2014 Oxford Bulldog

Celebrating the Program’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary

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A Message from Jamie McClung Director of the UGA at Oxford Study Abroad Program

UGA at Oxford: Promoting discomfort for 25 years and counting

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ello to our Alumni, friends, and family throughout the US and across the globe, and welcome to the 2014 edition of the Oxford Bulldog. I hope that wherever we find you with this issue, you and yours are in good health and happiness. In turn, within these pages you’ll find evidence of the Program’s own health and happiness, as well as some interesting details on initiatives and goals for the coming year which we believe will ensure that status well into our future.

2013 has been the biggest year in our Program’s history in many ways: more scholarships were awarded than ever before; more students participated than ever before. We have had a greater number of returning students than ever before. One of our alumna has been awarded a prestigious Rhodes scholarship. In greater numbers, we have had participants return to Oxford and the UK to pursue jobs, graduate study, and internships. Indeed, within these pages, you’ll find much cause for celebration.

Enough about being happy though; after all, I began this message by declaring that the UGA at Oxford Program is in the business of promoting discomfort – and we are. Of course, if you have ever seen the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford, first described as such by the poet Matthew Arnold, or if you have had the pleasure of stepping through those now iconic Bulldog red front doors at 104 Banbury Road, I wouldn’t blame you for wondering (out loud) what in the world I was talking about.

As I tell most every group of students who enters our programs, they are there for one reason, ultimately, they are there because they are willing to be uncomfortable. I don’t mean physically or conditionally – though those who have braved the University rugby teams, early morning crew training, and soccer fields might beg to differ – I mean socially, academically, and intellectually. What sets our Program and the students who participate in it apart are the extreme challenges of academic depth and breadth, all undertaken in a place both literally and figuratively foreign.

Think back to the first time an Oxford tutor contacted you and ordered you to read 1,500 pages and write a ten-page essay, three days in advance of your first tutorial: you knew you were a stranger in a strange land. When, moments later, a second tutor asked for you to complete a research project of similar size and scope, due on the same day, things took a turn for the distinctly uncomfortable.

Still, you did it. Better yet, you did the same thing the next week, the next, and the week after that.

Before you knew it, the uncomfortable had become the familiar. Suddenly, you couldn’t imagine a week in Oxford that didn’t feature the white-knuckled-3am-typing in the Keble library or at the House, followed by a day in the Bodleian or rushing off to catch an earlymorning train for that trip to Paris you had somehow (crazily) decided to squeeze in at the end of a long and busy week.

That exhaustion you felt at the end of your Program was your success, physically manifest: you tackled the uncomfortable, the unfamiliar, and you not only survived, you flourished. As David Bradshaw often says to each group the first Sunday after arrival in Oxford, if you don’t get on that plane and return to the States completely and utterly ‘knackered’, you haven’t taken full advantage of what UGA at Oxford and Oxford itself has to offer.

UGA has scores of study abroad opportunities; there are wonderful destinations: nations and corners of the globe which are exotic, rugged, undeveloped, and wild, but if you are reading this message, you know the UGA at Oxford Program provides levels of discomfort and challenges that simply cannot be rivalled. For those who may be reading this with an eye toward participation at some point in the future, take the leap. Discomfort will never be more rewarding.

All very best,

UGA at Oxford Program Staff Director Dr. James McClung Associate Director Dr. Michelle Miles Assistant Director Margaret Faz Perry Business Manager Kasha Puskarz Administrative Assistant Hayes Willingham Graduate Assistant Jennifer Bogdanich

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Experiencing Shakespeare with the Folger Institute

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’ve come from a rich Shakespeare background due to private school teaching me a play-a-year starting in about 3rd or 4th grade, to living in London a year which allowed time to go to Stratford and the Globe Theatre, yet I have always been intimidated by it. The language prevented me from fully understanding the play. When I’d read a work by the great playwright for class, I’d summarize as I read; that was my main objective so I would fully understand what seemed complicated to me.

I chose to come on the WashingtonOxford Program with the University of Georgia to study Shakespeare because I love English, so I felt I should gather a larger understanding of Shakespeare, our dear adopted playwright.

I am not going to be an English teacher, and I am not a theatre major, so many would ask why would I, a Public Relations major, want to study Shakespeare?

At first, I thought I had chosen the wrong program. The workshops were more teachingbased, and I believed I could gain nothing from them since they weren’t in regular English course structure – but I was wrong, extremely wrong. The workshops helped me delve into the text of Shakespeare’s plays in ways I would’ve thought wouldn’t work. It was very hands-on in a way that made the words come alive. No longer was I focusing on the words we don’t use as much anymore, but I was focusing on the humor and the meaning behind the words. Not only did the hands-on, acting-geared workshops help me understand the text, but I realized I actually love to act in a comfortable environment. The staff made sure to quickly acclimate the students into a comfortable classroom setting in a way that would cause us non-theater majors to enjoy the acting and activities.

