goldsmiths - goldclass programme 2016

GOLDCLASSES 2016

Find out more about our exciting subject areas, and experience what it’s like to study at university level

gold.ac.uk/goldclasses

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At Goldsmiths, University of London we offer a range of subject-based masterclasses that give Year 12 students the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of teaching and learning at university level.

Developed and delivered by leading academic staff, Goldclasses aim to stimulate enquiry, broaden knowledge of the subject area, and introduce students to a wider network of academics, undergraduate students and peers.

Sessions run from March to July in the following subject areas:

AnthropologyArtArts ManagementChinese Studies ComputingCriminologyDesignEconomicsEducational StudiesEnglishHistoryHistory of ArtManagementMedia & CommunicationsMusicPoliticsPsychologySociologySocial WorkTheatre & PerformanceTherapeutic StudiesVisual Cultures

Some masterclasses relate closely to the school curriculum, enabling students to enhance their current studies. Others introduce new topics studied at university level, exposing students to subjects beyond the post-16 secondary syllabus. They are not revision lectures, but academic sessions that include:

− Stimulating lectures or workshops delivered by Goldsmiths academics

− The opportunity to discuss the topic and ask questions

− An introduction to the university admissions process

− The opportunity to hear about life as a Goldsmiths student from a current undergraduate

AnthropologyAnthropology in the 21st Century (and how we got like this) Lecturer: Dr Gavin Weston

18 March, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 326

OR28 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 137a

This masterclass will give you a brief history of social anthropology and an overview of the discipline in the contemporary world. We will explore the shifts from classical ethnography of villages in ‘exotic’ locations to newer forms of anthropology at home, in cities and online, and how these all revolve around the central idea of ethnographic research. We will look at examples of ethnography from around the world to reflect upon the amazing breadth of anthropologists’ research interests.

ArtFine Art and History of Art: Making, Thinking, Writing and All Points In Between Lecturer: Marion Coutts

23 March, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room LG02

You are a new student on Fine Art and History of Art. What does week one in the studio feel like? Not like school. Not much like Foundation either. Using your own ideas as a starting point, this

session will imaginatively engage with the idea of student-centred learning from the start. We will think about how we learn, look at practical and theoretical ways of progressing ideas, and discuss change and risk to explore what contemporary art and visual culture might mean to you.

Arts ManagementArts Management: Creating the Possibility of CreationLecturer: Dr Victoria Alexander

10 March, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 143

OR29 June, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 137a

The cultural and creative sector is one of the quickest-growing sectors in the UK and across the world, providing jobs for millions of people. Some of those people are artists or ‘creatives’; however, creativity cannot happen in a vacuum. In order for projects to be realised, a whole range of activities from planning to funding need to be in place. Supporting creativity is a fundamentally creative act in itself. Popular music gigs, classical music concerts, theatre shows, art exhibitions, dance performances, film festivals, street festivals and every imaginable artistic event happen because someone produces them, and the art world would not function without someone to arrange for ticket or object sales, fundraising, audience development and other crucial activities. This masterclass introduces key concepts of arts management, and

INTRODUCTION

Find out more School or college groups and individuals can make a booking request at www.gold.ac.uk/goldclasses or by emailing [email protected]

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions; we look forward to welcoming you to the Goldsmiths campus soon!

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explains why it is such an exciting and growing field. Through case studies of real arts organisations, you will develop and engage with planning and problem solving skills that could be the first step in a successful career in which you create the possibility of creation.

ComputingCreative ProgrammingLecturer: Dr Marco Gillies

9 March, 3pm-5pmLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 306

This masterclass will introduce you to the way we teach computer programming at Goldsmiths: a way that emphasises your independence and creativity by working with graphics, interaction and sound from the very beginning.

Graphics and SoundLecturer: Dr Simon Katan


This masterclass helps you get started creating real-time graphics and sound for web, desktop and mobile devices. Based on our hugely popular online and undergraduate courses, you will be shown how to start drawing and controlling sound, and begin to handle computer interaction for web design, mobile app development, gaming, music and the arts.

