Students and Classes
The student population of Temple London is small in number. Our typical student is a junior or senior from a college in the United States with an academic background in communications and/or theater. Students majoring in the College of Liberal Arts will have no trouble taking the communications and theater courses we offer in London.
Faculty
A full-time Temple University faculty member serves as resident director each semester. This individual comes from one of the departments in the School of Communications and Theater. Additional British part-time faculty, often prominent professionals in their field, are used regularly. They are complemented by a generous sampling of guest lecturers.
Spring 2012
Course Offerings
Special Topics (required course for all students): Creative
Leadership & Innovation in UK Media: BTMM 4390 (4 s.h.); JOURN 3860 (3 s.h.); or Theater 2210 (3 s.h.)
Picturing London – Visual Communication and Cultural Identity:
In media and tourism, London is “understood” through visual symbols, such as the Union Jack and the Tube logo, and through iconic objects, such as Big Ben and the red double-decker bus. We know that these are clichés, and yet we will be excited when we see them. At the same time, we will be drawn to other sites and stimuli precisely because they are not these familiar items—and so, in a sense, we anticipate them as well. What mental pictures do we arrive with, and how will we see differently as we spend more time there? What images do we choose to “keep” in our heads, as well as in our cameras, blogs, and journals? Why have we made these choices, and not others? How do we ultimately arrange these images into a visual narrative through which we make sense of our experience? In this class, we will try to answer these questions through explorations and investigations of visual phenomena including not only mass media, but also landscape, architecture, public art, fashion, and performance. The final project will require each student to tell his or her own visual story, and for the group to provide a collective “picture” of what our experience has been.
***The remaining Spring 2012 course options are the same as those for the Fall 2012 (below).
Summer 2012
Course Offerings
BTMM 4572: British Media and Telecommunications;
or
Journalism 3751: Foreign Study in Journalism (3. s.h.)
A survey of British television, press, film, magazines and radio. Topics include underground press, private radio, avant-garde film, and public and private television. The philosophy and guiding rationale of current British media policy and practice will be investigated through lectures, guest presenters, observation, and literature.
Intercultural Communication: Learning Culture through London’s Neighborhoods BTMM 4390; FMA 2670; JOURN 3870; or Theater 3080 (3 s.h.)
This course addresses the following questions: “How does culture influence how we communicate? And where do we see the influences of culture on communication within the London experience?” Many people experience London only as a large English-speaking city, but London is a city with a tremendous range of multi-cultural possibilities. As a world class city, London offers vast possibilities for interacting with people from different cultures and observing the affect of culture on group interaction and relationships – interpersonally and politically – sometimes successfully and sometimes not so successfully. This course examines culture’s influence on communication processes across interpersonal, organizational, and mediated contexts with particular attention given to London and Great Britain.
The Summer 2012 Program Director
The Temple London Faculty Director for Summer 2012 will be Professor Deborah A. Cai, chair of the Department of Strategic Communication at Temple University. She led the London program in Summer 2011, and she has taught and trained undergraduate and graduate students, business leaders, diplomats, and political leaders in intercultural communication in the U.S., China, Philippines, and Italy. Most of her research focuses on the theory and practice of communicating across cultures.
Fall 2012
Course Offerings
Special Topics (required course for all students): Creative Leadership & Innovation in UK Media: BTMM 4390 (4 s.h.); FMA 3670 (4 s.h.); JOURN 3860 (3 s.h.); or Theater 2210 (3 s.h.)
London’s role as a global media and creative center is well known. Imaginative leadership and innovation is at the heart of managing the people in these industries. This course will focus on the role of the leader or manager in the process of creative innovation. We’ll start with developing personal creativity and broaden to discuss the creative leadership necessary in the media business. We’ll use London media companies, media leaders, and the city around us to develop insights about how creative media projects come to fruition in this global city. The course will draw on content from a variety of creative sectors and media industries, including television, journalism, advertising, and theater, as well as exploring the ways social media, “apps”, online games, and other new media are developed.
Visits from current media leaders will help will help turn theory into reality and help reveal insights into their leadership approaches. Students will then use their interviews, photographs and writing to create a group project– an online book on Innovative & Creative Media Leadership. (This online book will be available for students to access or publish in hard copy for their student portfolios and other needs.)
STRC 3220: Special Topics in Public Communications – British Life & Cultures (3 s.h.)
or
COMM 3081: Special Projects – British Life & Cultures (1-4 s.h.)
