 Welcome to this Open Day talk for the VA Global Liberal Arts, which is offered out of the School of History, Religions, and Philosophy, such as us. I'd just like to share the screen, because I've prepared a couple of slides to introduce the program, basically. And we'll just do that. And I think that will probably take around 15 minutes or so. And then we can move on to questions and answers. Does this come out right? OK. Yeah, that's good. So the Global Liberal Arts is a relatively new degree, at so as we started it about five or six years ago. So we've only had two cohorts of graduates, I think, two or three. Anyways, so it's a growing degree at the moment. And we're investing in it. Right, so it has a very broad scope in terms of what it wants to achieve and where it situates itself. So it is a degree that aims at making use of all the resources and possibilities that SOAS offers. And obviously, the concept of liberal arts, I don't know why this does it. Same time happened last time I did this. Just moves on on its own. Is a global liberal arts degree or liberal arts degree is something that is relatively new in this country, is popular in the US in a couple of other places. But it's something that very much speaks to the needs of the world and of our times at the moment in so far as it moves away from the very kind of focused kind of trend towards very narrow specializations in many subjects and tries to go back to this old idea, the liberal arts idea, to kind of educate generalists that are able to engage with a lot of different things and kind of recognize problems, identify problems, and work out solutions in cooperation with many others. So one of the core concerns of the degree was to bring all these different areas of specialization together and make sense of them. Bring ourselves in the position of the places and people we study also through the language. And I'll probably talk about the language a bit more later. And thinking global terms rather than in narrow local terms or narrow disciplinary terms. So it's quintessentially interdisciplinary degree program. And obviously, that's the liberal arts concept. But as we are at SOAS, and SOAS has a very global outlook, we thought it should be a global liberal arts degree. And it's probably one of the first that had been established. So I've just had another look so far, only been aware of one other global liberal arts degree in Japan at Ritsumeika University. And I've just seen there is now another one at the University in Hong Kong University who also offers a degree in global liberal arts. So it's an interesting kind of global spread so far in terms of this particular degree. But I'll just leave it at that for the moment. So it's about connections. And it's about in terms of the degree program, it's a degree that very much requires you to be in charge of what you're doing. And that's a very key part of the program. So there are kind of four key features that distinguish it. And the first one is flexibility, maybe to an extent that needs to be narrowed down a little bit currently, which means that you basically you have a couple of core modules at each step of the program. But beyond that, you are basically free to create your own program within a few parameters about the structure. And the key element here is that you're required to bring the humanities and social sciences disciplines together. Where you put your focus or what you want to give more emphasis that that is up to you is for you to decide. So that brings us to the second feature, which is interdisciplinarity. And so you have the humanities, social sciences, and languages. So you basically can draw from modules from across the school, from all the departments and subjects that Sawas has to offer, which is obviously doesn't include the hard sciences, which is kind of maybe a tiny shortcoming. But it's probably enough to be able to study all the different social sciences and humanities disciplines. And that's probably from, I mean, my background is in the humanities. So I think to emphasize the need to integrate humanities subjects and humanities perspectives into the study of our world is quite an important thing at the present time. So in terms of more kind of skills focused aspects of the program, it encourages reflexivity, not just learning stuff in a sense, but thinking about how we learn. And as I said earlier, how to recognize where the crucial issues are, how you can articulate them, how you can find ways to find answers to questions. And that's probably an approach that you'll find in many other, not only humanities subjects, but in all kinds of academic disciplines generally, or should be the case at least. And then we're also thinking about employability in terms of another range of general skills and thinking critically, solving complex problems, also working in teams and creating synergy with the people that you're working together and studying together with. So that's more kind of the general idea behind the program. And in the next couple of slides, I wanted to talk a bit more in detail about the structure of the program, how it's kind of set up. And there will be a change next year from what you can currently see on the website. This is going to be updated in the next couple of weeks. So if this what you see here is slightly different from what you might have seen on the website, this is the reason. So we are continuing to improve the program if you want. So from next year, the first year, so this is the structure of the first year of the degree, maybe something to, it's half of the structure. So the general structure is that you have one fourth of your modules, 30 credits, 120 credits per year, 30 credits are the compulsory core part, which is about skills and methods. Then you have another 30 credits for which you choose modules that have a global scope. And you have another 30 credits for which you choose modules with a regional focus. And another 30 credits with a focus on, originally, it was language studies. So you had to study one of the languages that are offered at SOAS. And maybe one important aspect to emphasize here is this does not include European