Centre-in-England (at the University of Reading): fall, 2008

and

Centre-in-London: spring, 2009

********

Centre-in-England (at the University of Reading): Fall, 2008

This program, now in its ninth year, provides an opportunity for a small group of Centre students to live and study at a major British university with British and other international students.  It has had great appeal for Centre students who seek a somewhat more independent “exchange-student” experience in a foreign university, rather than the more typical Centre experience where students take classes abroad with other Centre students and regular or adjunct Centre professors.  About 20% of Reading’s 12,000 students are from other countries, including about 125 visiting American students from institutions similar to Centre.   

Centre selected the University of Reading for this program because of its long-standing reputation as an attractive and welcoming home for American and other international students, the variety and strength of its academic programs, its leafy location near London, and the professionalism of its Visiting Student Office, which organizes very low-cost excursions to Edinburgh, Stonehenge, Bath, etc.  A 3.0 academic average is required to apply for this program.     

The program begins when you arrive in London the Thursday morning after you fly out of the States on Wednesday, September 24th (flights to Europe arrive the next morning.)  Once you arrive, you meet up with a Centre Professor and the other Centre-in-England students for an orientation to living/studying abroad, the City of London, and to Reading.  You will stay in the Bloomsbury district of central London, near the British Museum and University of London, and will be introduced to major museums, historical sites, concert halls, and theatres.  The final day of the Centre orientation is spent in Reading, a pleasant, bustling town of 175,000 people upstream on the River Thames, about half way to Oxford. 

Trains between London’s Paddington Station and Reading leave about every 20 minutes and continue until 2:30 a.m.  The express train takes 23 minutes and costs 10.60 pounds round-trip--about $19.00, though it will cost you less, because you will be given pounds to purchase a Young Person’s Rail Pass that allows you to travel for 1/3rd off.  For the last part of the Centre orientation, you will stay in Reading’s pedestrian-only town center, a short walk to The Oracle (a new shopping, restaurant, and entertainment complex) and a longer walk up the hill to the University. 

Visiting American students at the University live in modern, single rooms, each with its own wash basin, telephone, and computer port.  There is a kitchen for every eight rooms, and students are not segregated by sex or year.  You will take your meals with, compete on intramural teams with, and have social events with the 250-300 other students in your “College.”  So that visiting students make friends with British and other international students, Reading does not house all students from an American institution in the same college, but rather spreads them out two or three to a college.  Unlike most modern British universities, the 300-acre campus at Reading includes a lake and much green space.  The Centre orientation is followed by a six-day University of Reading orientation, which includes social events, excursions, student fairs, and lectures on travel opportunities in Great Britain and the continent.   

During the ten-week Reading term, you select, generally, three 4-hour courses from a great number offered by many departments.  Typically, a course may have two lectures a week, occasional individual meetings with the professor, two papers, and some kind of final examination—although this regime will vary widely, depending on the course and department.  Students may not use a Reading English course as their required junior seminar.   

There is a non-refundable $350 deposit/surcharge for this program.  In addition, students pay their own round-trip airfare, currently about $550.  (You may be able to save money by canceling your car insurance while abroad.)  If selected, you must pay the non-refundable $350 deposit/surcharge at the Cashier’s Office in Boles Hall by noon on Monday, March 3rd.  A 15-minute video about visiting students at Reading is available in the Study-Abroad office in Carnegie.  Even better: check out Jenn Wolford’s University of Reading “Travel Journal”on the Centre webpage.

Centre-in-London, Spring, 2009

London, a city of eight million, is perhaps the most dynamic and diverse city in the world.  In the 21st century, it still lives up to Dr. Samuel Johnson’s famous 18th century dictum:  “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”  Co-directing the 2009 Centre-in-London program are Professors Elizabeth Perkins from the History program and Mark Rasmussen from the English Department. Both are veteran study abroad directors. Professor Perkins directed the Centre-in-London program in 2003 and co-directed the Mexico program, while Professor Rasmussen has twice served as director of Centre-in-Strasbourg.

Students are housed in two-person, efficiency flats in Endsleigh Court, a handsome apartment/hotel building in Bloomsbury, the academic and intellectual quarter in central London near the theatre district.  The building is located a short walk away from the British Museum, the British Library, and the University of London’s Birkbeck College where classes meet.  Its location near Euston Station makes it convenient to major tube lines, trains, and the London busses that stop across the street.  On the way to class, students walk through the leafy squares where the late John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, William Butler Yeats, and other British luminaries once lived.

Each flat includes an entrance hall, a fully equipped kitchenette, and a modern bathroom.  Its main room includes two single beds, wardrobe and drawer space, a private telephone, and color tv.  A porter is on duty at the front desk 24 hours a day.  At regular intervals students are given food money sufficient for shopping and preparing wholesome meals in their apartment kitchens—though not sufficient for eating out in restaurants in one of the most expensive cities in the world.    

