Selected topics in British culture

On this course you will examine aspects of past and present-day Britain, either with direct studies of its society and culture or through its novelists and philosophers, artists, poets, mystics, and myth makers. You will have a chance to approach your chosen topic both in and outside the classroom – through discussion in small groups, analysis of texts, and field trips to iconic places outside Oxford, such as Stonehenge, Cambridge, or Hampton Court.

Study Abroad Oxford Christian Student Reflecting
I loved the amount of ways we were able to look at British culture through the course: through examining ideas and preoccupations, through doing individual research and writing essays, and through visiting the places where history actually occurred.
Michaelmas term (spring semester) 2019

The course

This course is offered as a series of discussion classes, in small groups. You will focus on one topic of your choice, out of 14 ‘selected topics’ (see the list below).

You will develop your close reading skills with study of ‘gobbets’ (short pieces of text which epitomise an argument or illustrate a technique), and hone your writing skills by producing two essays, after extensive reading, reflection, and class debate.

In addition, you will join the whole student group on field trips to memorable sites in Oxford and the south of England.  The field trips change from year to year, and in the past have included trips to Stonehenge and Salisbury cathedral, Winchester cathedral, Bath, Hampton Court in London, the HMS Victory moored in Portsmouth, and Cambridge.

The course is taught by specialists in each of SCIO’s major academic concentrations. Credit is offered in a number of disciplines, ranging from art and classics to history and philosophy. Each course will help you understand Britain and appreciate the rich past and present of the country where you live while on the programme. The full range of topics that you can choose from, and the disciplines you can get credit for, are listed below.

List of British Culture courses available, and their respective disciplines

Selected topics in British cultureDiscipline(s) in which you can earn credit

Applied Ethics

Business ethics and human rights
Ethics
Philosophy

Contemporary British culture: history, politics, and society

History
Political science
Sociology

Creative writing

English

C.S. Lewis and the classics

Classics
English

Faith and reason in the British enlightenment

Philosophy
Theology

Intellect and imagination: the rational religion and theological stories of C.S. Lewis

Philosophy
Theology

J.R.R. Tolkien: Oxford's creator of other worlds

English

Jane Austen in context

English
Gender studies

Oxford and the pursuit of beauty: art and criticism in the 19th century

English
Gender studies
History
History of art
Philosophy

Oxford women philosophers, on God and the good

Ethics
Gender studies
Philosophy

Prohibition and transgression: the 18th and 19th century novel

English

Psychology and literature: from Margery Kempe to Sylvia Plath

English
Psychology

Science and religion in Britain, from 1600 to the present

History of science
Philosophy
Theology

Sharing a crowded planet: thinking about nature, ecology, religion, and ethics 1750–1960

Biology
Environmental science
Geography
History
Theology

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