languages. It's languages of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. We've changed this two or three years ago to a system where you can also choose studying subjects that work with languages instead of studying languages themselves, basically to accommodate students who didn't feel that language was for them to put it very simply. So the idea is to get a sense of how language work. And you can also do that through studying literatures, for example, or other art forms. So in the new version of the program, you will have the choice to do for the fourth track, the original language track. It's been expanded to languages, literature, and arts. So this might include visual arts, creative arts, or even cinema and this kind of digital arts, if you want. So that's the general scope. For the first year, you will start with the compulsory module in the first term, which is an introduction to global liberal arts, which will basically go through the concept of liberal arts, what it means at SOAS, and the other part of the program will be to talk through, to design your own degree program and to make you aware of the possibilities that you have at SOAS to create your own program. And the major assessment for this module will be to create a program structure and a syllabus for your own program, just to make sure that you've thought through the whole journey that you're going to take to be aware of, say, if you wanted to do an economics module or development studies module in year two or three, just to be aware that this might mean that you need something similar in the first year to work towards that. Or if you have that in the final year, do something in the second year that helps you work towards a dissertation. So kind of try to think through possibilities what your aims are with that program, where you want to get at what you might want to do for your final dissertation or kind of final year project. This might be too early for many, but I think if you have the opportunity to talk through these ideas right at the beginning, listen to what other students want to do, want to get out of it, what thoughts they have and ideas. This can give you some kind of inspiration to shape your own thoughts and ideas and program. So this is a new part that you won't find on the website yet, but that will appear there soon. The second part of the skills track in the first year is a module that's currently offered out of the history department, which is called Colonial Curricula, Empire and Education at Sowas and beyond, which is based on the point of departure for that module is the study of Sowas as an institution, which obviously has a reason of interesting history being based in the history of the British Empire, basically, being a child of the empire in many ways, founded in 1916 in a very interesting and problematic period when, obviously, in that context, the empire still existed, but in the 20th century worldwide started to get decolonization movements. So it's a module that departs from the history of Sowas as an institution in this imperial context to work through the history of educational institutions. And the inequalities and biases that are implied in that. So it's basically thinking through this case study, thinking through the structures that define the world in which we live, basically, and I think through that. And maybe on the skills side, within history, certainly, a very innovative module in so far as it uses assessment methods that departs significantly from the traditional essay and exam assessments. And it includes things like using visual media to present the result of your investigations or to write blog posts. Some students have written syllabi for school courses and that kind of thing. Actually, I've also been at schools to talk about what they've learned and studied. So it's very much a module that speaks to current concerns about decolonization and then decolonizing the university to the curriculum. So it's very much based on this kind of questioning of the structures that have created the world of inequalities and injustices in which we live, basically. So that's the compulsory part for the first year. Then for the global part, currently, you'd have to take a course called World Histories, which is an introduction to World History. It's kind of telling a, OK, not a similar story, but telling the history of the story of the world if you want from a historical perspective. In the new version, you will also be able to choose modules from, for example, anthropology or just thinking. The examples that you see here are basically from history and anthropology. I think there was one other development studies might have a course that does address the kind of global scope of development studies. So there will be a small range of courses that you can choose from rather than to kind of force you to do the history course. Politics also offers a World History course, which is slightly different from the history one. So that's the second track, the global track. And then you'll have a third track, which is about the regional focus. So currently, most of the modules here are from the history side. There will be a few more on the new list that will go up on the website very soon. So this basically means that you choose modules that might be on Africa or the Middle East or South Asia or they might be about very specific countries, such as, I don't know, China or what else? Not in the first. I think our first year courses all tend to be a bit broader than that. So this is why you get these more big regions rather than specific countries. And then for the language track, the fourth track, you get language, literature, and art that I've explained earlier. And for that, I've just put a couple of examples on these slides. That's the languages from which you can choose. Or you can, as I said, learn about language or study subjects that work with language instead, which is maybe literacies and cultures is the most obvious ones. But you also have a small number of courses on things like cinema and from the creative arts or the arts generally. So that's the first year. I forgot to say, if you have questions along the