I have a newfound appreciation of Shakespeare, and I can even say now that I would be willing to read and watch a Shakespeare play on my own time. I didn’t realize his works would not intimidate me so soon into this program, but I stand here exactly that confident. If I were to teach, I would do it the way the Folger has laid out; people will not fear his works, but enjoy them proficiently.

Abby Bergquist is a third year student at the University of Georgia who is a Public Relations major with an English minor. She is a new Shakespeare convert, who has loved English as long as she can remember, but has just added a whole new element to her love of literature.

Washington/Oxford alumna Abby Bergquist in front of Sanford Stadium.

A New Member of Our Team In August 2013, the UGA at Oxford Program was pleased to welcome Dr. Michelle Miles to its team as Associate Director. A native of Montana, Michelle has lived in Georgia for the past nine years. She moved to Atlanta in the fall of 2004 to begin her doctoral studies in English Literature at Emory University (Ph.D. 2011). Michelle’s dissertation, entitled “All the Dead Voices: Translating Across the Grave in Contemporary Northern Irish Poetry,” combines her love of Irish poetry with her interest in translation studies and the intersection of art and politics. Having served as a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at The Georgia Institute of Technology for three years prior to her current appointment, Michelle was eager to expand her pedagogical profile in Georgia and embark upon a professional path that combines traditional student instruction with administrative oversight. Espousing the incomparable contribution of study abroad experiences to any undergraduate or graduate education, Michelle was delighted to join UGA’s team of international educators.

“Having studied abroad as both an undergraduate and graduate student, I have learned firsthand the value of immersing oneself in other cultures, languages, and environments,” Michelle explains. “Indeed, my study abroad time in both France and Ireland served to deepen my appreciation of unfamiliar surroundings and the acquisition of fresh perspectives that goes in tandem with living somewhere new. In my role as Associate Director of UGA at Oxford, I look forward to facilitating the study abroad experiences of current and future generations of students who, like me, are keen to expand their horizons through international study.”

As Associate Director, Michelle is based in Athens and involved in curriculum development, administrative activities, alumni support, and program recruitment. She also travels frequently to Oxford to work with the UGA students who have embarked upon a study abroad program. In addition to these responsibilities, Michelle looks forward to offering occasional courses through the English department at UGA and contributing to the university’s British-Irish Studies Program.

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An Unexpected Surprise Dr. Keith Dougherty SPIA Spring 2013

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ne of the most unexpected surprises of our Oxford trip came during a field trip to the British Parliament. We visited during an off day, when visitors were not typically allowed in the galleries. Combined with heavy snow, the day off allowed our group of UGA students to move to the front of the line and quickly enter the viewing room for the House of Commons.

On this day, three members of the Commons were debating a bill related to the country’s small outposts in Antarctica and the Arctic Circle. After thirty minutes, I suggested we leave. One of the ushers suggested we stay for the reading on Algeria. After listening to 30 minutes of Antartic drab, why would we want to hear a “reading on Algeria?” As we exited the gallery, we were surprised to hear that David Cameron, the Prime Minister, was about to read a statement on the UK’s response to the hostage crisis in Algeria. We stood amazed, and we quickly asked to regain our seats.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to head directly back to the viewing room.

Because we had vacated our seats, we had to go back downstairs and wait for our chance to return in the main hall.

By the time we made it back to our seats, the Commons was completely transformed.

The chamber was now lively and full of 2

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members from more than one party. Reporters lined the gallery on the opposite side, and David Cameron stood prominently near the center of the room. He read a statement about the tragedy, which in typical British style was polite, starting “with permission, Mr. Speaker, I would like to update the House on the despicable terrorist attack in Algeria.”

He described what occurred, gave his sincere condolences, and claimed that the incident was now over. When Mr. Cameron was done, the Speaker of the House called for “questions for the Prime Minister” and a number of members shot up. The Speaker took questions from all sides and did not appear to favor senior members over junior ones. Questions and answers were very polite, with clear signs of respect for the views of others.

The students, my family, and I made several exciting trips while in the UK. All of them provided great learning experiences and contributed to a fantastic trip. Nevertheless, the most unexpected surprise arrived during our visit to the British Parliament.

Football in Oxford Dr. Bill Kretzschmar Franklin Fall 2013 In Oxford during Autumn 2013 (not Fall 2013 – the term “fall” meaning ‘the harvest season’ is an Americanism), my wife and I were pleased to be able to bring UGA football to 104 Banbury Road. Among such a talented group of students as we accept for the Oxford program, one might not think that UGA football would be high on the list.

But it was. One of our students had been a UGA cheerleader, even. Many of our autumn students participated in Oxford athletics, from rowing to hockey to lacrosse to rugby – I’m sure I don’t know the whole list of sports.

