As well as introducing the course and the aims, objectives, structures, submission requirements and evaluation procedures of the Distance Learning Modules, the Winter School enables course participants to develop support networks via group and personal tutorials, evening social events, and informal visits to some of Glasgow's many tourist attractions. Social events and trips include sampling local pubs, visiting the world famous Burrell Collection, seeing the sights of Edinburgh, going to a Ceilidh and, when possible, attending a traditional Burns' Night supper. The Winter School also usually coincides wih Glasgow's folk music festival, Celtic Connections, with all trips and social events offering further ideas and possibilities for research and cultural analysis.
Through exposure to everything from local linguistic forms, service interactions and youth culture to media, cultural events and customs, course participants develop group research projects on topics of their own choice, with input, advice and feedback from the teaching staff. They might look, for example, at some of the dialect words used by young people, at literary representations of Glasgow, or at national stereotypes in the media or in tourist brochures, and by so doing, gain useful experience of appropriate research techniques and strategies prior to undertaking similar comparative projects in their cultures of residence at the end of each distance learning module.
MLitt in Cultural Studies home page.
Department of English Studies home page.