International Winter School

Although musical theatre has existed for many centuries, its popularity is consistent and of course cities like New York and London offer the chance to see many spectacular musical theatre productions.  During this session, you will consider what is unique and successful about Broadway musicals, but also cabaret, burlesque, melodrama and pantomime. You will get a chance to practice using your own voice and to examine new techniques.

The subject of Immersive Media means that you can explore and exploit a variety of current and emerging digital tools, to develop engaging audience experiences and new storyworlds. These tools and techniques include VR and projection mapping, wireless HTC Vives, Oculus Quests, Mixed Reality headsets, interactive sensors, 3D modelling tools, holographic displays, digital fabrication and 3d printing, 3D object scanners, 3D room scanners, 8K Stereoscopic 360 cameras, depth sensors.  You will have the chance to learn about some of these technologies and production processes. There will be opportunities to experiment and be creative with your own ideas for content.

Charles Dickens is one of the UK’s most famous and important writers.  He also documented how London looked and was experienced in the nineteenth century.  Today we learn about how his literary descriptions of London preserved our understanding of this city as it went through a period of huge change.  Some of his perceptions of London still influence how citizens and visitors think about the city even today.  Therefore, in this session you will learn much about Dickens and his entertaining stories, but also about London as a city.

With Camilla, you will consider what makes a good documentary story and the stages of producing documentary content. You will storyboard a documentary sequence and plan how you would research and create content.

Tom Strodtbeck at LJMU works to enable students to become entrepreneurs.  In the arts and humanities, sometimes creative people do not consider themselves as businesspeople or entrepreneurs and yet these skills are vital in working as a self-employed creative person.  In this session, Tom explores and develops strategies for enabling creative people to succeed financially and strategically in the real world.

Liverpool: The Filmmaker's City. This session will explore how the city of Liverpool acts as a muse for Filmmakers. Liverpool is the 2nd most filmed in city in the UK (following London). This talk will use clips to demonstrate the wealth of diverse locations and consider how the image of the city on screen has changed over time. 

The Sound Agents are two artists who live and work in Liverpool.  They work with the Chinese community in Liverpool’s Chinatown, and they have recorded the oral histories of some of the oldest residents.  These interesting life experiences will be discussed with us today and we will learn about how it felt to be a Chinese citizen whose life changed after moving to Liverpool.

The world is changing rapidly and full of exciting stories. Journalists and international journalists are always needed to report global news that affects people in various countries. In this session, you will find out more about how international stories are reported in the news via multimedia platforms such as print, online, television and radio. There will also be a virtual studio tour and an overview of broadcast journalism. Throughout this Winter School, you will have a chance to mix with other students, to ask lots of questions and to experiment with your own areas of interest.

In this second session with Tom Strodtbeck, you will develop the skills learned during the previous day but will also today examine the link between enterprise, marketing and clear use of language.  This will support your plans to live and work as creative people.

In this workshop, Dr. Bailey will discuss the metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century, such as John Donne: an author who transformed poetry in English with a daring combination of feeling, ideas, and new perspectives from an earlier age of exploration.

Today we will focus on Britain’s engagement over the centuries with other countries.  Dr. Willie will examine how UK literature has travelled back to China and been interpreted and developed.

Dr. Walchester will explore foreign travel writing about Liverpool and the Lake District and how those places were represented to their home audiences.

Charles Dickens is one of the UK’s most famous and important writers.  He also documented how London looked and was experienced in the nineteenth century.  Today we learn about how his literary descriptions of London preserved our understanding of this city as it went through a period of huge change.  Some of his perceptions of London still influence how citizens and visitors think about the city even today.  Therefore, in this session you will learn much about Dickens and his entertaining stories, but also about London as a city.

This topic has an important place in the world and is often influential and adapted for television and movies.  Dr. Tolan will explore some key contemporary works of literature and discuss their characteristics and importance.

Andrea Levy was a British author of Jamaican heritage and her writings negotiate racial, cultural national identities.  These topics are of great importance for us all – irrespective of our own heritage so we will have many interesting themes to consider as a result of this session.

