courses

First-Year Fellows enjoy a month-long Maymester sojourn to Oxford, England to take classes at Oxford University. Courses include:

• Biomedical Ethics (Professor Hanna Pickard, All Souls College, Oxford University)
• British Common Law (Professor Ben MacFarlane, Trinity College, Oxford University)
• English Historiography in the Early-Modern Period (Professor George Southcombe, Somerville College, Oxford University)
• International Conflict (Professor Marc Stears, University College, Oxford University, and Professor Jeni Whalan, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University)
• Modernist Literature (Professor David Bradshaw, Worcester College, Oxford University)

student comments

Camille Gregory ’13
“The coursework at Oxford is intensive, and we spent plenty of late nights preparing for seminars. We balanced that with pickup games of soccer, Frisbee in the rain, and adventures in flower fields at the University Parks. Oxford itself is a great place to explore. Everywhere you turn, the city mixes new with old. One of my favorite days was spent wandering through the quads of as many colleges as possible and attending an evensong service at Queens College. The exceptional architecture and gardening in this city made it quite magical. Plus, it was fun to walk through the colleges and go the Bodelian Library as actual students of the university! Several of us had a marvelous weekend in Dublin. After reading so much Joyce, it was a great pleasure to explore the city central to all of his literature.”

Sara De La Torre Beron, Derek Ponticelli, Lance White, Brittany Young ’13
“We went to Eastbourne and hiked 10 miles over the Seven Sisters. Looking out over the chalk white cliffs with the patched green fields of the English countryside at our backs, we enjoyed a scrumptious picnic lunch of authentic Italian food and reflected on how far the Fellowship had brought us. As we laboriously trekked up an 85-degree mountain, we came across a hillside full of glistening white rocks spelling out the origins of travelers past. We were proud to leave our own monument to UGA on the cliffs of the Seven Sisters.”

Logan Krusac ’12
“The Fellows Maymester was a month filled with opportunities. I never thought I would study at Oxford University in a college founded in 1249. The city of Oxford is filled with history; it was incredible to walk through the streets and have everything in sight be older than our country. As I had never been abroad before, the experience was particularly impactful. Being abroad reshaped how I perceive the world and the people with whom I share it. The Maymester also changed what we Fellows think of each other – for the better, I’m sure!  Living in the UGA-Oxford house, traveling throughout Europe, and toiling through Oxford tutorials, the first-year Fellows trip provided us with a great bonding experience, and we are all better friends as a result.”

Elizabeth Allan ’12
“Oxford is a city full of treasures. Some are obvious, like the grandeur of the Bodleian Library. Some must be sought out, like the joy of reading a book in University Park. When browsing through Blackwell’s bookstores or wandering through the beautiful neighborhoods, I truly felt immersed in Oxford life and culture.”

Jericho Booker ’12
“In European keyboards, the @ symbol and the “ symbol are reversed. This makes typing emails and quoting people annoying. People on bikes will not hesitate to run you over if they have a choice between you and sidelining a car (because stopping is apparently not an option). But other than that, and if you take advantage of the opportunity to see Oxford, you will love it. You’ll figure out what there is nearby and where you like to hang out (the St. Giles Cemetery, while populated with people who’ve passed on, is very green, sunny, and peaceful, and the Thames River is a beautiful walk, especially if you find houseboats romantic and adventurous). Inside Salisbury Cathedral is a cloister I wish I could have spent the whole day in; it will bring you to tears if you let it.”

Patrick Fitzmaurice ’12
“The Oxford class setup allows for a completely different type of learning. The academic experience of the program was enlightening and fulfilling. The house was almost surreal. I simply couldn't (and still can't) believe it was a house for college students. Oxford itself also made the trip particularly enjoyable. The environment is on the one hand intellectually stimulating, but on the other hand, it is still a college town. I almost view it as a British Athens.”

Hank Schwartz ’12
“The UGA house was a fantastic community of students with diverse interests, not to mention a backyard that rivals the Oxford botanical gardens. We felt like we belonged to the university, studying in quiet solitude in the shadows of past great Oxford minds. Through one-on-one tutorials, the Oxford professors managed to provide me with the proper tools to debate and scrutinize international policy.”