But they also liked to cheer for the red and black. My wife and I have something called a Slingbox (Google it if you are interested), a piece of equipment that connects to the cable box at our house in Athens and to the internet, so that we can access our home TV signal when we are out of town. It’s perfectly legal, apparently, unlike some of the online methods people can use to stream TV shows. We put the software on the computer in the dining room at the Oxford house in time for the LSU game in late September, and so we could show

Aaron Murray and company to a roomful of the faithful in the large format of an LCD projector. My wife made flapjacks for the occasion. Not pancakes! Flapjacks in Britain are what we would call a bar cookie, what the Brits would call a “traybake,” made of oats, butter, and another British specialty, golden syrup. Well received by all. And we all loved the game as well, 44-41 UGA. We were able to put on two more games during the season, also to a full house in Oxford, and with more flapjacks, the next time with Jamie Oliver’s recipe. School spirit with a British flavour.

A British & Irish Studies Junemester Dr. Lance Wilder Oxford Junemester 2013 Over the course of the last decade or so, playing different roles, I have been on the UGA at Oxford program during its original summer term program at Jesus College (before the move to Trinity College), during its Fall/ Michaelmas-term program at Keble College, and in 2013, I went, for the first time, on the UGA at Oxford Junemester program. I had never taught on a Junemester program, and it was an exciting and challenging way to approach a course.

With Dr. Jamie McClung and Dr. Aidan Wasley, our original goal was to integrate the gateway course to the British & Irish Studies certificate program into the UGA at Oxford program so that students could dispatch two requirements in one economical term. Two of the primary requirements for a British & Irish Studies certificate are studying abroad in the British Isles and taking ENGL / HIST 3100, “Introduction to British and Irish Studies,” the gateway course for the British & Irish Studies Program (http://bis.uga.edu). Joining the two programs together created an excellent opportunity for interested students.

Among the benefits of the Oxford Junemester trip are that 1) it is shorter and works for students who cannot fit a longer international stay into their schedules; 2) it is by far the least expensive way to study with UGA at Oxford; and 3) because of its relatively small size, there is often room for nearly everyone (with some advanced notice) to attend other classes’ excursions

that take place a few times a week all over Great Britain (though, primarily England to fit both time and budget constraints), and classroom conversations often get carried over energetically to the bus/coach/train to and from the excursion destination.

On the Junemester trip, my students, many of whom were getting their first taste of international travel and, more specifically, the British Isles, were able to festoon our classroom discussions and their readings with several of these excursions—plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon; visits to Bath (among Jane Austen’s stomping grounds) and Bristol; time in the underground Churchill War Rooms, a bunker for government during the Blitz; a visit to Westminster Abbey to get perhaps one of the wholest senses possible of much British history; and a longer trek to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see some of the exciting artistic developments going on even today in a part of the country students sometime forget exists.

As I say, it was both a rewarding and a challenging experience, and as we packed as much into our time as possible, my students seemed to recognize the balancing act between quantity and quality. Junemester offers unique opportunities for both, and we look forward to offering the BIS Program course in Oxford again. For those interested in the BIS Certificate Program, it is an excellent way to tackle two major requirements at once. There is simply no better way to learn the cultures of Britain and Ireland than actually being there while doing one’s study. The places, the people, the cultures become real, not just academic.

In the Footsteps of Caesar and Agricola: A Seminar on Roman Britain Dr. James Anderson Franklin Spring 2013 It was a thrill and a pleasure to teach a seminar on Roman Britain for UGA at Oxford in Spring semester 2013, the weather (at first) notwithstanding. We made our first field trip about a week after the students arrived, toward the end of the third week in March, when we

took a private coach from Oxford to Bath (Roman ‘Aquae Sulis’) to visit the Roman Baths Museum and the remains of the pagan temple, as well as the beautiful Regency resort town immortalized by Jane Austen.

On our way to Bath, it snowed. But like the troopers they turned out to be, my hearty group of UGA students did not let inclement conditions slow or stop them. We all toured the baths, temple, and the museum that houses them, as well as other wonders of Bath, and everyone made it back to the bus and to Oxford.

CLAS 4070 (Roman Britain) met for long sessions twice a week during the first four weeks of the UGA at Oxford Spring term. In the first two weeks, we read, analyzed, and discussed all the major ancient written sources about Britannia, from Julius Caesar’s descriptions of his two pre-Roman conquest expeditions (in 55 and 54 BCE), through the historian Tacitus’s accounts that describe the Roman Imperial conquest of the island Three of Dr. Anderson’s erstwhile students (L-R) Jennie Lefkowitz, Emily Hovitz, and Jenny Andry visiting their that began in 43 CE and required “heroine,“ Queen Boudicca, on Westminster Bridge in another 50 years to finish, and London.