All students in the program will take History 380: Museums, Knowledge, Power with Professor Perkins.   Designed specifically to be taught in London, this course draws on the unparalleled resources of that city to examine museum-going as a cultural experience from the Renaissance to the present. Questions addressed include how museums have shaped knowledge about the world, played a role in nationalism, and helped to define the ethnographic other.   Through analytical assignments and visits to museums ranging from the sublime (the Victoria & Albert) to the bizarre (the British Lawnmower Museum), the course challenges students to be more deliberate and informed "visitors" rather than "tourists" checking yet another destination off of their itinerary. In addition, students choose three of the following course options:

a.  Drama 341: Contemporary London Theatre.  Students study, view, and discuss a wide variety of London productions ranging from the latest West End shows to government-subsidized theatre at the Barbicon and National to “fringe” theatre put on in pubs.  The fee to cover theatre tickets for this course is partially subsidized by Centre.   The class is taught by Centre adjunct veteran Steve Dykes from the Rose-Bruford School of Drama.

b.  English 301/Drama 331, Shakespeare I .   A close study of selected plays, chosen from among those being staged in London and Stratford-upon-Avon that spring.   As well as attending performances of the plays, students will make field trips to Stratford, to the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London, and to the remains of several other Elizabethan theaters that are currently being excavated, as they study the works of the world's greatest playwright in the city where his plays were originally performed.   Taught by Professor Rasmussen.

c.  English 315, The Romance of Arthur .   A study of the literature surrounding the figure of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, from its origins in the early Middle Ages to the present. The course will include visits to Arthurian sites in London, as well as an optional weekend trip to such other locations in Britain as Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, the purported birthplace of King Arthur, and Glastonbury in Somerset, considered by many to be the original Isle of Avalon.   The cost of this optional trip will be partially subsidized by Centre.   Taught by Professor Rasmussen.

d. History 230, Development of the United States I.   This section of the U.S. History course will emphasize the international context of early American history and the imperial relationship between Britain and America.   The London area is particularly rich in sites related to such important topics as the slave trade and abolitionism, imperial warfare, and colonial politics, and our British location will allow students to view the history of their own country from a new and illuminating perspective.   This course fulfills a general education requirement.   Taught by Professor Perkins.

Students fly out of the States on Tuesday, February, 17th and arrive in England Wednesday morning, where the program formally begins.  There is a four-day break for optional individual travel from March 26-29, coinciding with the end of Centre’s spring break.  The program ends with a trip to Paris from April 29-May 3.  Students have the option either of leaving the program in Paris on Saturday afternoon, May 2nd , or taking the Eurostar train back to London that evening and leaving the program in London on the morning of Sunday, May 3rd , in time, if they wish, to catch a plane back the States that same day.  Many students, however, will make use of the days following the program to travel throughout the British Isles and Europe before they return to the States for the summer.  To facilitate this post-program travel, Centre will rent storage space in Endsleigh Court until Sunday, May 19th, for storing luggage students may not want to haul around with them. 

The non-refundable $350 deposit/surcharge for this program helps to cover the considerable extra costs of housing in central London.  In addition, students pay their own round-trip airfare, currently available for about $520 at reduced student rates.  (You may be able to save money while abroad by canceling your car insurance.)  Centre pays for the Paris weekend, occasional group meals in London, and class excursions.  On arrival, students will be given half the cost of their first month’s unlimited bus/tube pass and a stipend for preparing papers and e-mailing in the nearby cyber-cafes.  For your convenience, if you have a laptop you should definitely take it. 

Application and faculty recommendation forms may be picked up in the cabinet outside Career Services in Carnegie.  Students who are selected must pay the non-refundable $350 deposit/surcharge to the Cashier’s Office in Boles Hall by noon on Monday, March 3rd, to hold their spot in the program.  For more information, check out the London “Travel Journals” on the Centre website, by Eric Hack ’08 and Nate Olson ’04.

Study-Abroad Insurance

All students studying abroad through any Centre program receive travel and accident insurance at no additional cost.   Centre's Study Abroad Insurance, while provided through EIIA (Educational & Institutional Insurance Administrators), is administered through AIG Assist.   Every student studying abroad with Centre College receives an AIG Assist contact and information card as well as a passport sticker.   Each has the Centre insurance policy number, which is the only information needed to receive services. The categories of coverage provided are: accident and sickness ($100,000 limit with a $250 deductible); emergency medical evacuation and emergency family travel ($100,000 limit); accidental death and disability ($200,000 limit); and repatriation of remains ($100,000 limit).   For specific questions, please contact the International Programs office at 859.238.5287 or lisa.nesmith@centre.edu.