way, maybe just write them into the chat, just not to forget about them. Or maybe as well as more could be, can also ask, I think. So let's move on to the second year then. In the second year, you will have a core module that's currently a full year module that is called Philosophies of Interpretation and Understanding. So this is a module that speaks to, I mean, kind of further in a kind of more thorough, different kind of way, the skills to kind of question things and sing through things more theoretically, logically, if you want, think of ways of interpreting and understanding as the title says. It's actually part of the program that goes very much back to the original idea of liberal arts as this kind of universalist area or kind of way of studying the world and then human existence and whatever else you might want to study. Then for the global track, there is a whole range. And I didn't list the modules in detail, but it's a range of courses that's actually quite a long list from anthropology, economics, history, politics, development studies, languages and cultures, basically all the subjects and departments that SOAS has to offer. What I found when I was compiling these courses, interesting that you have certain disciplines that tend to have more global scope courses than others that tend to be more regional focus. So interestingly in history, for example, we tend to be more regional and we almost had to force ourselves to offer global courses. Whereas in economics, in politics, in international relations in particular, probably most of you who choose global courses will study modules from those subjects. That's quite interesting, although I thought that was interesting. So you pick a global course, you have a regional course. And again, it's a long list of different things. Probably best if you just go to the website. The best way to do this, type in open options into the search box and you get a long list of all undergraduate open options, languages and non-languages. And I think this gives you the most accurate overview of the kinds of things you might be able to study if you choose this program. And the fourth track languages remains unchanged throughout the program. We can move on to year three, where the skills and methods, the compulsory part will be your dissertation, which can be either a 10,000, is it 10,000? Yes, 10,000 word dissertation, as we know the other undergraduate subjects. Or it can be a project-based, a final year project that is accompanied by longer essay that explains what the project is about, what your approach to it was, what questions you did ask and what your results were. But it might come in the form of a documentary of a podcast, of a website. You might want to integrate visual audiovisual material. So there is a bit of a larger scope here in terms of what you can do for your final year project. And so that's the compulsory part of the final year, for which you have a workshop that goes along with it, where you can discuss your own progress on your project with your fellow students and with the dissertation convener. And you will also have a supervisor from a subject that or from a discipline that is closest to the project that you want to study or with an expertise that is closest to the subject that you want to study. So part of the first stages of this final year project will be to articulate what your project is about, write a proposal, and then go and find the right person to supervise it, which is an interesting exercise in itself. So you have to get a sense of, again, what the options are itself as what it offers and how you can actually find what you need. Probably that in itself is quite an important skill to learn for whatever comes after your program. And again, you have the global track with, and I just put a couple of examples there. And you have the regional track, and you have the languages, literatures, and arts. And I've just seen there is a question here. All right, Dan, this is you. Thank you. OK. Right, it's probably not necessary to say more about this. That's probably the most important features of the program and its structure. So one of the things that might make this whole program difficult for students is, obviously, that every single student can have quite different programs. So there's only the compulsory core modules where you would meet the other students on your program, which is why we started a while back to arrange kind of regular meetings with the students on the program to exchange their experiences and to have a kind of forum to talk through whatever kinds of issues that might have come across and whatever experiences they have to exchange. Their views on modules, what they would recommend, what they probably would not recommend. So we try to increase the activities alongside the program, that kind of thing that gives you a sense of community with the fellow students on your program. And I think the final, now it doesn't move. When I want it to move, it doesn't. Interesting. Let me see what I've done. Good. OK. I think this is the final slide that I've prepared and specifically in response to questions I've got from students who are currently at the earlier stage of writing their dissertations. Questions of what have previous students actually studied in their final year for the dissertation. And I've gone through all the previous dissertations that we've had from the last three years that just put kind of single out five just because of limitations of space on one slide, I guess, because I thought was absolute. So I've only become an interim convener of the program currently. So I haven't been too much involved in it earlier. I've been involved in it right at the beginning, but not afterwards. So I thought it was really interesting to see the large scope and the really kind of interesting topics just from the titles of the dissertations. And they belong really in all kinds of different disciplines and bring these different aspects of study together. So just for the title, I thought it was amazing. Her story, Bicycle, Counterculture. Then to be honest, I forgot now what this is about in terms of the region. I should have