Being an Entrepreneur in the Digital AgeLecturer: Dr James Ohene-Djan

29 June, 3pm-5pmLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 306

The UK’s Tech City, based in Shoreditch, is now one of the major world centres for start-up companies. Whether it’s e-retailing, gaming, social media or electronic commerce, the UK has a flourishing business computing and entrepreneurial community. This session aims to introduce you to some of the key activities and processes involved in creating a new start-up internet business. During the masterclass you will work on developing a new internet start-up. Create an idea for a new mobile internet business; perform a SWOT analysis; propose a brand and its values; develop a revenue model; create a storyboard for your business pitch; record a video elevator pitch.

Chinese StudiesConfucius Institute: Mandarin for BeginnersLecturers: Maria Thomas, Peipei Yang & Tian Yiyun


OR5 July, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 305

This will be a Mandarin masterclass for beginners, consisting of a sample lecture and two workshops – Chinese

paper-cutting and a Chinese dance demonstration. In the sample lecture, you will be given an understanding of the unique writing system of the language, and learn some useful daily expressions.

CriminologyCriminology and ‘The Riots’ Lecturer: Dr Alex Rhys-Taylor


Following the famous riots that spread across British cities in 2011, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, warned of the dangers of trying to find ‘sociological explanations’ for these crimes. At the same time, the home secretary assured us ‘the only cause of a crime is a criminal’. Taking issue with these soundbites, this lecture argues for the vital importance of sociology and criminology – firstly, explaining the circumstances out of which urban crises arise, and secondly, explaining why influential leaders speak and think about these crimes in the way that they do. It concludes by arguing that critical criminology can play a vital part in shaping the ways in which we think about ‘deviance’ in European cities and subsequently in delivering a more just society.

DesignDesign at Goldsmiths: An Introduction to Theory and Practice Lecturer: Tearlach Byford-Flockhart

10 March, 2pm-3.30pm Location: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 143

OR20 June, 2pm-3.30pm Location: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 342

Join us for an interactive and hands-on workshop, showcasing how theory and practice are combined in the Goldsmiths BA Design degree. Materials will be provided for you to design and fabricate the front cover of a zine that summarises something important to you. Our aim is to understand how simply cutting things up can help us start to develop ideas without the use of drawing or building.At the end of the session we will share the work – which students will be able to take home with them – and explore the theory and messages that are reflected by the products.

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EconomicsWhy Are Some Countries Richer Than Others? Questions and Answers from Economics and Other Social SciencesLecturers: Dr Ivano Cardinale & Dr Constantinos Repapis


OR 30 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 137

In this lecture we ask one of the most important questions in economics: why are some countries richer than others? We will discuss the answers that different economists have given, and how other social sciences can contribute to the debate. The lecture will give us the chance to talk about what it is like to study economics at university and what is distinctive about economics at Goldsmiths: that you will not only master the tools of economics, but also understand the broader social, historical and political context of the discipline.

Educational StudiesWhat is a Researcher? Lecturer: Dr Anna Carlile

4 March, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 143

OR29 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 143

In this masterclass you will find out which university degrees and careers require research skills and learn how to conduct qualitative research. We will be trying out a few research skills, in the session, including active listening, interviewing, and interview note taking. Most importantly, we will be working on discovering what students think we researchers should be finding out about. We will therefore be asking: what is important to you, in your family, your neighbourhood, your school, and your world?

English & Comparative LiteratureAll This Stench: Corpses in the Literature of the Great WarLecturer: Dr Frank Krause


Many soldiers of the Great War were regularly exposed to the smell of dead bodies; in literature, the combatants’ disturbing experience of close proximity to corpses is often presented as a threat to the self’s boundaries, or as a deprivation of indispensable burial rites. This lecture will focus on the lesser-known literary method of charging the stench of decomposition with symbolic meaning supposed to reveal the cultural significance of death in war.

Reading the American Landscape: Robert Frost’s ‘Birches’Lecturer: Dr Gail McDonald

20 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 137

The snowy New England landscape is an exemplary site for American modernism’s re-thinking of Romanticism. Using Robert Frost’s ‘Birches’ as an example, the lecture will consider how 20th-century views of nature diverge from those of English Romantic poets such as Coleridge and American Transcendentalists such as Emerson. A copy of ‘Birches’ will be provided.