Tom Strodtbeck at LJMU works to enable students to become entrepreneurs.  In the arts and humanities, sometimes creative people do not consider themselves as businesspeople or entrepreneurs and yet these skills are vital in working as a self-employed creative person.  In this session, Tom explores and develops strategies for enabling creative people to succeed financially and strategically in the real world.

Wars have affected all countries in the world and the women who have been left behind have often been ignored.  Yet, philosophies and thoughts on war have been recorded by these wives, sisters and daughters when their men went to war and these stories, ideas and poems are fascinating.  We will explore these poignant, touching thoughts in the first part of today’s workshop.

Today’s session will explore some of the UK’s most influential and celebrated writers. This will include a focus on British Romanticism, with famous poets such as Coleridge, Byron and Shelley put in a new global setting. Romanticism is often associated with the growth of national literatures and cultures, both in Britain and elsewhere. Yet recent research has shown how the Romantic poets were also preoccupied with international cultural exchange and hybridity, in an age of ever broader travel and trade.

The Sound Agents are two artists who live and work in Liverpool.  They work with the Chinese community in Liverpool’s Chinatown, and they have recorded the oral histories of some of the oldest residents.  These interesting life experiences will be discussed with us today and we will learn about how it felt to be a Chinese citizen whose life changed after moving to Liverpool.

Dr. Bailey will discuss the metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century, such as John Donne: an author who transformed poetry in English with a daring combination of feeling, ideas, and new perspectives from an earlier age of exploration.

Today we will discover all about the appearance and values of the traditional British home with Dr. Cuming.  Many writers have provided fascinating descriptions of British living spaces and how these have been used by their inhabitants.  This is therefore a way for you to learn about British lifestyle and home interiors through the literature on the subject.

Dr. Kandola will discuss the Victorians’ fascination with ghost stories.  An era of scientific progress, the nineteenth century in the UK nonetheless saw an explosion of the ghost story with famous writers from Charles Dickens to Oscar Wilde using the form.  In this session we will explore the notoriously rational and prudish Victorians’ obsession with spooks and hauntings in line with recent scholarship on spectrality and trauma.

In this class you will learn some new software for Graphic Design or Illustration and bring your own subject matter so that it can be transformed into a new design using the skills learned at this session.

This allows you to explore the fascinating mix of science and art.  These often overlap, for example, in the worlds of Forensics or Police investigations.  You will discover some new 3D modelling software that allows artists to work on computer and start with just a skull but then to build up the layers of bones, muscles, tendons and skin in order to produce a lifelike image of a person.

Charles Dickens is one of the UK’s most famous and important writers.  He also documented how London looked and was experienced in the nineteenth century.  Today we learn about how his literary descriptions of London preserved our understanding of this city as it went through a period of huge change.  Some of his perceptions of London still influence how citizens and visitors think about the city even today.  Therefore, in this session you will learn much about Dickens and his entertaining stories, but also about London as a city.

In this workshop you will learn how to form your own MA Fashion Innovation & Realisation proposal. Understand how the programme and LJMU’s state of the art facilities can frame and develop your own design thinking and ethos, to create projects which have real-world impact and continue beyond the programme. Current students will share their MA experience and projects and you will be invited to creatively respond to the information, ask questions, strike up discussion and share your personal fashion perspectives.

Tom Strodtbeck at LJMU works to enable students to become entrepreneurs.  In the arts and humanities, sometimes creative people do not consider themselves as businesspeople or entrepreneurs and yet these skills are vital in working as a self-employed creative person.  In this session, Tom explores and develops strategies for enabling creative people to succeed financially and strategically in the real world.

Face Lab is a unique laboratory at LJMU. Here you will see the cross-over of forensic anthropology, archaeology, psychology and art. Face Lab researchers are experts with human anatomy and they specialise in working with human skulls and specialist software to ‘build’ the features of the face! You will be able to find out more about how a reconstruction is made and the choices they make to depict a face from the skull. Face Lab researchers work with police to discover the true identity of discovered bodies, and also with museums where they can construct the appearance of historical figures.

