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Advanced Studies in England - study abroad in Bath.
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Limited places are available on each course to preserve the small, interactive class experience, and places on most courses will be allocated to suitably qualified applicants on a first-come-first-served basis.
Acting for the Stage
This course offers students with a passionate interest in performance the chance to develop and hone their own acting skills through traditional and innovative theatrical practice.

British Detective Fiction
Britain has a distinguished – and distinctive – tradition of crime writing. This course explores the development of this tradition from the nineteenth century to the present day.

Confronting Ethical Problems in the 21st Century
War, global instability, and inequality. Terrorism, migration, and fascism. The rise of AI and climate change.
These issues shape the contemporary political and ethical landscape and urge us to examine them carefully in order to navigate our world.
This course explores the idea of ethical behaviour and the ethical self in the twenty-first century. Students will be encouraged to see ethical answers in the ‘poly-crisis’ of modern life.

Contemporary Black British Literature
This course will examine some of the most prominent and original British writers of colour of the past 50 years, including Monica Ali, Samuel Selvon, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Andrea Levy.

Creating a Drama: Writing for the Stage
This course takes an active, process-oriented approach to playwriting, directly involving would-be writers for the stage in a collaborative, cooperative creative effort.

Creative Music Practice
Music is undeniably a fundamental part of being human. It plays a substantial role in culture, social bonds, knowledge building, communication, and even neurological health. This course requires students to tap into the deep power of music while cultivating creativity and collaboration through practical music-making both individually and as a group.

Education in England: Pedagogy and Policy
This interactive, discussion-based course aims to give an overview of the English educational system, looking at contemporary issues in education as they affect teaching in the UK, the US and globally.

Environmental History and Global Activism
This course aims to give students the knowledge and tools to analyse contemporary struggles over the environment and place them in their historical context.

Environmental Economics
This course provides insights into how economic concepts directly impact the natural environment, from the development of international policies to the vast ramifications of single individuals’ choices.

Exploring Shakespeare
This course aims to provide an introduction to the extraordinary artistic scope of Shakespeare’s work across genres. Five plays will be examined in their own contexts.

Film Production: Short Fiction
This course will give students the opportunity to explore contemporary short film culture in the UK and to produce work of their own inspired by this research.

Film Screenwriting
This course introduces students to imaginative, theoretical and practical elements of short-film screenwriting, covering a range of styles and genres.

Gendered Identities in Medieval Literature
What does it mean to be a man or a woman in medieval English literature? This course offers the opportunity to explore gendered identities in the Middle Ages.

Jane Austen
This course will explore how Austen's acute social observations of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries live on into the twenty-first.

Literature and Evil
This course explores the representation of evil through literary texts, survivors' testimonies and theoretical argument. Key themes include the propensity for evil within groups, including cults; the desire for a leader; and the way in which psychopathology is presented in literature and the 'true crime' genre.

Modern British Political History
This course looks at the key political developments in twentieth-century Britain from 1900 to the present.

Myths and Legends of Britain and Ireland
Britain and Ireland have a rich heritage of myths and legend that merits comparison with the better-known Greek and Norse cycles.

Not Just Shakespeare: British Theatre History
Realism, Naturalism, Romanticism, Total Theatre, Socialist and Feminist Drama: there have been numerous developments in British Theatre since William Shakespeare and the Renaissance.

Patterns of Power: Theories of Gender, Race, Class and Sexuality in Contemporary Society
Power is a much misunderstood concept, variously invoked as constructive, liberating, coercive and conspiratorial. How can we best understand it?

Post-War British Art, 1945-1970
In this course, we follow the timeline of Post-War Britain, from angst and austerity, to affluence and consumerism. British art developed a wide range of subjects, narratives and styles.

The Power of Fantasy: Encounters with British Children’s Literature
From Lewis Carroll’s Alice books to Harry Potter and beyond, this course provides an opportunity to trace the development of British fantasy writing for children. We will explore the specifics of the fictional worlds encountered, and raise fascinating questions about the relationship between the child and the adult, the imaginary and the real, and what it is to be a reader of fantasy.

Psychology and Culture
This course explores a broad range of topics at the intersection of Psychology and Culture. The term “culture” will be broadly defined but focus on viewing culture through a comparative lens between the United Kingdom and United States. Students will explore and better understand how culture influences their lives and the lives of others across the globe. Special emphasis will be placed on examining the research literature in cultural psychology and critically analysing the impact of culture on everyday life and society in the U.S. and U.K.

Queering the Gothic: Horror and the Supernatural in LGBTQ+ Fiction
This course explores how conjunctions of 'queer', 'gay', and 'lesbian' are explored in Gothic texts, and how they have the capacity for exploring difference in both problematic and liberating ways.

Reading the Changing Climate
Over the past three decades, humanity has become increasingly conscious that we are changing the climate, and contemporary writers are finding expression for this concern in emergent genres such as cli-fi and ecopoetry.

Re-visiting the Museum
What are museums for? Are they simply repositories of objects, or institutions for political and societal change?
This course will engage with current debates around museums: the repatriation of objects, the display of human remains, accessibility, and the cultural politics and active agency of the pieces on display.

