Program Highlights

Program Dates

June 28 – July 26, 2025

Faculty Director

Jeff Spinner-Halev, Department of Political Science

Program Highlights

Starting in the United Kingdom offers us several pedagogical opportunities. London is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, and filled with nationalist symbols and icons, providing us with an interesting contrast. We will tour the Houses of Parliament, the Churchill War Rooms and the nearby monuments. We will visit the Imperial War Museum, to see how Britain portrays itself and Germany in WWI. We learn about the role of the empire in both world wars and about immigration into the UK from its now former colonies. Finally, London is also one of the most diverse cities in the West, and we will take some time to explore that diversity and learn about multiculturalism in the U.K. We will tour London’s East End, the home of many immigrant communities over the centuries, and one of the most diverse places in London today, and visit the Black cultural archives. These experiences will help us think through the interplay between national identity, immigration and diversity. 

While in Berlin, we will examine how Germany wrestles with its national identity in the aftermath of both world wars, how reunification affects German identity, and then how immigration has challenged and changed German identity, all in comparison with Britain. We will visit some of the iconic Berlin sites, like the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate, and visit the German historical museum and a former concentration camp, now a memorial and museum, to see how Germany portrays its past. We will learn about the Berlin Wall, how it divided Berlin, and how East and West remain divided even with the wall taken down. We will take a walking tour of the Kreuzberg neighborhood, one of the more diverse in Berlin. We will also take a trip to a small town in East Germany, to examine the attitudes of citizens there toward national identity, in comparison to those in the more cosmopolitan Berlin.