Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Study CS Lewis and the Inklings in Oxford -- Summer 2013

Few educational opportunities will prove as rewarding or memorable as studying CS Lewis and the Inklings in their natural environment in Oxford.  You and your friends will get to walk in the footsteps of Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, Sayers and others.  You'll visit their colleges, meet some of their surviving friends, and visit the places they frequented, worshiped, and lived, as well their final resting places.

If you'd like to learn more, please email me at michael.bauman@hillsdale.edu   I will be happy to answer any and all questions you might have about travel, academics, housing, logistics, etc.

The main course (on Lewis and the Inklings) runs from May 28-June 23 and is worth three college credit hours.  Those hours normally transfer as either an English or a Religion/Theology course, whichever you select. The credit hours come from Oxford itself.  But if for some reason you need American-based accreditation, they can come from University of the Pacific.  The same holds true for your tutorial, if you elect to take one.  It is 3 hours credit and reflects the nature of the course you select -- politics, history, sociology, etc.  Because Oxford is home to scholars with a wide variety of skills, we can accommodate tutorials from a very diverse set of academic disciplines if you let us know your interests soon enough.

Because the summer school organizers want you to have the experience of living in Oxford itself, and not be holed up in a dorm room, they try place you in apartments around the city center.  For example, students often are housed in apartments on a street called Venneit Close, which is right along the Thames walkway.  Or you might be housed in a historic multi-story brick home in old North Oxford, or in apartments in the trendy Jericho area.

Your classes are normally held either in the OSAP offices, in the St. Mary the Virgin church library, in New College, or in Trinity College.  The location varies day by day so that you can get inside more Oxford buildings during the weeks you are on site.  Your tutorial, should you take one, is normally held in your tutor's office at whatever Oxford college he or she serves.  Your formal meal, with academic gowns, is in the New College dining hall near the end of your summer term.  In addition to the lectures by me and by my wife, we will have guest lecturers from Oxford itself.  Rev. Walter Hooper, Lewis’ personal secretary, and Rev. Michael Ward, who has written the fine book Planet Narnia, have lectured for us in the past.  So also has Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run the mile in under 4 minutes.

The program cost ($6550) covers six hours credit (including the optional tutorial), lodging for three weeks (plus a free fourth week in your rooms after the course is over, if you’d like to stay on), all the field trips (to places like Windsor Castle, Stratford upon Avon, London, and Cambridge), and the formal dinner in New College.  It does not cover your daily meals, your travel, or your daily expenses.  In other words, you get half a semester’s credit, four weeks in Oxford, several field trips, and membership in New College and the Bodleian library for $6550, tutorial included.  Without the tutorial, your cost will be $6250.

If you wish to apply, simply let me know your intentions, and have your official transcripts sent to me:

Dr. Michael Bauman
Hillsdale College
Hillsdale, MI 49242

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