The Romans in Britain
This course investigates both the impact of the Roman invasion upon Britain and also the role and function of Britain within the wider Roman empire.

Roots, Ritual, and Rock and Roll
When rock music first hit American mainstream culture, it was understood within the industry that it borrowed sounds from blues, gospel music, and jazz. While these genres are still considered to be the origins of rock and roll, further study reveals far-reaching links connecting distant cultures and rock music over a span of millennia. This course examines rock's ancient roots, which lie in a global dialogue that continues to evolve.

Satire, Irony, and Nonsense: What makes the English Laugh?
What makes the English laugh? Is it possible to reach an understanding of the English sense of humour through the study of literature? This course provides an investigation of a wealth of humorous literature in an effort to seek answers to these questions.

Politics & Policy in Today’s Europe
The European Union is unique, unlike any political organisation seen at any time in history, or in any other part of the world. This course explores how and why the EU came into being, how it works today, and its relations with the rest of the world, as well as opens up some of the contemporary themes and most urgent debates concerning the EU: What are the causes and consequences of the rise in populism? What does national sovereignty mean in today’s globalised world?

The Sociology of Death
This course takes a sociological and anthropological approach to one of the few experiences indisputably common to all human beings, indeed all living things. Students will be introduced to a rich variety of critical and cultural understandings of death, the dead and dying matters, and explore how dying, mourning and funerary practices vary in time and space across societies.

Sonnets, Songs, and Spoken Word
How can an understanding of the techniques of past living poets, help your own work? This course will explore many kinds of rhythmical language, from Beowulf to Hamilton.

Speculative Short Fiction
By asking the question “What if?”, writers can explore an imagined world within the space of a few pages, which is why the short story has proved to be a versatile form for speculative fiction.

Sustainable Futures
What are the best paths towards a sustainable future in post-modern societies? In an era marked by unprecedented ecological crises, the necessity for a sustainable future is at the core of debates within the most important governmental, social, and economic institutions worldwide.
In this course, students will examine and critically analyse the implications of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 agenda, and explore and debate how these objectives are shaping the reality of post-modern societies.

Tudor and Stuart England, 1485-1689
The Tudor and Stuart period was one of almost continuous social and political conflict, out of which came the outline of modern Britain.

The UK Media in a Globalised World
How does the UK media characterise British society and its relationship with the outside world? Is the media a tool to protect or criticise powerful organisations?

UK Politics and Government
The UK’s political system exists in fascinating contrast to that of the USA, with which it is too often uncritically compared.

The Victorian Era
This course will study Britain ‘inside and outside’ the Imperial experience, looking at rival arguments about what fuelled the industrial revolution.

Vikings: Myth and Reality
The image of the pillaging Viking raider is a mainstay of popular culture, but behind that image lies a much more complex reality. Students will use a variety of primary source material to explore the diverse and culturally complex Viking world.

Women, Lunacy, and Literature
This course offers the opportunity to explore the proliferation of ‘mad, bad, and sad’ women in literature from the late nineteenth to the mid-20th century.

Internship: 44AD Artspace
44AD artspace welcomes all sectors of the community and works to support emerging contemporary artists and their work, whilst encouraging the public’s engagement with the visual arts.

Internship: American Museum & Gardens
The American Museum in Britain was founded in 1958 to show the achievements of Americans in the decorative arts, and to promote Anglo-American understanding.

Internship: Bath Cats and Dogs Home
Bath Cats and Dogs Home is an affiliated branch of the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and is one of the largest re-homing centres in the UK.

Internship: Bath Philharmonia
Bath Philharmonia is the city's professional orchestra, performing a year-round programme of concerts in Bath's historic venues.

Internship: The Belonging Network
The Belonging Network is a community organisation with a focus on supporting people from underrepresented backgrounds in the workplace, in Bath and North East Somerset.

Internship: Clore Learning Centre at The Roman Baths
This internship is based with the Roman Baths Learning and Participation team and involves working with school and family groups, providing out-of-class learning activities.

Internship: The Constituency Office of Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath
Wera Hobhouse, Member of Parliament for Bath, and her team offer the successful applicant ‘real life’ exposure to a busy working political environment.

Internship: Donald Insall Associates, Architects
Donald Insall Associates is one of England’s leading practices in the field of historic building conservation and adaptation.

Internship: The Jane Austen Centre
Situated in an elegant Georgian town house in the centre of the City, the Jane Austen Centre houses a permanent exhibition which tells the story of Jane Austen’s brief but eventful stay in Bath.

Internship: M Shed Museum
M Shed tells the fascinating story of Bristol, a vibrant and historically significant city just 15 minutes from Bath by train.

Internship: Manvers Street Baptist Church / Open House Centre
This internship offers the chance to be immersed in probably the most successful city centre church outreach engagement of its type in England.

Internship: Mentoring Plus
Mentoring Plus is a charity dedicated to serving vulnerable young people in Bath and North East Somerset.