– especially – Tacitus’ biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who was governor of Britannia in the last record of the Romans in Britain, studying seven years of the Roman invasion (ca. 77-83 in sequence the excavations and remains CE). That remarkable biography, preserved at Colchester (Roman “Camulodunum”), to us in its entirety, became a central focus the villa near Fishbourne, Cirencester, of our investigation into what the Romans Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England, found when they came to Britannia and how London (Roman “Londinium”), Bath, and they went about conquering it. A good deal York (Roman “Eboracum”), as well as briefer of sympathy was raised in our group for the glances at smaller excavated sites. In the much-abused Queen Boudicca (spelling final week of the seminar we made a second sometimes Anglicized to “Boadicea”), who expedition by private coach to the Roman put up a valiant but ill-fated opposition to rural villa near Chedworth, a remarkably the Roman juggernaut ca. 60 CE. She is well-preserved example dating mostly from commemorated by a bronze statue which the third and fourth centuries CE. I intended stands on the parapet of Westminster Bridge in the seminar to introduce UGA at Oxford London (across from Big Ben and the Houses students to the fascinating ancient culture of Parliament), a statue which became an item that surrounded them in Oxford, and hoped of pilgrimage for some of my students (see to raise enthusiasm for events that deeply but photograph). subtly influenced British culture even after the After two weeks exploring and writing Romans abandoned “Britannia” in 405 CE. about the ancient sources and seeing what their Roman conquerors had to tell us about the Britons, we turned to the archaeological

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Henry Moore: Draped Seated Woman, 1957-8.

Crop circles aren’t the only strange thing Dr. Aidan Wasley Oxford Junemester 2013

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ne of the best parts of teaching on the UGA at Oxford program is the chance to bring the seminar conversations about culture, history, and ideas out into the living landscape of modern Britain.

For my Junemester course last summer on British literature and culture between the world wars, we were able to use the storied alleyways, quads, and spires of Oxford itself as an incomparable resource. Many of the writers we were studying—T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, W.H. Auden, Keith Douglas—had deep Oxford connections, so it was a remarkable opportunity to put their between-the-wars Oxford in dialogue with our contemporary one. And through numerous program trips to London and beyond, we were able to further expand our explorations well beyond the streets of Oxford. In London, we immersed ourselves in the mind-boggling riches of the British Museum and roamed across neighboring literary Bloomsbury, where Virginia Woolf and her famed artistic circle had, as the saying goes, lived in squares and loved in triangles. We saw Woolf ’s house in Gordon Square, T.S. Eliot’s offices at Faber & Faber, and the Senate House of the University of London, which served as the model for

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the Ministry of Truth in since 1977 the estate’s stunning 500 acres have George Orwell’s 1984. been turned into a huge public art museum We saw the apartment and one of the most celebrated arts institutions where W.B. Yeats lived, in Britain. Our group was tremendously the hospital where fortunate to be given a personal welcome and Orwell died, and, across private tour by the Director and Founder of the street, tucked in the Sculpture Park, Peter Murray CBE, who the corner of a dim explained the park’s origins and pointed us corridor in University to some of the highlights of its collection, College London, a including monumental outdoor sculptures glass-fronted wooden

by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth booth in which sits the (whose work we had studied in class), along mummified remains with installations by major contemporary of the philosopher and artists like Anthony Caro, Andy Goldsworthy, social reformer Jeremy Isamu Noguchi, and James Turrell. Our visit Bentham, dressed in his to the YSP was both a thrilling and soothing 19th-century best and experience, as we were encouraged to wander gazing blankly from his at will through the endless fields, forests, and chair at the passing university students. gardens encountering incredible modern But the high point, in every sense, of sculptures in conversation with the natural our Junemester travels was our journey north landscape and the ever-changing Yorkshire to Yorkshire. Given our reading of books weather. The park is also a working farm, like Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, which so one’s space of aesthetic contemplation sharply highlights the tense cultural and was often shared by a picturesque herd of economic relations between the industrial cheerfully bleating sheep. This meant you north of England and the more metropolitan sometimes had to watch carefully where you south centered around London, it seemed walked, but it also offered a perfect illustration important to remind ourselves that there of YSP’s ambition to bring art and nature, was an enormous and historically crucial and the historic and the contemporary, into part of England far from the familiar tourist friendly and unpretentious communion. Our destinations of Big Ben and the Tower of trip north had given us a much richer sense London. So northwards we went, towards of how the books we were reading in class industrial Leeds and ancient York. We saw reflected the many different Englands we had Castle Howard, one of the most spectacular seen in our travels, and after a long day on the stately homes in England and now indelibly bus we returned to Oxford considering the associated with Brideshead Revisited possibility of adding some sheep to the back through its appearance in two different film lawn of 104 Banbury Road. productions of Waugh’s novel about an Oxfordeducated artist’s romantic and theological entanglements with an aristocratic family between the wars. And perhaps most memorably, we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, just outside the old industrial city of Wakefield, famous since the 18th century for its coal wealth and textile manufacturing.

