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"You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."     —Samuel Johnson

For one month each summer, students can live and study in the vibrant metropolis that inspired visionary writers from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf. In this faculty-led English Department program, students will explore writings from early and modern authors that capture the comedy and tragedy of this magnificent city. London will be the students' classroom, and the poems, novels, and plays of London's authors will be their maps, leading them from Bloomsbury to the Globe Theater, from the British Museum to the Poet's Corner, and from Cheapside to Whitehall.

The students will take two classes on London and its literary history: Virginia Woolf's London and Cosmopolitan London. Together, these courses will guide the students through the London of Virginia Woolf and through the city built from colonial prosperity and devastated by war in the last century. Each course will be offered under more than one course number to accommodate majors with different requirements to fulfill. Reading, assignments, and grading will encourage the students to experience British culture and history firsthand.

The students will stay in shared apartments in Bloomsbury, located in west central London. These apartments are close to the Dickens House as well as King's Cross Station and Russell Square. The students will attend class a mere half block from the famed British Museum and will attend lectures at various cultural locales, like museums, gardens, and libraries.

Courses Offered

All students must enroll for 6 credits.

Virginia Woolf’s London (3 credits)
    ENGL 489 (prerequisite ENGL 443) or ENGL 490
Cosmopolitan London (3 credits)
    ENGL 199 or ENGL 499

Virginia Woolf's London
This course will immerse us in modern London and its environs, as we read the works and explore the haunts of novelist and essayist Virginia Woolf. We will select our readings, and our London rambles, from a range of fiction and nonfiction works. The readings may include: "The London Scene," a collection of inspired travel essays that roam from London’s docks, Oxford Street, and the city’s Abbeys and Cathedrals to “Great Men's Houses”; "A Room of One's Own," her meditation on women's education and women's rights; "Mrs. Dalloway," her beautiful exploration of gender, class, and disability in the inter-war years; "Three Guineas," her exploration of the economic foundations of education, the professions, and war; and Orlando, her brilliant fable of gender and artistic genius. Drawing our inspiration from these readings, we will visit sites in and around London, such as the British Museum, the Fawcett Library, Regent’s Park, the London Transport Museum, the Cabinet War Rooms, and the National Gallery, as well as the ancient university towns of Oxford or Cambridge, the famous "white garden" of Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst or the celebrated ancient country house, "Knole." Together, we will explore Woolf’s portrait of London in the first four decades of the twentieth century: as a site of dramatic change in human relations, as gender, sexuality, ability, and even the human being were tested, contested, and redefined.

Cosmopolitan London
What distinguishes a tourist from a traveler? An immigrant from an expatriate? In order to address these questions, this course will cover a wide variety of representations of London life by writers from England and elsewhere. We will consider London’s role as the bureaucratic seat of empire, a world financial center, and — as one of the most international cities in the world — a potential site of cosmopolitan human connection and alienation. The course draws on literary texts from the Victorian era to the present, as well as theoretical texts about cosmopolitanism and urban life. Inspired by readings such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Padraic O’Conaire’s Exile, and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, we will discuss the ethical and practical questions raised by international movement and cultural difference, and examine the different visions of London and Londoners that the literature conveys. We will also explore these views of London in person, through a series of excursions around the city.

Eligibility

The program is open to all students with a minimum 2.5 grade-point average. Applicants are considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Students are encouraged to apply early, as enrollment is limited.

Faculty

Emily Sharpe, a doctoral student in English, studies British, Canadian, and American modernisms, with an emphasis on nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and identity. She is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on international writings about the Spanish Civil War. This project examines the ways in which writers and participants related issues at the core of the conflict — including democracy, socialism, fascism, feminism, and colonialism — to their home countries.

