Reading through my first few blog posts, you might get the impression that a Study Abroad semester involves lots of walking around, sightseeing, and touristy things. While these things do happen, the truth if it is that students are here to learn. The on-the-ground activities that students do in Oxford this semester are structured within an academic schedule that involves actual reading, lectures, and coursework. In our best moments, we faculty do our best to integrate lived experience into the more formal education that students receive.
Today we hit the ground running with classes. I teach two classes that meet on Mondays and Wednesdays. My Introduction to Ethics class meets from 9-10:30 AM both days. In this course I introduce my students to the basics of philosophical ethics. Oxford is a great place to do this. Students will be learning about British utilitarianism. My recent reading has inspired me this semester to do some more work with students on some foundational issues in metaethics. Emotivism is a school of thought that was shaped in large part by a 20th-century Oxford professor, A.J. Ayer (1910-1989). Students are also going to be learning about Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foote, Mary Midgely, and Iris Murdoch, female philosophers in Oxford who in the generation after Ayer sought an alternative to the dead end that emotivism points us toward. Later this semester I’m planning to meet with Nigel Biggar, a Christian ethicist who I respect a great deal, who is doing some important work on the ethics of empire, a topic that my students will be exploring late in the semester.
My other course, “Ethics and Social Issues” meets from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. In this course we will be studying a variety of theories in the field of social ethics–utilitarianism, libertarianism, political liberalism, and the like–exploring how Christian faith informs the way Christians reach normative conclusions about social issues and public policy. Students will be working on papers exploring a moral issue relevant to the UK context where they are living. I’m extremely excited to teach this course in Oxford. Today it was really interesting watching students wrestle together with some of the moral tensions that exist as they tried to critically engage social policies that they support.
Outside of my two regular courses, this semester I’m reteaching an honors colloquium I taught back in 2012, “How Soccer Explains the World.” We are using the Franklin Foer book of the same name as a textbook. We’ll be visiting pubs, attending some local soccer matches, and immersing ourselves in British soccer culture while reflecting on some of the larger lessons that our interactions might teach us about human community and the role of sports in our lives. Our first meeting for this course is next Monday evening.
After teaching this morning, in the early evening I walked with Tara to the St. Giles’ Fair at Oxford City Centre. The fair dates back to the Middle Ages. The nature of the fair has evolved across the centuries. Originating as a fair commemorating the consecration of St. Giles Church in 1200, the fair became a popular annual event. Elizabeth I attended the fair in 1567. In the 19th century there were calls for the fair to be discontinued due to the adult amusements and general rowdiness that had taken over the event. The Oxford City Council took over control of the fair in the 1930s. Today the fair is one of the largest in the UK.
Tara and I weren’t interested in rides or street food, but it was a lot of fun to wander the grounds and take in the sights and smells. My understanding is that some of our students rode some of the crazy rides on the street. These are not for the faint of heart.
St. Giles’ Fair (September 5, 2022)
Nearing the end of day 5 in Oxford, I’m thinking a lot about my students. Today was the first opportunity I had to spend an extended period of quality time with some outstanding college-age “kids.” Perhaps it is inappropriate to call them kids, but they are my actual kids’ ages, so it’s hard to resist. I ended the day at a table with several of our students, playing chess and talking about the fair. Hunter and I played a game. It was close for the first ten moves. He lost a pawn unexpectedly, and it was downhill from there. Calling it a “gambit” did not help him. The game ended with his resignation. Dr. McCracken 1. Students 0.
Bring it on, Hunter. Bring it on.
Next Monday I’ll be journeying to the Oxford City Chess Club for games. I hope some students will join me! The club meets just a few blocks from our house on Woodstock.
I’ll end this post by pointing back to the afternoon devotional service led by our Study Abroad director, Jacque Morrison. This was our first of the semester. With Jacque we reflected together on the nature of “pilgrimage,” and what it might mean to see the Study Abroad semester as a pilgrimage for students who are journeying together. Here’s my take: pursued in the right way, a Study Abroad semester is a spiritual journey, and a moral one as well. We want students who leave this semester different–more conscientious, more appreciative of the wonderous world in which we live, more empathetic toward people different from them, more nuanced in their understanding of complex moral questions. We also want students to leave less angry, less prone to view other people with suspicion and graceless snark, less inclined to demonize others, less willing to embrace the polarization that seems par for the course in our present political moment. We want students to grow closer to God, and we believe that stretching yourself by learning more about the breadth of God’s presence and love is what can happen when you open yourself to what is unfamiliar. Journey boldly.
Return home…
Enjoying the reading, Vic!
A lovely post!
Silas is curious about whether the Oxford City Chess club extends to kids his age. Your material on the Ethics of Empire, taught in Oxford, sounds compelling! Will you go to Oriel and stand underneath Cecil Rhodes?
I will be certain to check out any age requirements for the chess club and will let you know. Thanks for the Cecil Rhodes suggestion! I’m eventually planning a class ramble activity that will have them visiting different Oxford sites connected to course content (e.g. Elizabeth Anscombe’s house where she conducted tutorials while raising seven kids is a short walk from the ACU house, as is Philippa Foote’s home. Somerville and St. Anne’s are on the way to City Centre from the house. Feel free to suggest other locations connected to empire or anything else we’re exploring.
Very well said, Vic, on the nature of a semester abroad.
AJ Ayer. Ugh! Language, Truth, Logic offers a fairly brutal version of human intellect in my not very humble opinion. But I know him more for playing out the last strings of positivism than emotivism.