Internship: Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights
Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights is much more than just a bookshop, and their varied programme of events has twice won them the national ‘Independent Bookshop of the Year’ award.

Internship: The Museum of Bath at Work
The Museum of Bath at Work charts Bath’s fascinating commercial and industrial history, and its development as a manufacturing centre as well as a tourist destination.

Internship: The Natural Theatre Company
Natural Theatre is the UK brand leader in comic interactive street theatre and interactive live performance, combining a unique style of visual comedy with an impeccable eye for detail.

Internship: The Rondo Theatre
The Rondo is a truly unique and intimate venue, situated in the Larkhall area of Bath. The theatre holds events all year round, and has a hugely varied programme including comedy, theatre and music.

Internship: The Roman Baths
Nearly a million tourists a year from across the globe come to see the Roman Baths, making the site one of the leading visitor attractions in the country.

School Placement
Education Programme students are allotted a weekly whole-day placement in a local primary or secondary school, totalling no less than 10 days over the semester.

Special Needs Placements
A wide range of special needs placements is also available, reflecting the spectrum of provision in England for children with special educational needs.

Internship: Brunel’s SS Great Britain Trust
With its two museums, historic nineteenth-century dockyard and lovingly restored Victorian ship, Brunel’s SS Great Britain is now Bristol’s number one visitor attraction. We tell the incredible story of one of Britain’s greatest engineers, and one of the most important ships in maritime history.

Internship: Suited & Booted Studios
Suited & Booted Studios is a highly successful, award-winning production company with a social conscience.

Internship: Transition Bath
Transition Bath is a charity dedicated to reducing the harms of climate change and the depletion of nature in our local area. We see a future for our beautiful city that is fossil fuel free, fair and resilient. We aim to achieve these things by running projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions and encouraging the flourishing of the natural habitats in Bath and its surrounding area.

Internship: Trowbridge Museum
Trowbridge Museum explores 1000 years of the town's history, from its roots in the Saxon period to its place as a centre for production of the internationally-prized West of England Woollen Cloth.

Internship: Waller&Wood
Waller & Wood is an independent city-centre shop run by Carole Waller, a painter, and Gary Wood, a potter.

Art & Architectural History - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students choose an aspect of Art or Architectural History – for example, a historical period, an artistic movement or a particular architectural style – to study in detail.

Classics & Classical Languages - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can study an aspect of the Greco-Roman world, its history, literature and languages (Ancient Greek and Classical Latin), Greco-Roman philosophy or archaeology.

Climate & Sustainability - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can study an aspect from the broad spectrum of climate and sustainability issues; economic, political, social, or scientific.

Creative Writing - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can work intensively on a project, or series of projects, in a genre of their choice, for an intended audience of adults or children.

Education - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Take a broad analytical look at contemporary issues in English education, including comparing and contrasting these with the US.

English - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students may choose to study literature in English from a particular historical period, of a specific genre or school of writing, or even by a single author.

Film - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Choose to examine in depth a particular screenwriter, director, or genre; or develop your own skills as a writer, actor, director, or film-maker.

History - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can choose to study political, economic, social or cultural history from the Iron Age through to the present day.

Modern Foreign Languages - ASE Advanced Tutorial
The one-to-one teaching format is ideally suited to help the transition from intermediate to more advanced levels of linguistic competence.

Philosophy - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can learn more about some of the world’s great thinkers, or explore how ethics, politics, and aesthetics intersect to shape our current world views.

Political & Social Science - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Explore different aspects of human society and relationships from a UK / European perspective, from politics and government, to psychology and sociology.

Psychology - ASE Advanced Tutorial
An opportunity to focus in-depth on an area of the field that most intrigues you, and to undertake research, under the guidance of a UK-based professor, with a comparative or British element.

Studio Art - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can be guided through different approaches and techniques in an artistic practice of their choice. Each student develops a portfolio of work, and has the opportunity to exhibit in a central Bath gallery.
Theatre (Acting & Directing) - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can choose the academic or practical study of theatre. Focus on a particular playwright, director, or genre; or develop your own practical skills.

Theology & Religious Studies - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Study one or more ancient or modern religions, or examine the works of an ancient or modern theologian.

Women’s & Gender Studies - ASE Advanced Tutorial
Students can deepen their critical understanding of the intersections between feminist thought, gender studies and wider social and cultural debates.

Other disciplines - ASE Advanced Tutorial
ASE will give serious consideration to any field or topic that can realistically be taught in an online classroom setting, from Marketing or Music History, to Theoretical Chemistry or Ecology.

Swords and Swordplay in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
The sword is an important and multi-faceted symbol of military power, royal and communal authority, religion and mysticism. This course takes the sword beyond its functional role as a tool for killing, considering it as a cultural artefact, and the broader meaning and significance it had to its bearer.
Exploring a wide range of source material, students will uncover the breadth of the sword's place within the culture of medieval and early modern Europe. They will understand them as powerful symbols of authority and legitimacy, as magical and mystical objects., and as a practical object, considering when, where and how it was used.