The grounds of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park were once, like Castle Howard, a vast private estate and a playground for upper-class privilege. But Yinka Shonibare MBE: Wind Sculpture, 2013.

Dr. Rhodes (far left) and her class are pictured here at the offices of The Guardian in London.

Oxford / Take Two Dr. Leara Rhodes Grady Summer 2013 Tourists filled the pedestrian walk on Cornmarket Street and bulged over onto High Street in Oxford. I was on my way to meet three students for “Tea” at the Grand Café at 84 High Street and had to battle my way past strolling French speaking teens and large Korean family groups. I did not want to be late. This was the second time we had met for tea but the semester was ending and the buses taking us to the airport were to come early the next day; still, the students wanted one more “tea” time. The ritual, an English one to be sure, was one that gave me time to sit informally with my students after 6 weeks of studying international communication.

During our time together we had visited the Hearst Magazine group in London. A friend of Grady, Terry Mansfield, former CEO of the International Magazine Group, guided us through several magazines including the British Cosmopolitan Magazine. The students also visited the offices of The Guardian Newspaper in London and met with the International Editor.

On Monday “high table” evenings, students would snap a million photographs before the lectures, after the lectures on the lawn, and after dinner in the pub downstairs.

Photo memories were taken to remind the students of the new friends, the teachers, and the staff during their time in Oxford. My memories are of the students who sought me out to have tea or cookies in the dining

room or to invite me to an open mic night at a local cafe, or to meet them on the lawn for a conversation, or to go hear the coffee concerts at the Holywell Music Room. All of these made the experience of teaching at UGA Oxford worth repeating, just as we repeated the “Tea” sessions.

Life-Changing Experience Dr. Michael Hamilton Terry Summer 2013 It was obvious from the outset that students would gain optimum results from their personal investment in this program. Predeparture information and instruction occurred smoothly. The attention to detail by The Oxford Program’s staff and experienced graduate assistants meant the on-site schedule flowed smoothly. Six weeks intense study and cross cultural immersion had been carefully thought through. No time wasted helped result in an intellectual experience that indelibly changed the perspective from which each student continues to learn today.

Surrounded by block after block of carved stone buildings, bookstores, and ancient, timbered pubs, students absorbed the reverence for tradition and centuries of chronicled history for which Trinity College and Oxford enjoy an international reputation.

Whether practicing to say grace in Latin before weekly High Table Dinner or making a solemn pledge before being admitted to the Bodleian Library, students were acutely aware of the

rarity of the opportunity offered to them.

This past summer in particular allowed finance students to build upon the knowledge gleaned from months of international press coverage of the cataclysmic events in the European Union’s financial institutions and member states’ economies. Against that background we visited the Bank of England in London and the Mini Cooper manufacturing facility.

While the standards for students’ work, punctuality, attendance, and deportment were rigorous, they were able to travel on the weekends. Students found Scotland, Ireland, Prague and Paris within striking distance. Hourly train service to London meant that students explored the cultural and entertainment riches of a capital city equally famous for trade and finance.

Blenheim Palace and its acres of Capability Brown landscaped grounds is a short bus trip north of the UGA faculty flat.

My wife and I bought an annual pass and took UGA visitors there for the interactive exhibits depicting its history, the stunning architecture and decorative arts, the gardens, and even for a “Classic American Cars of the Fifties” show set up on the grounds.

Teachers in the Oxford Program watch the participants’ self- confidence grow, their horizons broaden, and their sense of their potential place in the world alter.

The combined investment by UGA and the individual student pays dividends for a lifetime.

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Twenty-five Years and Counting: A Program in Review, a Program Moving Forward s we move into the twenty-fifth year of the UGA at Oxford Program, it is a pleasure to pause and reflect upon the significant successes of the past twelve months. These highlights underscore the robust health of our Program and serve as telling markers of the distance we’ve traveled and the adventures yet to come.

An even more rewarding opportunity: More Scholarships than Ever Before

Growing from the root: Summer Program Numbers at an All-Time High In 2013, UGA at Oxford’s combined summer programs hit an all-time high number of students. Our Franklin, Terry, and Grady programs boasted an impressive participant tally: nearly 90 undergraduates and 5 graduate students— the largest single group yet! The energy and enthusiasm that sprang from this bright and overflowing demographic was palpable. When Dr. Shaw created the UGA at Oxford Program in 1989 and traveled to Jesus College, Oxford with 13 bright and motivated UGA students, who would have guessed that the Program would top 100?

With the summer 2014 programs beginning to take shape, it is clear that we are set for a repeat in the months to come.

Gluttons for punishment, perhaps?

