The Internationalisation of Postgraduate Study

IoI Postgrad Forum – The Internationalisation of Postgraduate Study

Location:
London School of Economics, Room A318, 3rd Floor, Old Building
Houghton Street, off Aldwych
London, United Kingdom

 

The first Postgrad Forum of the new year will be taking place on Thursday, 24th January, 7pm at the London School of Economics, Room A318, 3rd Floor, Old Building – the entrance is on Houghton Street, off Aldwych.

Map: http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm

We are pleased to announce that *Simon Cooke*, doctoral student in Literary and Cultural Studies at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture at Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, and regular contributor to Culture Wars (www.culturewars.org.uk) will be presenting:

The Two Cultures? Britain, ‘Europe’ and the Internationalisation of Postgraduate Study in the Humanities

Abstract: In 1999 the European Commission saw in the new millennium by setting in motion the ‘Bologna Process’ with the aim of standardising the Bachelors / Masters / Doctorate system across the continent to create a ‘European Education Area’ by 2010. Signs of such an ‘education area’ developing in the humanities in Europe are clear in the recent emergence of international and interdisciplinary ‘graduate centres’ and numerous international collaborations (such as the Hermes, the European Summer School in Cultural Studies, the ACUME network). While one of the factors contributing to the circulation of research (and researchers) in the humanities in mainland Europe has been the emergence of English as a ‘first second language’, it is striking that the involvement of British institutions in these networks remains comparatively low, as does the number of British graduates pursuing graduate study on the ‘continent’. Taking “English Studies” as a particularly striking case in point, does this suggest that the English Channel is becoming the locus of a “two cultures” divide between the studies of culture in Britain and Europe? Should there be closer collaboration between British universities and those in the rest of Europe? What are the implications of an ‘international’ approach, and experience, in the study of culture in the humanities? And most specifically, what – alluding to the well-worn British graduate traveller’s track of Teaching English as a Foreign Language – might be gained by studying ‘English as a Foreign Literature’?

As usual, the format will be as follows: chair to introduce speaker and session, speaker presents for up to 30 minutes, chair opens up to the floor for discussion for about 1 hour and then we all head down to the pub to continue the discussion informally.

Published: 1.23.08 / 12am
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