What to Expect -- Week 1 (Thursday 17 June through Sunday 27 June)

We leave Atlanta for London on 17 June to arrive at Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. Students we be assigned private rooms at the University College of London (UCL). Students will be staying at Astor College (UCL), pictured here. May not be the most fashionable dorm, but you can't beat the location, in the heart of Central London. There are kitchen, bathroom and laundry facilities, plus each room has a bed, closet, desk, and sink, plus internet hookup. More images of Astor can be found here.

That first weekend, students will have an on site orientation and neighborhood tour. Dinner will be served in Ramsey Hall at UCL, as will breakfast the following morning. There will then be a Photo Frenzy contest. Lunch will be on your on, an go a free field trip to Hampton Court, the world's largest inhabited castle.









The class, which meets from 9:00am to 11:30am on Mondays and Wednesdays, begins on Monday, 21 June. The first lecture will be on What is Environmental History: The Big Picture. We will discuss the development of the field, the major historians involved, and the broad concepts and ideas of the field. We will also discuss some of the criticisms and debates of the field as well.

The next class will be Wednesday, 23 June and will be the Natural History of England. We'll look at the British Isles from Pangea to the development of the continents, the dinosaurs, early mammals, and the Ice Age.

Our field trip this week will be to the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. As an additional voluntary field trip over the weekend (tentative), students can join me on a fossiling trip to the east coast. Here, cliffs have eroded into English Channel, exposing millions-year old fossils strewn across the shore.

Introduction

Greetings! This is the blog for students enrolled in Introduction to Environmental History in London in Summer 2010 (June 17 through July 23 2010) through the University System of Georgia's European Council . Over the next few weeks and months, I will post images, links, and other information about the course.

First, some basic information...

The course runs five-weeks and is a three-credit course. For Georgia students, the course can be used as either a HIST course or as a STAB (Study Abroad) course, which can be substituted for COMM 1100: Human Communications. (Also, individual colleges may allow students to substitute the course for other history or science courses. See your advisor or registrar for more information.)

For more information, contact Dr. Dave Nelson at david.nelson@bainbridge.edu