Returning Student Numbers Set a Record This past year UGA at Oxford was proud to welcome an ever-increasing number of alumni participants. In 2013, we had over 15 individuals who returned to Oxford for a second (at times, even a third!) term of study. These veteran Program participants attest to the merits of studying with UGA at Oxford and serve as noteworthy models for new recruits and ambassadors within our

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Athens-based student body. Due in large part to the unparalleled size and variety of our curriculum, students need not worry that they will run out of courses to take with us. We welcome the opportunity to support Program returnees as they build upon their initial academic and cultural experiences and push themselves further to develop the research skills and intellectual rigor that they honed in the rich atmosphere of Oxford.

Bringing them in in droves: Oxford Faculty Numbers Increase Significantly Along with our exalted student participant numbers, we were pleased to introduce a large number of new faculty members to UGA at Oxford in 2013. The rich diversity of our faculty connections has been, in large part, spurred by an ever-widening diversity of student interest in our course offerings.

Given the tutorial-style approach to UGA at Oxford classes, students are able to express interest in tailored subjects of study, and we in turn endeavor to meet their requests by pairing them with faculty members whose respective areas of expertise uniquely suit their fields of inquiry. With the expanding purview of our curricular offerings and the positive reputation our students have established and maintained with Oxford faculty, UGA at Oxford looks forward to welcoming even more new professors to our esteemed cohort.

We believe that international education, in its varied manifestations, is a key component to the contemporary university experience.

Committed to assisting our talented and qualified students in turning their aspirations into realities, we are pleased to offer several scholarship opportunities for those interested in studying on our Program. We are delighted to announce two new scholarships, the Judith Shaw Scholarship and the Woodlands Scholarship, which will join the UGA Foundation Scholarship and the Ploughman Scholarship as important means of financial support for our Program participants and applicants. In 2013, the UGA at Oxford Program awarded nearly $50,000 in Scholarships, thanks in large part to the UGA Foundation and our endowed fund donors, assisting in the participation of approximately 30 different students.

Detailed application information for each of these scholarships as well as details on how you may help support these endowed funds may be found on our UGA at Oxford webpage: oxford.uga.edu.

Breaking new ground: New Curriculum and STEM initiatives In keeping with the UGA at Oxford Program’s belief that all students should have the opportunity to study abroad at some point during their undergraduate career and regardless of the exigencies of their academic areas of focus, we have increased our efforts to offer courses amenable to a number of majors, including those within the STEM disciplines. In the past year, we have added courses in Chemistry, Genetics, Astronomy, and Biology; we have increased our offerings in

popular majors like Psychology, English, and History; and in the coming year, we are working to include offerings in Engineering, Landscape Design, Horticulture and Computer Science. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Dr. Kretzschmar (see his faculty note on pg. 2), we have also been able to add internship opportunities at the Oxford University Press and the University of Oxford Computer Sciences Division.

Abroad with the Bard: WashingtonOxford Program Summer 2013 Last summer featured our inaugural Transatlantic Shakespeare Program, during which undergraduate students interested in the works and theatrical production of the Elizabethan dramatist spent three weeks in Washington DC before continuing their study in Oxford. This group enjoyed unparalleled and exclusive access to instruction and research at the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library, an opportunity not available at any other US-based University. As if that weren’t enough, this was followed by three weeks in Oxford where the students continued with their course work, visited and worked with such august UK institutions as the Bodleian Library, The Globe Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The whole Program was capped off by a wonderful peripatetic performance of Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre, designed and staged

at 104 Banbury Road! The program was a great success, and UGA at Oxford looks forward to offering another iteration of this special transatlantic course in the near future.

We are 25; We are Young: Alumni Initiatives Build Program Support Undoubtedly, the strongest testament to the value of the UGA at Oxford Study Abroad Program comes from the students themselves. Dedicated to honoring their individual and collective accomplishments and eager to stay in touch with former Program participants, in 2014 we plan to revamp and renew our young alumni initiatives. In collaboration with recent alums, Program administrators are brainstorming innovative new means of maintaining a strong network of UGA at Oxford cohorts and facilitating the varied next stages of their personal and professional journeys. Keep your eyes open on our website and Facebook pages for updates! As we enter our second quarter-century, we are confident that UGA at Oxford can continue to grow in significance within the lives of every student who takes the leap and joins in on the opportunities that we can provide.

To help with this initiative, drop us a line at oxford@uga.edu.

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hile it is a great pleasure to welcome new students to the UGA at Oxford Program each year, there is added joy when an individual returns for a second (or sometimes, even a third!) time.

This excitement is further amplified when the returning student has transitioned from participating as an undergraduate to serving as a Graduate Resident or enrolling in a graduate program. We asked three such ‘double’ alumni a handful of questions about their initial and their subsequent experiences in Oxford. Here’s what they had to say: When did you first attend the UGA at Oxford Program?