This course aims to enable students to develop an understanding of British society as an integrated whole which is more than the sum of its parts. This in turn should encourage critical discussion and reflection about the differences between US, British and European cultures, and the collective relationship that individuals have with their own societies. As part of this course there will be a
minimum of four field trips to introduce students to locations, organizations & socio-political issues that are of importance to contemporary Londoners. Topics include ethnic diversity and multiculturalism; media; class and power; the arts; and international relations.
FMA 3770: Topics in Film Study – British Cinema (4 s.h.)
A survey of British cinema from its beginnings to 1980, the course will look at the work of directors such as Cecil Hepwork, Alfred Hitchcock, Humphrey Jennings, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, David Lean, Robert Hanmer and Lindsay Anderson. It will assess the contribution of particular studios – for example, Ealing, Denham and Lime Grove examine
specific groups of film makers such as those around Grierson and Free Cinema, and take account of significant external influences on the development of cinema.
BTMM 4572: British Mass Media and Telecommunications
or
Journalism 3751: Foreign Study in Journalism (3. s.h.)
A survey of British television, press, film, magazines and radio. Topics include underground press, private radio, avant-garde film, and public and private television. The philosophy and guiding rationale of current British media policy and practice will be investigated through lectures, guest presenters, observation, and literature.
Advertising 3101: Creative Thinking for Advertising (3 s.h.)
Prerequisites waived for the London course only.
This course uses team oriented sessions to develop the creative skills necessary for solving advertising problems. A cross discipline approach is utilized and “creatives” from various advertising and non-advertising disciplines participate as guest facilitators and speakers.
Internship: BTMM 4785 (4 s.h.); FMA 3085 (4 s.h); JOURN 3885 (3 s.h.); JOURN 3882 – Special Projects in Journalism (1-3 s.h.); STRC 3385 – Internship in Public Communication (3 s.h.); STRC 3585 – Internship in Public Relations (3 s.h.); STRC 3685 – Internship in Organizational Leadership (3 s.h.); or Theater 3082 – General Study (1-3 s.h.)
Students selected on the basis of qualifications and interests work as interns with relevant professional British or American organizations; work is on an unpaid basis for two days a week. All students who wish to register for this course must complete a separate internship application. The application form is available from the SCT Assistant Director of Study Away Programs.
STRC 3323: Political Communication (3 s.h.)
Theory and research communication in political contexts, including framing of election campaigns, roles of the news media in reporting and editorializing, war propaganda, and symbolic action in conflicts between social movements and agents of social control.
Travel Writing: BTMM 3296 or JOURN 3296 (WI 3. s.h.)
As Tim Cahill, the legendary travel writer and former editor of Outside Magazine, once wrote, “It isn’t the traveling, it’s the writing.” Cahill, Andrew Bain, Rory MacLean, Sara Wheeler, Rolf Potts, Bill Bryson–these are writers with wildly different styles, and many of them travel to completely mundane locations, but they all manage to learn something about themselves, and why they travel, in the process of writing. In other words, it’s not where they go, it’s how they experience the place, and how they write about that experience. This is a course about Travel itself. What does it mean to travel? Why do we travel, and how do we decide where to go? We will examine the romantic sense of wanderlust that nearly all people experience at least once in their lives. The course will also examine the ideas of International Communication and Intercultural Competence. How do we travel with cultural sensitivity? We will look at the reputation of the American traveler, and the stereotypes of “ugly Americanism.” Through our exploration of these concepts, we will discover what travel reveals about us and about our culture, and about the cultures we are visiting. And we will become travelers who can move beyond the superficial “tourist” experience of a place.
Theater 4097: Seminar in Drama – World of the Play (WI) (3 s.h.)
Students attend approximately 7 – 9 plays, engage in seminar critiques, write papers, and hear the views of the instructor regarding British theater. Please note: Students registering for this course must pay an additional fee on site to cover the cost of the theater tickets. Students must register for this course by the registration deadline, and must commit to this course when the registration is due to SCT Study Away, as theater tickets are purchased in advance on students’ behalf.
The Fall 2012 Program Director
The Temple London Faculty Director for Fall 2012 will be Sherri Hope Culver. Sherri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media and serves as Director of the Media Education Lab. Her teaching and research focuses on content development and executive management for children’s media companies and public media. Prior to coming to Temple in 2006 Sherri held several executive positions in public broadcasting. Sherri also serves as President of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. She served as Faculty Director of the SCT London Study Abroad program in Fall 2010. Sherri holds a masters degree in Public Culture from the University of Pennsylvania. She is co-author of book The Media Career Guide and author of the book, The Television and Video Survival Guide: An Insiders Top Notch Creative and Technical Advice for Your First (or next) Production.
Spring 2013
Check back soon for more information!
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