In this second session with Tom Strodtbeck, you will develop the skills learned during the previous day but will also today examine the link between enterprise, marketing and clear use of language.  This will support your plans to live and work as creative people.

Dr. Armstrong teaches International Relations and LJMU and so is an expert on how nations work with each other.  Today, she will focus on the important organisation, the United Nations, which aims to maintain international peace and security.  She will examine the background to the formation of this admirable organisation and how it acts to try to achieve its important goals.

Again, you will work with Dr. Armstrong but today the focus will be on women around the world.  Dr. Armstrong will discuss how the United Nations has a special agenda to protect women and will examine why and how women experience war and conflicts in different ways to men.  The aims for peace and security promoted by different nations will be considered, and we will look at the varieties of methods that are explored around the world for keeping peace.

Charles Dickens is one of the UK’s most famous and important writers.  He also documented how London looked and was experienced in the nineteenth century.  Today we learn about how his literary descriptions of London preserved our understanding of this city as it went through a period of huge change.  Some of his perceptions of London still influence how citizens and visitors think about the city even today.  Therefore, in this session you will learn much about Dickens and his entertaining stories, but also about London as a city.

Again, today, women will be the focus, but Dr. Parker will specifically spend time to tell you about her innovative research with the women of Nepal.  Dr. Parker travels frequently to Nepal to work with communities as part of her ‘participatory action research’. She enables local people to represent their reality, both to their regional officials and also to the wider world.  She also develops projects to support the women and children of Nepal that adhere to the United Nations’ Goals for Sustainable Development.  This is therefore a valuable opportunity to learn more about the goals of the United Nations.  In the session Sara will draw on a number of interviews with inspirational women in Nepal, so you gain a rich insight into the work that is being done there by local people.

Tom Strodtbeck at LJMU works to enable students to become entrepreneurs.  In the arts and humanities, sometimes creative people do not consider themselves as businesspeople or entrepreneurs and yet these skills are vital in working as a self-employed creative person.  In this session, Tom explores and develops strategies for enabling creative people to succeed financially and strategically in the real world.

Dr. Benbough-Jackson is an historian and he specialises in examining how people and nations develop their sense of identity.  In this session, we will explore some of these methods.  For example, do we gain a sense of national identity from songs, from flags, from food, or are other reasons significant.  Also, what is the relationship between our personal identity and our national or international identity?  These interesting philosophical and sociological discussions will be considered in the first part of the session.  In the second part, there will be a presentation from two of Liverpool’s artists, who are called ‘The Sound Agents’.  They work with the Chinese community in Liverpool’s Chinatown and they have recorded the oral histories of some of the oldest residents.  These interesting life experiences will be discussed with us today and we will learn about how it felt to be a Chinese citizen whose life changed after moving to Liverpool.

The Sound Agents are two artists who live and work in Liverpool.  They work with the Chinese community in Liverpool’s Chinatown, and they have recorded the oral histories of some of the oldest residents.  These interesting life experiences will be discussed with us today and we will learn about how it felt to be a Chinese citizen whose life changed after moving to Liverpool.

Stories are powerful. Through stories we can tell other people about things that matter to us: things we are experiencing in life, our ideas, concerns and feelings.  Voicing these things is good for our inner wellbeing.  But what happens if someone else listens to our story and says ‘wow, that’s my story too’?  Well, we can build a friendship.  Then more people come forward with the same story, and slowly we can become a group of people, united by our common story.  Now collectively, if we want to, we can use our common story to promote wider social discussion that can lead to change.  Change in attitudes, change in the way people behave, change in policies and law.  In this workshop we will explore how stories can be the starting point for us to change our world.  Of course, stories can be told around a campfire. That’s probably how they started.  But we will discuss the digital tools available to help us tell stories: from the cameras on our mobile phones to our social media networks.

In this second session with Tom Strodtbeck, you will develop the skills learned during the previous day but will also today examine the link between enterprise, marketing and clear use of language.  This will support your plans to live and work as creative people.