London Undergraduate Programs News

Prof. Fay Stevens, who leads the course, writes “The Archaeology and Ethics course covers the topics of archaeological ethics; the relationship between archaeology and others (the public, ethnic groups, avocational archaeologists, collectors, etc.); international and national approaches to archaeological heritage management (such as the effects of conflict on heritage); the antiquities market; reburial and repatriation of cultural heritage; issues of identity; the ethics of collecting; plunder; underwater archaeology, and treasure hunting; archaeology as a profession; and archaeological education. We explore these themes in a variety of contexts, including fieldtrips to Bath and Stonehenge, The British Museum (e.g. the Parthenon Marbles, Egyptian Mummies, the Rosetta Stone), The Petrie Museum, The Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers Museums in Oxford etc.”

“As part of our studies, we visited the Duveen Gallery in the British Museum, which displays the British Museum collection of marbles from the Parthenon in Athens.  The contested acquisition and ownership of these marbles is a central issue in the topic of archaeology and ethics.  Our field trip marks the start and preparation of ‘The Great Debate’, a role-play debate undertaken by the class, in which they take on the identity of either Greek or UK curators/historians/heritage specialists and attempt to come to an agreement with regard to the future ownership and housing of the marbles.  Always a popular component of the course, the Great Debate offers a great opportunity to get to grips with a complex and fascinating topic and our trip to the museum provides an excellent context in which to start the process.”

Image © Fay Stevens

Author, poet, and teacher of two LUP English classes, Gill Gregory, has recently received a wonderful review from the international literary magazine, Tears in the Fence. The book, In Slow Woods, was published by Rufus Books last year, and given a fine launch here at the London Centre.

The reviewer, Valeria Melchioretti, writes: “these poems have the smooth, airy, orderly elegance one might associate with a school of silver birches in the Russian Plain come midwinter.”

“This collection speaks to the eye and the soul as well as the ear and the mind.”

Tears in the Fence (#54) is available to purchase from their website, or, for our students, call in to the Poetry Library at the South Bank Centre to read a copy there.

Notre Dame’s London Undergraduate Program returns from the Easter weekend break with a pair of exciting evening events:

Today, 10 April, Professor Robert Schmuhl, Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Professor of American Studies and Journalism, Director of Notre Dame’s John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics & Democracy, author of “Statecraft and Stagecraft: American Political Life in the Age of Personality,” and current LUP faculty member, speaks on the complex, often bizarre history of the 2012 American presidential electoral politics and what trajectories it might take up to November. This Conway Conversation, entitled,“Presidential Politics of 2012: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go.” , will take place at 5.30 in Conway Hall’s Student Activity Centre.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 11 April at 6pm sees the launch of a new Shakespeare lecture series in London, sponsored by the London Program, and the Shakespeare Institute (Stratford) and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (Stratford) with Professor Stanley Wells speaking on “Eighty Years with Shakespeare.” Trafalgar Hall will be packed with world leading authorities on Shakespeare, and the event will streamed live to Notre Dame, with Professor Peter Holland speaking from campus. A few tickets remain – email Christina.Pehlivanos.1@nd.edu to book.

Wednesday will see the second event in the newly-launched Conway Conversations series, entitled “9/11 and the New World Order”

This year sees the anniversary of the terrible events of 9/11, but we have also seen a fundamental set of shifts in world politics. Western armies have been in Iraq, Libya and remain in Afghanistan, where there appears to be no resolution. The Arab Spring has brought changes to countries like Egypt, but not yet delivered democracy. The Moslem Brotherhood hovers in the wings. Syria has drawn nearer to Iran as its domestic politics have disintegrated, and America and Britain have drawn up plans for war. Meanwhile the Euro plummets and has brought down the Greek and Italian governments and there are plans for mass demonstrations in London later this month against austerity measures. Are we entering a new world or seeing the death of old certainties? Are world politics and economics so volatile that the future is unpredictable? What are the limits of democracy?

Come and debate these urgent issues. Wednesday, 23 November, 5.30pm,
Student Activities Centre, Conway Hall

LUP students do not need to book a seat in advance, but any staff, faculty or alumni interested in attending should email Christina Pehlivanos and put “Conway Conversations” in the Subject line (Christina.Pehlivanos.1@nd.edu).

Speakers:
Professor Clive Bloom, University of Notre Dame London Undergraduate Program
LUP faculty member and distinguished literary scholar, cultural critic, and author of books on London’s history of protest movements and violence; massively in demand for interviews by British press and media during the August London riots.

Professor Richard Heffernan, University of Notre Dame London Undergraduate Program
LUP faculty member and distinguished political scientist with many publications in the areas of British political and constitutional history, as well as transatlantic relations between Britain and America.

Dr Hakim Adi, University of Chichester
From his doctoral work at SOAS (School of African and Oriental Studies), through his time as faculty member at Middlesex University and the University of Chichester, Adi has written extensively on Middle Eastern politics, Pan-African History and the African Diaspora. A founding member of Britain’s Black and Asian Studies Association and one of the organisers of Black History Month, he is currently writing a book about Paul Robeson, twentieth-century African-American actor, athlete, and civil rights leader.

Chair: Professor Greg Kucich, University of Notre Dame London Undergraduate Program

(Photo by Barry Yanowitz, used under Creative Commons, with thanks)

Professor Rory Rapple, who is currently teaching courses on sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century British history on the LUP, is going to Ireland to give two papers on different aspects of his own research over the first weekend of the Fall Break.

The first paper, which will be given at the Humanities Institute of Ireland in University College, Dublin tonight, is about the career of Essex man Ralph Lane. Lane is best known as the Governor of England’s first (not very successful) American colony in Roanoke, Virginia. His later career as the master of Elizabeth’s army in Ireland, however is a good deal less heroic. It is an hilarious story of corruption and graft that would not look out of place in Joseph Heller’s book Catch 22. Rapple highlights Lane’s political opportunism and shows how, under the guise of professionalism, he weaved a web of bribery and larceny that beggars belief.

Rapples second paper will be given in Trinity College Dublin on Monday 17 October. It is on the ways in which the question of who would succeed Elizabeth I after her death made an impact on Irish politics in the 1590s. This period saw native Irish alliances with Spain against Elizabeth’s regime, but Rapple argues that the Irish ‘rebels’, despite their defiance, always had the question of what might happen following the aged queen’s death on their mind, even during the most polarised periods of conflict. In this way Rapple reinterprets the period and invites a reimagining of the dying days of Elizabethan Ireland.