Visiting Hogwarts at Christ College-Oxford in my Spare Time

Author: Jackson Terrell | Majors: Political Science, History | Semester: Summer 2023

Hi! I’m Jackson Terrell, and I’m a junior Political Science and History double major in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the Honors College. I had the pleasure to spend the second half of my summer studying medieval history, culture, and literature in England on the University of Arkansas Faculty-led Medieval England program.

Academics

I chose this program for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I knew it would be good to get ahead of some history and Fulbright honors requirements so that I could stay on track to graduate on time. However, I could have done that through summer courses. I happen to be a massive Anglophile, and British history has always been something that interested me. Given that this program gave me the opportunity to fulfill those history and honors credits while visiting many of my bucket list locations, it was too good to pass up.

Our time in the classroom took place primarily in the first two weeks of the course, with the rest of the trip focusing on lectures from docents during site visits which took place all over the country. Our lessons, which focused on history for the first week, and then literature for the second week, were not unlike lectures at the University of Arkansas. I think this was mostly a product of the program being faculty-led. That meant that our instructors were University of Arkansas instructors. However, I found our time in the classroom to be much more laid back than lectures here in Fayetteville, with a lot less pressure to take good notes and instead focusing on discussion over items that spoke to each of our individual courses of study. Our program was multidisciplinary, meaning that we came from a variety of majors. Although most of us had some concentration in history or literature, we were still able to approach the material from different academic vantage points. For example, I contributed to discussions relating to medieval court politics from the perspective of having studied the modern British political system. Others contributed to discussions about how medieval literature influenced later British literature. Honestly, I felt that I took more from our discussions and hearing my peers’ analysis of various subjects than from lectures most of the time. Once we finished our two weeks of classroom lecture, we switched to focusing on site visits to hubs of medieval activities. These allowed us to understand the lecture content in the context of each individual setting. This was my favorite section of the trip. Sometimes, classroom lectures could begin to feel repetitive. However, visiting a new site every day was a great way to keep the course feeling fresh and new. My particular favorite site visit was Windsor Castle. As a royal history nerd, it was surreal to get to visit the home, and burial place, of many great English monarchs, both medieval and modern.

Culture

Of all of the aspects of UK culture I was struck by, the architecture was easily the most impressive and different. I think this is mostly a function of age, as the United Kingdom has a much longer history than the United States. Impressive churches, castles, and cobblestone streets were relatively common sights, as well as ruins. Here in the United States, there are only a handful of ruins that I can think of. However, they are a fixture of English history and heritage. Many of the sites we visited were ruins as a result of the English Civil War or the Protestant Reformation which each saw the destruction of cathedrals and castles for their association with monarchy. Lindisfarne, one of the earliest site visits we took, was a ruined monastery from the Norman period roughly 1000 years ago. The preserved cathedrals, mostly Gothic, exhibit different characteristics than their Norman predecessors, with pointed arches and taller, smooth pillars rather than carved, rounded ones. While it is possible to identify architecture from different periods in the United States relatively easily, it was on display on a larger, more distinctive and impressive scale in the United Kingdom.

Advice

Traveling to the United Kingdom was a great and rewarding experience, and one I would recommend. Whether someone visits on the Faculty-led Medieval England trip like I did, or finds another way to experience the UK, the amount there is to do and see with such deep historical roots is unfathomable. I personally recommend the Medieval England program for those interested in Medieval literature and art, British history, or European culture. However, one big piece of advice I have is to consider whether or not those things truly interest you and to know the time periods of the things that do. If you want to visit places like Buckingham Palace, Holyrood Palace, or Hampton Court, like I did, you are going to have to visit them separately from the program. While there is plenty of time for this, it is fairly expensive, and another program which focuses on later British history may be a better fit. It mostly comes down to preference. Also, plan for spending more money in bigger cities. My time in London and York was VASTLY more expensive than Durham because of the difference between the costs of goods in the cities versus those same goods in smaller towns. Those are my two biggest pieces of advice. With proper planning, the Medieval England program is a cost-effective way to learn a lot about Medieval history while seeing a number of breathtaking historical sites.