London Centre Academics & Courses

Required Classes

British Life and Culture - 2 units

This required course utilizes visiting speakers, site visits, small group fieldwork and short research projects to introduce students to contemporary life in London and the United Kingdom. In the past, students have visited the Museum of London, Imperial War Museum, London Mosque, a football match, and more! With this course, students will earn two units. 

2024-2025 Electives - 6 units each

***Please Note: 2025-2026 course list should be available by the end of November. ***

You will take two to three 6-unit elective courses at the London Centre, depending on if you are pursuing the optional internship or music lessons. Contact Off-Campus Programs with any questions.

For Full London Centre Course Descriptions, please visit our Off-Campus Programs SharePoint site.

Fall 2024

• ANTH 372 - Urban Anthropology of London
• HIST/GLST 273 - London – A City Shaped by Migration
• THAR 176 - Post War British Musical Theatre (new!)
• ARHI 247 - Art Now: Contemporary Art in London
• HIST 150 - Turbulence and Transformation: Stuart England 1603-1714

Winter 2025

• ARHI 246 - 19th Century Art, Design, and Society in Britain
• ENG 203 - Literary London
• HIST 247 - Impact of Empire on Great Britain, 1815-1914
• THAR 257 - Diversity on the London Stage
• MUCO 131/431 - The Grand Tour: Musical Taste and Concert Life in Europe 1600-1750

Spring 2025

• ANTH 372 - Urban Anthropology of London
• ENGL/THAR 170 - Shakespeare in London
• GOVT 385 - Modern British Politics
• ENG/ETST 156 - Domesticating Literature: The London House Museum - Celia Barnes, Associate Professor of English, Visiting Faculty from Lawrence University
• ENG 155 - Black Britons - Celia Barnes, Associate Professor of English, Visiting Faculty from Lawrence University

Optional - Internships

Internships are one of the amazing ways you can tailor the London Centre program to your interests! With dozens of placement areas available, you are sure to find a good fit regardless of your major.

During the internship, you will participate in a one-hour weekly internship seminar (6 units) and work 15-20 hours in your placement. Not only will you gain professional experience, you will also come to view London as only a true Londoner can - through your morning commute, interactions with your co-workers, and navigating workplace culture and cultural workplace differences.

If you apply for an internship, you will need flexibility, an open mind, a positive attitude, and a professional hardworking approach.  You will be challenged but you will also benefit.  You will be able to grow professionally, strengthen your interpersonal skills, network, see an industry from a different cultural context, develop time management skills, and make your London Centre experience uniquely your own.  You will learn as much about yourself as you will your host culture. 

For more details on the London Centre Internship program, including placement areas, the application process, and visa requirements, please visit our Internship page on SharePoint.

Optional - Music Lessons

If you are a music major and have regularly taken music lessons on-campus and are interested to continue in London, you can sign up for a 3-unit S/U music lessons course. With this, you will earn five contact hours of private instruction from a local instructor. Lessons are partially subsidized (up to $500) and need to be arranged in advance. Typically, students taking music lessons will do so in addition to their other London Centre courses. Alternative arrangements would need to be discussed with the Off-Campus Programs office.

There is a dedicated practice space at the London Centre for students to use. The space comes with a clavinova.  If you are a piano student and prefer to practice on a piano, however, there are some locations in London, including public libraries, where you can play, either for free or for a small fee. Most students bring their own instruments.

For more information on how to register, finding an instructor, and more, please see our Music Lessons page on SharePoint.

Looking Ahead to Fall 2025

Two Physics classes will be offered - open to all students; no pre-requisites. One class fulfills the lab GER.

The Whirligig of Time (fulfills lab GER)

In The Twelfth Night, Feste taunts Malvio with the notion of the “wheel of time” coming round to exact the latter’s comeuppance. But what is time? How is it measured? How, and in what sense, does time flow? The Whirligig of Time explores the philosophical and scientific issues that surround the nature and measurement of time, including: ancient reckoning using celestial patterns, Newton’s critical assumption of an absolute time in The Principia, the clockmaking central to the Longitude Rewards of the 18th Century, relativistic considerations of space-time, and the possibility of quantized time. Part of the course includes astrometric measurements of the Sun and Moon using London’s singular landmarks, trips to the Horological and Astronomical Instrument Collections at The British Museum, the Clock Maker’s Museum at Imperial College, Greenwich Observatory—celebrating the 350th anniversary of its founding in 1675, and Stonehenge. There are no pre-requisites for this course. The Whirligig of Time satisfies the natural science lab GER.

Nature's Infinite Book

At about the same time Shakespeare’s soothsayer in Antony and Cleopatra first claimed on stage to read only a little of “Nature’s Infinite Book,” Galileo was opening a new chapter of human exploration with his telescope. And yet, long before the time of the favored sons of Elizabeth and the Medici’s, humans had wrestled with a seemingly innocuous question: what, exactly, is space? Further: how do we measure it? Does it end, and if it does, what then—or what where? Nature’s Infinite Book seeks to examine the philosophical and scientific exploration of space and how we reckon it, from ancient measurements, to the explosion of astronomical exploration in the 17th and 18th Centuries, to Einstein’s bold assertion of a dynamic space-time, and beyond. Students in Nature’s Infinite Book will learn how to construct and use simple astronomical and surveying instruments and use them to survey both the night sky and London itself. Trips to the Royal Astronomical Society, The Royal Society, The British Museum, and Greenwich Observatory—celebrating the 350th anniversary of its founding in 1675—will enhance the classroom experience, as will night observing with some of London’s famous urban astronomical societies are also planned. There are no pre-requisites for this course, and it is perfectly suited for students with no previous science or mathematics background.