Honors Seminar: The Bloomsbury Group
Summer 2012: May 12 to June 3 (tentative dates)
Program Location
Bloomsbury derives its name from 'Blemondisberi', meaning 'the manor of (William) Blemond', who acquired the land in the early-13th century. Known as the hub of intellectual London, Bloomsbury is anchored by the British Museum and the University of London.
This program will be a six-credit Honors Seminar on Art and Economics in the Bloomsbury Group. The Bloomsbury Group is a celebrated group of intellectuals, artists, and public figures who lived in or near London in the early twentieth century who closely interacted with one another. Bloomsbury is a district in London which was the geographical center of the Group’s meetings. The core of the Bloomsbury Group included economist John Maynard Keynes, writers Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey, artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Roger Fry, and critics Clive  Bell and Leonard Woolf. However, there were many others who had varying degrees of connection to the group. The Bloomsbury district of London is where the University of London, home of JMU’s London program, is located and it is where students will reside during the London stay.
Academic Program
This Honors Seminar will require some preparatory work in the spring semester and reflective work in the fall semester, but will be centered on three weeks in London. The course is designed as an experiential learning course for first and second year Honors Scholars. The six credit honors seminar will satisfy the honors seminar requirement for Track I and Track II honors students.
The program foregrounds several aims of the honors program: interdisciplinary study, critical engagement, work with primary materials, debate and discussion, oral presentation, and collaboration with other highly motivated students. The extensive preparatory meetings in the spring term differentiate this program from other short term study abroad programs that typically only have one or two preparatory meetings. The student symposium also distinguishes this program from other study abroad offerings. It provides students a unique opportunity to reflect upon their experiences and share their insights with others; The preparation and reflective components are consistent with best national practices in honors study abroad. The group will become immersed in the Bloomsbury Group experience, as it relates to economics and the visual arts.
Professor Craufurd Goodwin (Duke University) puts it this way in describing the Bloomsbury group:
Some features of the Bloomsbury Group that are most attractive and intriguing are (1) the remarkable amount of intellectual firepower that they could muster collectively; (2) the general commitment of most of them to revolutionary change
in the various areas that they represented - art, economics, fiction, ethics, biography, criticism, history, political philosophy, psychology, esthetics; (3) the attention members paid to the thoughts of others in the Group and the inclusion of the ideas of the others in their own work; (4) their candor with others and with themselves; (5) their sense of fun and joie de vivre, combined with (6) their commitment to hard work (on whatever they were engaged)and improvement of human welfare.
Students will typically meet with instructors four mornings per week for classroom work. Students will meet frequently for afternoon and evening local field trips and
Bloomsbury-style” free flowing discussions on a wide variety of subjects of interest to the Bloomsbury Group (e.g., philosophy, arts, political science, etc.), but in a modern context. Two day trips outside of London are planned: Charleston, the country home for members of the Bloomsbury Group, and Cambridge University which played an important role in the formation of the Group and its worldviews. There will be a free three-day weekend for students to use as they see fit such as, for example, travel around or outside Great Britain.
The course is an experiential learning course for first and second year Honors Scholars. Class size will be limited to approximately 20 students. The course will be a six credit honors seminar that will satisfy the honors seminar requirement for Track I and Track II honors students.
It will begin with approximately biweekly two-hour meetings on campus in the Fall semester of 2011. Students will use this semester to to become acquainted with the principal figures of the Bloomsbury Group, the activities of the Group, and the Group’s geographical and historical setting. They will also use this period to get to know one another and the instructors. They will be involved in helping to plan the summer itinerary.
During the three weeks in London, the group will become immersed in the Bloomsbury Group experience, especially as it relates to literature, economics and the visual arts. The students will typically meet with the instructors four mornings per week (MTWTh) for two hour classes structured to promote discussion and self-learning. Students will meet frequently for afternoon and evening field trips. Two day trips outside of London are planned: Charleston, the country home for members of the Bloomsbury Group, and Cambridge University, which played an important role in the formation of the Group and it worldviews. There will be a free three-day weekend for students to use as they see fit such as, for example, traveling around or outside Great Britain.
Tentative course offerings:
HON 200: The Bloomsbury Group (6)
Accommodations
Students will reside in hotels. Group meals will be provided.
Program Costs
For the current projected costs for this program, please click on the following link to the Fees for JMU Study Abroad Programs page.
Application
For more detailed instructions and to download the application, please click on the following link to the Applications and Forms section for JMU Short-Term Programs.
For More Information
For additional information about the program, please contact the program directors:
Barry Falk
Director of the Honors Program
Professor of Economics
Tel.: 540-568-5535
E-mail: falkbl@jmu.edu
Sian White
Assistant Professor
Tel.: 540-568-6202
E-mail: white2se@jmu.edu
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