added the subtitle. And if you're interested, I'm happy to look it up and provide that information later. There was another one on weaponizing women in the Somali Civil War. So there are a couple of dissertations that involve or speak to aspects of kind of gender studies, studies of conflict and war. There was one on traditional African environmental ethics as a guide for future conservation. So there's a lot of interest in environmental issues, which is obviously a subject problem, if you want. But that is very typical at the moment. Couldn't be more so. And it's studied at SOAS in various ways in different departments. So you can find relevant courses in development studies in anthropology and politics. That's probably the key ones. But certainly also law, basically everywhere. So you could study a certain subject from all kinds of different views, which might be something interesting. Again, just to pick up to something I said earlier, if this is an idea that you have, it will make sense to think about the whole program at an early stage to be able to plan it in a good way. And then other subjects that are more in the area of international relations, like this one on relations between Iran and Iraq, the Gemini and ideology. And there was another one that is, again, speaking to gender issues, quota for women's employment in India. So it's just a few examples that might give you an idea of what kinds of topics, subjects, disciplines students previously have chosen for their final dissertations. And that's actually all I wanted to say about the program. So you do have significant time, I think, so sufficient time, sorry, for your questions now. But just if you have questions later on, don't hesitate to get in touch. This is my email address. As I said, I'm currently in the interim convener of the program because the person who, the colleague who convened the program last year, left so us this summer. And we're currently running a search for a new colleague who will be in charge of the program from now on. We will also continue working on it and developing further. OK, right. I think I can stop the sharing. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Any questions? Ideas, comments? Hi. Thank you so much. That was really informative. I just have one question that is in terms of applying for the course with the personal statement. Is it useful to show such a wide range of interests like that the course provides, if that makes sense, like within the personal statement? Yeah, if that doesn't make sense, let me know. No, it doesn't make sense. That's a good question, actually. I think it would be good just to try to explain why this is something that speaks to you. I don't think that you have to say, I want to study everything that's there. That's not necessarily the point. It's about trying to bring different things together. So if you end up saying, OK, I want to study, for example, Arabic or Amaric or another Middle Eastern languages, and then I really want to focus on literature in Arabic and maybe some other literature of some other areas and the arts and maybe do a bit of history. Then I would probably say, in that case, why don't you study languages and cultures and do history as an open option? This would be probably more appropriate. So I think that's something to think through, whether this is the program that you need because of the kinds of things that you want to study, that you're interested in and what you want to bring together. But if you feel you do actually want to focus on literature and this is a program that lets you study literature from all different places, but actually to a limited extent, you also are required to do social sciences to some extent. So that's what you would need to consider, I think, in your decision about wanting to do this or rather something else. Thank you. Does that make sense? I mean, it's just about really show what your motivation is. And don't worry too much about kind of reflecting exactly what it is that is offered here. Cool. And I'll just ask one more. That's really interesting about being able to write a dissertation in lots of different, like not just an essay or a written dissertation, but is that a kind of practice that happens throughout the degree? Or is it like to kind of show and share research through those more unconventional ways? Or is it mostly essays? And then at the end, you can have the option. That's a really good question. So that kind of reflects some of the changes and transformations that probably not only so as a lot of education institutions, higher education institutions have gone through in the last couple of years, basically trying to go away to get away from this very narrow focus on essay writing and exams, especially in the humanities. So we now have a couple of modules that integrate other kinds of assessments. And within this program, the best example is the one that I was speaking about earlier, the colonial curricular module. You're right to point to this in the sense that there is so far no systematic training to do these things. So the students who have done these alternative formats so far for their final project were mostly students who already had skills in filmmaking, for example, documentary skills who didn't need extra training to do that kind of thing. That's something that the school is currently working at. So in a school of arts, for example, there is a module about podcast making. So you could consider doing this alongside the second year program, for example, if that's an idea that you have to use a different format for the final year project. It's not yet well-established for other kinds of production. That's something I'd have to check in the past. Anthropology used to have a module on documentary making. I'm not sure this will exist, not something that I've come across in the last couple of months. But these are things that with a new convener and investing more into the program, we want to emphasize more. And within HRP, the School of History, Religions, and Philosophies, we've started a history blog at the beginning of this calendar year. And we run regular events about writing blog posts. And also, I mean, this is meant to be a platform that brings our students together as a community to make this their own, to work on projects. So this could also be considered as one way where you could develop this kind of skill. So we currently have two students who are working on the editorial team. And we've also started producing a podcast within the scope of that. So this is the kinds of things that we are currently doing. But I think it's a very good question to ask because I think we actually need a bit more of that. