Yale in London

Yale in London continues to offer dynamic and intellectually-challenging courses taught by distinguished academics from Yale University, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and other academic institutions in the United Kingdom. This year, the programme also continued to accept applications from Yale’s sister campus in Singapore, Yale-NUS (National University of Singapore).

Spring Term

There were six students enrolled in the Spring term, all of whom were from Yale. They were housed in flats near Paddington. Four courses were taught during the Spring term: British Art and Landscape by Martin Postle, Deputy Director of Grants & Publications at the Paul Mellon Centre; London: The Metropolis in the Modern Imagination and British Biography, Portraiture, and Psychoanalysis taught by Langdon Hammer, Professor, Department of English, Yale; and The Art and Architecture of Medieval London: 1066–1547 taught by Lloyd de Beer, Project Curator for Late Medieval Europe, Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum.

The spring term saw the students participate in a wide variety of activities and visits, and they visited key London destinations as part of their studies. The British Art and Landscape course took students to various locations in Wales, such as Snowdon, Cader Idris, and Tintern Abbey. As part of the courses on British Biography and Medieval Art, students travelled to Haworth and Canterbury. There was no theatre course offered this term, but students still had opportunities to see plays. The British Biography students saw Peter Pan at the National Theatre as part of their course, and many saw Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at the Old Vic as an extracurricular activity.

Summer Session One

There were nine students enrolled in Summer Session One. They were housed in flats on the Southbank at Waterloo. During this session, the students undertook two courses: Modern British Drama taught by Sheila Fox and Queenship and Female Power from the Tudors to the Modern Age taught by Lisa Ford, Assistant Director of Research at the Yale Center for British Art.

The course on queenship took students to a variety of locations key to historical moments when female monarchs ruled, such as Framlingham Castle, Kenilworth Castle, Burghley House, and Hatfield House. The students also watched the ceremony of Trooping the Colour during second week of term. As part of the course on British drama, the students also saw many performances. These included The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Donmar Warehouse, Disco Pigs at the Trafalgar Studios, Common at the National Theatre, and Don Juan in Soho at Wyndham’s Theatre.

Summer Session Two

There were six students enrolled in Summer Session Two and they were housed in flats near Paddington. During this session, the students took two courses: Photography in Victorian Britain: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics by Sean Willcock, Yale in London Lecturer and The British Empire and its Imperial Hub taught by Jonathan Wyrtzen, Department of Sociology, Yale University. Photography in Victorian Britain examined the creation and development of the camera and of photography as an art form. As part of the course, the students visited relevant collections, archives, and exhibitions in London. The students also visited the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford and Lacock Abbey, home of Henry Fox Talbot. The course on the British Empire took the students to view the collection of the now-defunct Commonwealth Museum. This collection, consisting of over 500,000 items including film, photography, and objects, is now under the care of the Bristol City Council Archive. This was a rare and exciting opportunity for students to encounter material of this kind.

David Jacques, Gardens of Court and Country: English Design 1630–1730, April 2017

Publications

July 2016–June 2017

Marcia Kupfer

Art and Optics in the Hereford Map: An English Mappa Mundi, c.1300 October 2016

David Adshead and David Taylor (eds)

Hardwick Hall: A Great Old Castle of Romance November 2016

Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray

John Singer Sargent: Volume IX: Figures and Landscapes, 1914–1925: The Complete Paintings November 2016

Gardens

Court

Country

Elizabeth Einberg

William Hogarth: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings November 2016

David Jacques

Gardens of Court and Country: English Design 1630–1730

April 2017

Elizabeth Prettejohn

Modern Painters, Old Masters: The Art of Imitation from the PreRaphaelites to the First World War May 2017

Ben Highmore

The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain

June 2017