HistoryCorporate Raiders, Corporate Empire? The Origins of British Rule in IndiaLecturer: Dr Erica Wald


This masterclass examines the fierce competition between rival trading companies – the Portuguese, Dutch and the English East India Companies between the 17th and early 19th centuries. This corporate rivalry eventually resulted in the British gaining an imperial foothold in India. From these roots, the second British Empire was born. How did the East India Company rule and expand during this period? This lecture analyses imperial rivalries and explores how the Company came to rule what would become the ‘jewel’ in the crown of Britain’s empire.

The Great Catastrophe: Germany and Austria-Hungary in the First World WarLecturer: Dr Alexander Watson

21 June, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 300a

This masterclass looks at the First World War from Germany’s and Austria-Hungary’s perspectives. It examines why these states’ peoples followed their leaders to war in 1914 and why they endured over four years of conflict. From Lviv in the east to Lorraine in the west, societies underwent total mobilisation. They faced mortal threat. Terrifying Russian invasions ravaged their border provinces. A ruthless British naval ‘starvation blockade’ isolated them from the world and contributed to the deaths of a million Central European civilians.

ManagementInstitute of Management Studies: Entrepreneurs as Entrepreneurial ProcessesLecturer: Dr Rachel Doern

2 March, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 300a

OR27 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 137a

This interactive workshop introduces you to the field of entrepreneurship and its role and importance in society, and explores the reasons why people become entrepreneurs. The session will also provide a great opportunity to

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hear more about management courses, meet current students, talk to members of academic staff and hear more about Goldsmiths.

Media & CommunicationsMedia as Cultural IndustriesLecturer: Dr Gholam Khiabany

7 March, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre

This session considers how media is organised and paid for, looking at specific features of cultural products and the consequences of such features for cultural industries. It explores how these broad structures influence our access to the media, the form and content that media takes, and how we think about what media is ‘for’. The session aims to engage with these questions and concerns: − How many different ways are there to make a product pay?

− Is the price of profitability the end of innovation and individual creativity?

− Is there an inevitable tension between the pursuit of business goals and the public interest?

− Are there any aspects of the contemporary media that cannot be explained by the conditions of production?

Race, Representation and the MediaLecturer: Dr Anamik Saha

20 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 326

This lecture will look at the representation of race in the British media. Focusing mostly on television, we will look at the way that black and

Asian people have been represented historically, in a range of genres – from news stories to comedy sitcoms. In the main part of the session we will analyse and discuss contemporary representations of black and Asian people, thinking about how they might challenge or reinforce stereotypes about minorities. The session aims to demonstrate the value of academic enquiry into issues of media representation, making a case for why we need to take the media seriously when trying to understand social attitudes to race and ethnicity.

MusicHearing Film: Cinema Soundtracks and the Goldsmiths AestheticLecturer: Dr Holly Rogers


OR27 June, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 143

When watching a major Hollywood blockbuster, we are often so engrossed in the action that we fail to hear the soundtrack that underpins it. And yet this ‘inaudible’ music can fundamentally change how we read a film. These unheard soundtracks have prompted a debate that has raged for 30 years: is the music there simply to cover up awkward silences in the cinema? Or is it there to disguise editing and temporal jumps in the image? Some have even claimed that soundtrack appeals to our subconscious, causing us to ‘regress’ into a state more susceptible to the

onscreen fantasy. In this lecture, we will consider how the relationship between music and image can determine our reading of a film, and will see how and why the study of audio visual media is at the heart of the Goldsmiths music degree.

PoliticsPolitics, Controversy and Equality: An Introduction to Politics at GoldsmithsLecturers: Dr Paul Gunn & Professor Saul Newman


In this masterclass we introduce you to two types of politics: first, the act of practising politics by studying it; second, one of the most ubiquitous political questions in human life – the issue of equality. These topics will be presented via two mini lectures, which will give you a chance to consider the value of a politics degree, to challenge and question the speakers, and, ultimately, to form a stronger and more nuanced understanding of politics.

Politics, Ideology and the Conservatives: An Introduction to Politics at GoldsmithsLecturers: Dr Simon Griffiths & Dr Paul Gunn

21 June, 10.30-12middayLocation: Whitehead Building, Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre

In this masterclass, we introduce you to two types of politics: first, the act of practising politics by studying it; and second, the power politics of the Cameron government. These topics

will be presented by way of two mini-lectures, which will give students a chance to consider the value of a politics degree, to challenge and question the speakers, and, ultimately, to form a stronger and more nuanced understanding of politics.

