A weekend history degree with King's College London’s leading academics

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A weekend history degree with King's College London’s leading academics

By The Guardian Masterclasses

Date and time

March 3, 2018 · 10am - March 4, 2018 · 5:30pm GMT

Location

Bush House

King's College London Strand Campus, 30 Aldwych London WC2B 4BG United Kingdom

Refund Policy

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Description

Gain unprecedented access to lectures at King’s College London and spend an enjoyable weekend soaking up insights from leading historians

Whether you miss your university days or you never got the chance to go, this unique weekend will provide you with unprecedented access to lectures at King’s College London’s prestigious history department.

Listen to eight history masterclasses over two days, delivered by leading academics in the beautiful Grade II-listed Bush House on the university’s central Strand campus.

Learn about the history of democracy, migration, religion, gender, capitalism and much, much more.

Book now and bring a friend to take advantage of our two-ticket offer – a saving of £50.

Content
Democracy with Dr Hannah Dawson and Dr Serena Ferente
For most of history, democracy has been a dirty word. It had a brief beginning in ancient Greece, only came back into favour in the 19th century, and now, in the 21st century, it’s under pressure again. “Democracy” means “power of the people”, but who are “the people”, and what are the merits and dangers of giving them power? Is there such a thing as “the will of the people”, or is it just a rhetorical tool of tyrants? What is the difference between democracy and populism? This masterclass will explore key moments in the history of democracy – from fifth-century Athens, through Renaissance Italy, to contemporary Britain and America – and probe the reasons why democracy has been feared as much as it has been loved.

A short history of migrants, nations, and border walls with Professor Peter Heather, Dr Vincent Hiribarren and Dr Christine Mathias

This session will provide a sweeping introduction to more than 1,000 years of world history by focusing on how historians think about migration, nation states and borders. Questions to explore will include: were medieval states also nations? Why or why not? Why did people migrate in pre-modern times? What kinds of migration were most problematic? What are borderlands? How did slave raiders sew terror in the borderlands of Nigeria? How did the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram come to power there? How do borders affect local communities? When did the US begin to enforce its border with Mexico? Does the US need a new border wall?

Animals with Professor Abigail Woods
Commentary on livestock farming today frequently makes reference to a past “golden age”, a time of small, extensive, mixed farms on which animals were valued as sentient individuals. It is said that in the decades after the second world war, these systems gave way to highly specialised, intensive enterprises to which the organic movement provided the only serious counter-current. Technological breakthroughs and the pursuit of profit transformed animals into standardised industrial commodities, to the detriment of their welfare, the environment and human health. But how accurate is this story? Did the golden age ever exist, and were animals really disregarded as intensive farming took hold? In this session, participants are encouraged to take a closer look at what really happened to British livestock farming. Drawing on original historical evidence, it illuminates some curious counter-trends that challenge how we think about agricultural modernity and human-animal relations in the past and the present.

Brexit’s rear view mirror: Britain, empire and race with Professor Richard Drayton
Imperial nostalgia and back-to-the-future projects, such as ‘Empire 2.0’ and a Canadian-Australian-New Zealand-British block, play(ed) a key role in the politics of Brexit. How, more generally, have ideas about the British Empire and whiteness operated in Britain’s historical unconscious? Why since 2000 have we seen so many noisy defences of the British Empire, with so little support from those who actually research its history? This masterclass will examine this tension between popular and scholarly ideas of the British Empire and describe the shape of Imperial history as an academic subject in the Twenty-First century. Against the Whiggish idea of the plucky little island conquering the world, we shall explore a different view of the British Empire as part of a common European outthrust, with its modern economy and society dependent on the free and unfree gifts of people in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

Religion with Dr Adam Sutcliffe and AbdoolKarim Vakil
Jews and Muslims in contemporary Britain: Does history matter?
What are the similarities and what are the differences in the experiences of Jews and of Muslims in Britain? Does Islamophobia in this country in some way echo the forms and history of antisemitism – or are these fundamentally different phenomena? These two currents of prejudice more often appear in the media as competing for attention than as a subject for careful and historical comparison. There is, however, a pressing need for clearer thinking on the contrasting, but also intertwined, histories that have shaped the place of Muslim and Jewish issues in British public life and political debate. In this session, led by a specialist on European Jewish history and a specialist on contemporary Muslims in Europe, we will explore the history of these two minorities and attitudes towards them, asking how this history relates to the politics of multiculturalism and religious diversity in Britain today.

Women and gender with Dr Alana Harris and Dr Reza Zia-Ebrahimi
The slogan ‘the personal is political’, synonymous with second-wave feminism, has long been acknowledged by historians of gender who recognize that across time, and within radically diverse settings, women’s bodies are contested sites for debates about power and the nature of the ‘body politic’. Struggles about the nature of femininity, the performance of gender roles, and the repression of female sexuality have salience in themselves but frequently also function as ciphers for broader fears and societal anxieties about masculinity, social control and national character.

Deep time with Dr Chris Manias
The idea that the Earth has a long and deep prehistory, and that it was formerly inhabited by strange prehistoric beasts living in radically different environments, is familiar to us. Yet this idea has a
history, and was dramatically and suddenly “uncovered” in the middle of the 19th century. Across Britain, Europe and further afield, scientists and interested collectors found the remains of early invertebrates, huge reptiles from the age of the dinosaurs, a series of ancient mammals and the prehistoric ancestors of modern humans. These finds had a dramatic impact, being reported in the contemporary press and displayed in new museums, as scientists and scholars attempted to present their discoveries in a comprehensible manner, and the public grappled with the disorientating implications of this new deep history. This session will examine how this strange new past was made known to scholars and the public in the mid-19th century, and how it affected ideas of creation, the world, nature, development and the environment. In doing so, we will think about the place of “deep time” and palaeontology in culture, and how some of the motifs established in this era still persist today.

Britain and capitalism with Professor David Edgerton and Dr Jon Wilson
British exceptionalism: myth or reality? Much discussion of the nature of the United Kingdom, from left and right, remainers and brexiteers, argues for good and bad versions of British exceptionalism. An important exceptionalist argument points to the long importance of imperial thinking; another for an inbuilt liberalism. In their discussion Jon Wilson and David Edgerton will challenge many different varieties of British exceptionalism, pointing to the fact that the United Kingdom has come to be very much like other European nations. In the past, the quite distant past, the United Kingdom was indeed much more exceptional that is remembered today. Indeed the most important aspects of what made it exceptional have tended to be forgotten, while some of the least important have been given undue prominence. At a time when British history and the British future are in furious dialogue Wilson and Edgerton will provide a refreshingly provocative analysis of the British past and its relation to the present.

All tutor biographies can be found on this page.

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website

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Welcome to Guardian Masterclasses – a unique programme of learning embedded within one of the world's most forward-thinking media organisations.

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The programme is aimed at anyone interested in personal or professional development whether that be refining your skills, focusing your ambition or simply broadening your mind and gaining inspiration.

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