S: London Loves (3 Credits)

Professor Jed Simmons (Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship) & Local Faculty, taught in person at Winston House
IDEAs in Action Attributes: HI-INTERN 

This class provides a unique and exciting look at entrepreneurship and innovation in London and a number of the industries that help make London such a special City. London has become one of the centers of Finance, Flowers, Fashion, Retail, Food, Drinks, Art, Sport, Creativity, Tourism, Venture Capital, Web 3.0, Media, and Baking! The class will take a deep dive into a number of these industries through the lens of site visits, guests, Cases, readings, videos, and experiences. We will call Winston House home, but we will be all over London visiting venues, stadiums, accelerators, creative spaces, offices, and a private garden. The class will celebrate London’s innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship, as well as Britannia’s personality. We call it London Loves.

MEJO 447H: Media in the UK (3 Credits)

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.

HNRS 390 | Journey through Mental Health with British Icons & Museums (3 Credits)

Professor Jennifer Youngstrom
IDEAs in Action: FC-VALUES

An introduction to several of the most common mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. We will learn their diagnostic criteria and common treatments – all with connections to British culture and history! We will visit several museums about interventions, possibly including Freud museum, Bethlem museum of the Mind, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Royal Society of Medicine, and the Wellcome Collection to see the history of treatments Additional excursions may include museums (such as Courtauld Institute of Art and/or the National Gallery with works by Van Gogh and Degas) with exhibits produced by artists who suffered from mental illness. Students will pick a British celebrity who has been public about their mental illlness (examples include but not limited to: Adele, Prince Harry, John Lennon, Winston Churchill, Elton John, Daniel Radcliffe, Keith Richards, Ray Davies) to present to the group their person’s experience with mental illness and treatment.

HNRS 378 | The London Experience (1 Credit)

The London Experience is a guided journey through London and UK cultural and historic sites. All students are required to take this course during their semester to ensure they are getting an immersive and enriched cultural experience while abroad.

 

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).

James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence
218 E. Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
(919) 966-5110
honorscarolina@unc.edu