PsychologyPsychology of Ghosts, Hauntings and MagicLecturers: Professor Chris French & Dr Gustav Kuhn

2 March, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Whitehead Building, Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre

OR27 June, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Whitehead Building, Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre

Opinion polls repeatedly show relatively high levels of belief in ghosts, and a sizeable minority of the population claim to have personally encountered a ghost. Professor French will consider a number of factors that may lead people to claim that they have experienced a ghost even though they may not in fact have done so. Dr Kuhn will discuss how magicians exploit limitations in our cognition to distort our visual perception.

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Sociology‘British Values’ and the Sociology of Racism in the 21st CenturyLecturer: Dr Brett St Louis

27 June, 10.30-12middayLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 326

During the latter half of the 20th century many sociologists have argued that racism has assumed more subtle forms. These newer expressions of racism are said to be less predicated on biological notions of ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ races and increasingly reliant on replacement terms such as ‘culture’ and ‘difference’. Within British governmental discourse, for example, a values deficit is identified as emerging from ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘faith communities’, evidenced in general terms by the ‘failure of multiculturalism’. This lecture will ask whether we are now witnessing both a ‘softening’ and ‘hardening’ of racist discourse during the early 21st century and discuss the sociological implications for understanding racism within contemporary multicultural Britain.

Social WorkHistory of Social WorkLecturer: Tom Henri

14 March, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 305

This lecture will locate social work within the contexts of five historical moments. Social work is positioned

at these moments in their respective welfare regimes, and specifically concerns the management and regulation of ‘the social’.

Relating Practice and Theory in Social WorkLecturer: Adi Staempfli

24 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 305

This lecture considers how theory and practice can be connected. We would like to consider what Schön calls the ‘swampy’ ground of professional practice. Social work intervenes between individuals and society where social problems arise. These situations are as unique as the individuals and their interests.

Applied Social Science, Community and Youth WorkLecturer: Susan Westman

8 March, 2pm-3.30pmLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 314

This masterclass will offer a short and practical overview of the rewards and challenges of following a career in community or youth work. It will outline some of what you would study on the BA Applied Social Science, Community Development and Youth Work degree, the kind of placement opportunities that students undertake, varying areas of study that are offered, and possible career paths for graduates from this successful and popular programme. It will also explore why community and youth work can be such a rewarding and fulfilling career in the 21st century.

Theatre & PerformanceDeveloping the Performance VisionLecturer: Dr Fiona Graham


This session will investigate how visual art can inspire theatre making. You will explore the devising process – working from images produced by a visual artist – then collaborate to develop a collective performance vision and compose a short scene. Please attend wearing comfortable clothes for practical work!

Fathers and Daughters: Maternal Absence and Paternal Misogyny in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’Lecturer: Dr Deirdre Osborne

24 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 142

First written and performed in a period of anxieties regarding lineage and inheritance (from Elizabeth I to James I), plays from this period are noticeable for the absence of any living mothers as they foreground the relationships between aristocratic fathers and their female heirs. Join us to explore the play and this topic further, by considering a key passage from ‘The Tempest’.

Therapeutic StudiesBA Psychosocial StudiesLecturer: Dr Elena Gil Rodriguez


This lecture will provide an overview of this novel and innovative degree, and offers the chance to experience a taster of the teaching available in year one of the programme in the form of a session on one of the foundation topics that are covered: ‘Locating psychotherapy and counselling in their historical context’.

Visual CulturesMore Than Meat Joy: Happenings and Performance from Recent Art HistoryLecturer: Dr Simon O’Sullivan


OR21 June, 10.30am-12middayLocation: Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 322

This masterclass will focus on exciting revolutionary art moments and movements from the 1960s. From Allan Kaprow’s Happenings and Carolee Schneemann’s Performance creating the scene, to Joseph Beuys inheriting it, this crucial era of recent art history will be considered.

Goldsmiths, University of LondonNew Cross, London SE14 6NW

www.gold.ac.uk/[email protected]

Cover image: student work from the Goldsmiths undergraduate Media and Communications animation degree show

goldsmiths - goldclass programme 2016

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