Susan Squier is Brill Professor of Women’s Studies, English, and STS (Science, Technology, and Society) at Penn State, University Park. The courses she teaches span modern literature, women’s studies, literature and medicine, and science and technology studies. Her first edited collection, Women Writers and the City, explored the imaginative power of the urban landscape for women writers. For her next book, Virginia Woolf and London, she read Virginia Woolf’s diaries and manuscripts in libraries and special collections in London, Sussex, England, and New York City in order to examine how the city helped Virginia Woolf carve a workable environment for herself as a woman in modern England. Since then, Squier has published on twentieth-century medicine, literature, and culture in Babies in Bottles: Twentieth-Century Visions of Reproductive Technology (1994) and Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Biomedicine (2004); she has edited a number of collections concerning the relations between literature and significant social phenomena (Women Writers and the City: Essays in Feminist Literary Criticism and Communities of the Air: Radio Century, Radio Culture); and she has co-edited several (Playing Dolly: Technocultural Formations, Fantasies, and Fictions of Assisted Reproduction, with E. Ann Kaplan, and Arms and the Woman: War, Gender, and Literary Representation, edited with Helen Cooper and Adrienne Munich). She is about to send to the publisher her most recent book, Chicken Culture: A Partial Alphabet. Professor Squier has won the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award at Penn State and the Stephanie Pavoucek Shields Award for Mentoring. She is an avid traveler, having lived in London for more than a year and spent several summers there doing research for her books. She loves to walk in the city.

 

Expenses

The total program fee includes two components: tuition (6 credits) and a class fee (based on activities and location). All the students will pay the in-state tuition rate for 2010 Summer Abroad programs.

Expenses NOT covered are:

• passport
• personal expenses
• optional excursions
• round-trip airfare (approximately $1,500 plus tax)
• most meals
• textbooks and supplies 

Estimated Tuition (6 credits)

Out-of-state students will be charged the out-of-state tuition rate until the first day of the program. At that time, the students’ bursar account will be adjusted to reflect the in-state tuition rate of $613 per credit.

In-state students will pay tuition according to their standing and the Penn State tuition schedule.

$3,678 in-state/out-of-state

The University reserves the right to revise the schedule of tuition and charges without further notice. For more information on tuition, visit http://tuition.psu.edu.

Class Fee

The class fee of $2,695 includes insurance, lodging, some meals, transportation in the London vicinity and to various sites, entrance to museums and theatres, and administrative expenses.

Estimated Total Program Fee

The estimated program fee of $6,373 includes tuition as well as the class fee.

Financial Aid

For alternative grant, loan, and minority and Whole World scholarship information, visit the Education Abroad Financial Aid and Scholarships Web page.

Refunds

All cancellations must be received by the conference planner, in writing, by mail or fax. Do not use eLion; it does not remove you from the course, and you will be held responsible for all fees. Full refunds minus the nonrefundable $1,000 application fee will be made for cancellations received at least thirty days prior to the first day of the program. Refund requests made after that time will not be honored, and the participant or sponsoring organization will be responsible for the fees.

Information Technology Fee: 1 to 4.5 credits, $78; 5 to 8.5 credits, $170; 9 or more credits, $230

For passport information, visit www.travel.state.gov/passport/index.html.

How to Apply

Financial assistance: The Student Support Initiative for Penn State undergraduates enrolling in our Summer Education Abroad programs will continue for summer 2010. If you would like to be considered for such an award, please indicate this in the required short essay you will submit with your application. Include the reasons why you should receive financial assistance.

Online registration will be available soon.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 18, 2010

Cancellation: The University may cancel or postpone any course or activity because of insufficient enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances. If a program is canceled or postponed, the University will refund registration fees but cannot be held responsible for any related costs, charges, or expenses, including cancellation/change charges assessed by airlines or travel agencies.

Access: Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing special accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the conference planner at 814-863-1738.

Space may be available after the application deadline. Please contact the conference planner to determine availability and/or to be added to the waiting list.

 

Contact Us

Regarding program content:
Susan Squier
Brill Professor of Women's Studies, English, and STS
219 Burrowes Building
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park PA 16802
Phone: 814-466-7626
E-mail: sxs62@psu.edu

Regarding application process:
Cindy Stearns, Conference Planner
The Pennsylvania State University
225 The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel
University Park PA 16802
Phone: 814-863-1738
Fax: 814-865-3749
E-mail: ConferenceInfo2@outreach.psu.edu

Regarding financial aid:
Office of Student Aid
The Pennsylvania State University
314 Shields Building
University Park PA 16802
Phone: 814-865-6301

For alternative grant, loan, and minority and Whole World scholarship information, visit the Education Abroad Financial Aid and Scholarships Web page.