Matthew Sellars: Fall 2010, the fall of my junior year.

Katie Baker: Spring of 2009 (January -March) with the SPIA at Oxford program.

Jeff Fallis: Summer of ‘97.

What initially drew you to the program?

MS: I wanted an intensive academic program with plenty of writing assignments and the opportunity to spend a lot of time in a foreign country—more than the three weeks you get on Maymester programs. I knew I’d get an entire semester abroad with UGA at Oxford—and there’s nowhere else on earth where I’d have been required to write as much in twelve weeks as I did at 104 Banbury Road!

KB: I initially was drawn to the program because I wanted to study at the oldest English-speaking university. I’ve always loved academic challenges and was also drawn to the idea of being able to earn UGA International Affairs credits while studying overseas.

JF: A desire to travel out of the U.S. for the first time, and a sense of Anglophilia acquired from a serious love of the Beatles.

What did you study/courses did you take while there?

MS: I took Dr. Southcombe’s course in early modern British historiography, Professor Bradshaw’s in the literature of the fin-desiècle, a tutorial with Dr. Kantik Ghosh on Geoffrey Chaucer, and a tutorial with Dr. Oren Goldschmidt on Virginia Woolf.

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Oxford Bulldog

KB: I took two international politics classes. I took one under Dr. Bullock (UGA) called Comparative Political Institutions, and I took one from a man named Johannes [Lindvall] who taught a course at Lincoln College called Post Industrial Democracies. And then I also took a Persian 4000 class from Firuza Abduella in the Oriental Studies Institute.

JF: A Shakespeare tutorial and a class in early 18th-century English prose.

When did you return to Oxford, and what compelled you to do so?

MS: I returned to Oxford in Michaelmas 2012 for graduate study as a Marshall Scholar. I received my master’s with distinction from Oxford in summer 2013, and I’m currently pursuing a DPhil in English at Wolfson College under the supervision of Professor Elleke Boehmer.

KB: The students in the spring of 2009 grew very close to one another, even to the law students, and I felt a part of a UGA family for the first time while I lived in England. I continued to be friends with those students throughout my entire undergraduate career. I was very proud to consider myself an alumna and I jumped at the chance to help create that same environment for undergraduates at the 104 residence.

JF: 2012 (and 2013!). I was back at UGA working on my Ph.D., and the opportunity to return to the Oxford program as a graduate assistant was too wonderful to pass up.

What do you remember from your time as an undergraduate in Oxford and how was/is your subsequent experience different?

MS: Part of the contrast between UGA at Oxford and my current experience stems from a simple difference in status: before I was an undergraduate, keen to explore my subject broadly. Now I’m a graduate student working on a very specific project, and committed for the next few years to researching a few particular authors and texts. But even though my project has changed, and I’ve matured as a student, the lovely thing about Oxford is that it doesn’t change, and really hasn’t changed much in the last few centuries.

KB: When I visited Oxford this summer it felt completely different. First, I didn’t feel that

need to bounce to a different country every weekend so I got to enjoy the lesser-known spaces of Oxfordshire, London and England.

Since I lived at Trinity College instead of in the UGA residence, I also felt more connected to the downtown area and the University at large.

JF: When I went as an undergraduate, the program was fairly small and consisted of almost all English majors. We all roomed and ate at Jesus College. Now the program is much, much larger, and the rooms and facilities at the UGA House on Banbury Road and Trinity and Keble Colleges are much nicer and much improved. The program has expanded in every direction.

Any other thoughts/reflections?

And what are you up to these days?

MS: I’m continuing to work on my DPhil, and I’ve just heard the Marshall Commission will extend my funding for a third year, so for the next few years I’ll be hard at work in the Bodleian. Finally, I’d add that no experience I had as an undergraduate—not interning in DC, not seeing the Taj Mahal at dawn—was as formative as three months in Oxford.

KB: This summer, as I sat at the “high-table” at Trinity, and looked down the table at the world-renowned academics, I was keenly aware of how blessed I was to have chosen the University of Georgia, because of the unique experiences I’ve been granted as a result of the Program’s leadership. People like Jamie McClung, Jennifer Bogdanich, Maggie Perry and the Bradshaws, have fashioned an experience unlike any other. You quickly come to realize how respected the University of Georgia is by Oxford faculty and students, and that is an academic reputation that I am glad I can claim as my own. These days I am finishing up student teaching at Cedar Shoals high school and completing my Masters of Language and Literacy Education in May of 2014.

JF: I also remember distinctly the sensation of eating beans and mushrooms for breakfast for the first time and being surprised how much I enjoyed them. Nothing has changed in that respect...

(These days I am working on writing my dissertation and teaching a creative writing workshop at UGA...)