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So to answer your question, I'm going to go. Yeah, you know, definitely. I went a bit... What are you asking? OK. Do we have other questions? Maybe Andrea, so we still do have 10 minutes or so. You spoke quite wonderfully about how there's lots of opportunities for students to get together and to meet each other. I think that's really important given the situation that we've just been through and are hopefully coming towards the end of it. But yeah, what about, could you speak a little bit about opportunities for students to meet academics, so maybe academic tutors, maybe office hours, that sort of thing for support? Good point, I haven't thought of this at all. Right, so as all of us also as students, you will be allocated an academic advisor at the beginning of your program. Currently, that's the program convener. And that might involve other people in the future. So you will have regular meetings with one academic, basically throughout your program to talk through your module choices, your experiences, any kinds of issues that you might have in your plans. Also, especially towards the end or kind of middle to the end of your degree about what comes after the degree. I think that's also a very important aspect. Some colleagues might want to send you to the careers department where we have colleagues who might be able to help in quite different ways from what academics can do. So that's the kind of personal relationship that you have. And it might not be the same academic advice as well, the length of your program. But there should always be somebody, and you should be asking and making use of this opportunity to talk to. Beyond that, it's basically the meetings that I mentioned. So we have at the beginning of the year, we had a meeting with students. I have a meeting this evening with the second and third year global liberal arts students. And I will have one next week or the week after next with the first year students. So that's what I meant when I said we try to bring people together because the program tends to not provide a strong sense of community because everybody has the individual program structure. So anything else? Does this answer the question? Did I forget something? I'm not sure. I think you've got it all. I think you've encapsulated the opportunities that are there. And I think something I know from working at Sabato Vietnam in an academic role is just speaking with you, speaking with other colleagues who are teaching and involved in that in the departments, the door is always open. Be that physically when we're able to be on campus and metaphorically or proverbially online through Zoom and Teams and email as well. So I think that's something that lots of students do wonder about is how often will I be able to meet with academic staff and ask them questions? Will it only be in those set contact hours? But it's good to know that there are lots of opportunities available for support as and when you need it, really. Maybe talking about that also. I mean, so that's not specific for the Global Liberals program, but as an institution, as an almost overwhelming amount of opportunities to do things with other students, with the student unions, student societies, all kinds of events from talking about current politics and current global problems, current whatever problems to cultural events, concerts, panel discussions. I mean, it's everything all the time. And it's coming back now, right? So as you mentioned, this last year was a bit weird and very difficult in many ways. So actually it's coming back in a different way. So we've started experimenting with hybrid formats, which bring together people who are not able to be physically at SOAS with people who are in a room. So that's still things to, I mean, we have to figure out how that will all work because the dynamics are so different. Yeah, as I used to say, SOAS is an interesting place. It never, ever gets boring. So that's my personal experience. Yeah, OK. Do we have other questions? Vakina, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to add. You're welcome to chip in, of course. I'm not sure if it's completely the same in the Global Liberal Arts Department, but I know for the Economics Department we have, once a term, it's an event called K Economics, where we literally get together in one of the buildings and we've fed cakes and treats and given us a drink. So there's always loads of opportunities for coming together as a department and just getting to know each other. It's not just the students that come in, all of the staff come in as well. And it's just a nice way to get to know people outside of the classroom. I will suggest that to my department. This is amazing. Kate, say it again. K economics? K economics, because they just sort of smushed economics and cake together. Fantastic idea. Very good. Thank you. Maybe I should have prepared a cake for the meeting. I guess if we don't have any more questions, then we can sort of, we can draw it to a close. Andrea, did you say you're happy to take any questions by email if something crops up afterwards? Yeah. So it's AJ7 at SOAS ACUK. But you also find it on the website if you look for my name under history, currently. Just in the chat there. Thank you. Thank you. OK. OK, great. So if there are no more questions at the moment, we can probably draw this to a close, I think. Is that OK, Dan? That's fine with me, yeah. Rosamond, were you about to ask something? I think I saw you on mute. I was just going to say, thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you, Rosamond. Thanks for joining. Bye. Cheers. Bye.