UGA v. Oxford Union Debate V On October 8th, 2014 the UGA at Oxford Program will host the fifth iteration of the UGA versus Oxford Union Debate. This tie-breaking event is sure to rivet audiences, as it will feature two stellar debating teams, each comprised of some of the best and brightest public speakers from their respective institutions.

For nearly two decades, this unique meeting of minds has served as an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of academic and intellectual exchange upon which the UGA at Oxford Program is founded. Commencing at 7 pm in the UGA Chapel, the debate will pit the wits of The Oxford Union—a renowned organization founded in 1823 as an arena for the free exchange of ideas among students— against those of our own talented UGA team—including members from the Georgia Debate Union, the Demosthenian Literary Society, the Phi Kappa Literary Society, the Law School, UGA’s Honors Program, and several other student organizations.

As in previous iterations, the format of this debate will be a hybridization of British and American styles. Quite similar to parliamentary debate, it will begin with uninterrupted position speeches, or opening arguments, that will allow both groups to delineate their team’s agenda and the basic structure of their argument. From there, the discussion will become lively, as the subsequent speeches allow for points of order and interruptive questions or dissenting opinion. Such rapidfire discussion will require that both teams be on their toes, ready to defend their assertions in extemporaneous fashion.

Drawing on the collective energy generated by this event, UGA at Oxford welcomes all interested parties to attend the evening’s festivities and to show their support for a truly dynamic cross-cultural exchange.

Details regarding the specifics, including this year’s debaters and judges (a host that has included U.S. senators, national media contributors, and Oxford tutors, among others) will be forthcoming later this semester.

Make sure to save the date and come out to support the UGA vs. Oxford tradition of debate!

UGA at Oxford

Homecoming Alumni Reunion and Tailgate 2013 n November 9th, 2013 the UGA at Oxford Program hosted its ninth Homecoming Tailgate. As has been our good fortune now for several years running, the perfect fall weather—brisk, yet sunny—welcomed alumni, friends, and family on the patio in front of Park Hall. The annual event kicked off at 10am with nearly 300 folks in attendance, indulging in delicious treats from Hallie Jane’s such as pulled pork, chicken fingers, and of course their famous squash casserole.

For the third year in a row, the Georgia Bulldogs came into homecoming week with a victory over the much-despised Florida Gators as they set up for a 12:31pm kickoff against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. As guests arrived, they talked about the highs and lows of the football season thus far, a season that warranted a renaming of the team as the “Cardiac Canines.”

The event is quickly becoming a yearly reunion opportunity for UGA at Oxford Program alumni, and we look forward in the coming year to hosting another of our favorite Oxford Dons (rumor has it that Dr. Rowena Archer is slated to come over for the festivities next year). Please mark your calendars for this event, which will take place Homecoming Saturday on the patio in front of Park Hall. For more information on the 2014 tailgate, keep an eye on the program website: www.oxford.uga.edu. We would love to see y’all there!

UGA at Oxford The University of Georgia 326A Park Hall Athens, GA 30602

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SPIA at Oxford Spring 2014 Thursday, January 2 – Saturday, March 15

SPIA at Oxford Spring 2015 Thursday, January 1 – Saturday, March 14

UGA Law at Oxford Spring 2014 Friday, January 10 – Sunday, April 27

UGA Law at Oxford Spring 2015 Friday, January 9 – Sunday, April 26

Franklin at Oxford Spring 2014 Thursday, March 27 – Sunday, June 21 Foundation Fellows Maymester 2014 Friday, May 9 – Saturday, June 7 Franklin at Oxford Junemester 2014 Tuesday, June 10 – Thursday, June 26 Franklin, Grady & Terry at Oxford Summer 2014 Sunday, July 6 – Friday, August 15 Franklin at Oxford Fall 2014 Thursday, September 11 – Saturday, December 6

Franklin at Oxford Spring 2015 Thursday, March 26 – Saturday, June 20 Foundation Fellows Maymester 2015 Thursday, May 8 – Saturday, June 6 Oxford/Washington Summer 2015 (DC) Friday, June 12 – Thursday, July 2 (OX) Sunday, July 5 – Sunday, July 26 Franklin at Oxford Junemester 2015 Tuesday, June 9 – Friday, June 26 Franklin, Grady & Terry at Oxford Summer 2015 Sunday, July 5 – Friday, August 14 Franklin at Oxford Fall 2015 Thursday, September 10 – Saturday, December 5

If you haven’t already done so, please update your contact information on our website at https://oxford.uga.edu/uga-at-oxford/alumni/update-your-information. This quick electronic form allows us to have your most current mailing and email addresses so that our Program staff can best communicate upcoming events, such as our annual Alumni Homecoming Tailgate every fall semester. If you have already updated your information using this form, thank you! Also, if you have any suggestions as to how we might improve the form, please contact our Graduate Assistant Jennifer Bogdanich at jls@uga.edu.