International Summer School

Once you have been offered a place on the programme, we will contact you and ask you to submit your top three research project choices. You may select projects from more than one humanities subject area (History, Archaeology, Scottish Studies, Classics, Information Studies, Philosophy, and Gender Studies), provided you meet the specific entry requirements for each course. Your allocated research project will be confirmed in April.

1. Rethinking Gender in Philosophy
2. The History of Reproductive Rights and Feminist Activism in Global Perspective
3. Gender and Politics in Medieval England: The History of Three Generations of Turmoil
4. Commemoration of Women in Ancient Rome

1. Rethinking Gender in Philosophy
Supervisor: Annalisa Muscolo

What is ‘gender’? What does it mean to be a ‘woman’? In a respectful environment, this project explores debates surrounding the meaning of ‘woman’ and how philosophy should conceptualise gender. Working with their supervisor, students will engage with foundational and recent scholarship in feminist philosophy, drawing from real-life examples, to explore key philosophical and political questions about the fundamental nature of gender.

Students may choose to consider, for instance, how to avoid essentialist definitions that overlook intersectional diversity and differences in experience or social position; how to theorise gender by centring trans and non-binary identities; how to think about gender categories and their theoretical and political roles in a way that is inclusive of all who identify as a certain gender, and is attentive to both oppressive and emancipatory practices. Students will investigate ways in which philosophical theories might reconcile inclusivity with conceptual clarity, and how gender categories might be socially grounded and politically empowering.

Indicative preliminary reading

• Ásta (Sveinsdóttir). 2018. Categories We Live By: The Construction of Sex, Gender, Race, and Other Social Categories (Oxford University Press)
• Barnes, E. 2022. ‘Gender without Gender Identity: The Case of Cognitive Disability’, Mind, 131.523, pp. 838–864
• Dembroff, R. 2020. ‘Beyond Binary: Genderqueer as Critical Gender Kind’ [English], Philosopher’s Imprint 20 (9):1-23
• Haslanger, S. 2000. ‘Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them To Be?’, Noûs, 34.1, pp. 31–55
• Jenkins, K. 2016. ‘Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the Concept of Woman’, Ethics, 126.2, pp. 394–421
• Jenkins, K. 2022. ‘How to be a Pluralist about Gender Categories’, in The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 8th edn, ed. by R. Halwani et al., pp. 233–259
• Jenkins, K. et al. 2025. ‘Feminist Metaphysics’, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2025 Edition), ed. by E. N. Zalta and U. Nodelman
  https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2025/entries/feminism-metaphysics/

2.The History of Reproductive Rights and Feminist Activism in Global Perspective
Supervisor: Angeliki Kokkali

Access to reproductive health care has been one of the most contested issues of the modern world. This project invites students to investigate how reproductive rights were shaped and challenged between the 1950s and 2020s, as feminist movements, international organisations, healthcare providers, and governments negotiated questions of bodily autonomy and reproductive justice.

Students may explore how these debates have unfolded through law, activism, and culture, and how inequalities of class, race, disability, and religion have shaped access to reproductive freedom. Drawing on frameworks from intersectional feminism, Black feminism, and reproductive justice, students can choose to analyse global case studies from regions such as North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe. Projects may focus on areas such as the development of abortion and birth control policies, feminist health movements, or cultural and autobiographical representations of reproductive choices. Primary materials, in translation as required, may include feminist writings, legal documents, and creative works such as novels and protest art.

Indicative preliminary reading

• Bracke, M. A. 2025. Reproductive Rights in Modern France: Feminism, Contraception, and Abortion, 1950–1980 (Oxford University Press)
• Herzog, D. 2024. The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany’s Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press)
• López, R. N. 2014. A History of Family Planning in Twentieth-Century Peru (University of North Carolina Press)
• Kościańska, A. 2025. Polish Sexual Revolutions: Negotiating Sexuality and Modernity behind the Iron Curtain (Oxford University Press)
• Nelson, J. 2003. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement (New York University Press)
• Petchesky, R. P. 1984. Abortion and Woman’s Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom (Verso)
• Ross, L. J. and Solinger, R. 2017. Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (University of California Press)

Primary sources

• Our Bodies, Ourselves, Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (1973) https://ourbodiesourselves.org/
• Italian Feminist Thought: A Reader, eds. and trans. by P. Bono and S. Kemp, especially Chapter 11, ‘History of Two Laws’, pp. 211-259 (Basil Blackwell, 1991)

3. Gender and Politics in Medieval England: The History of Three Generations of Turmoil
Supervisor: Ashley Brown

The reigns of Henry I of England (1100-1135), Stephen (1135-1154), and Henry II (1154-1189) were characterised by political turmoil, rebellion, civil war and shifts in power. During this period the legacy of the Norman Conquest (1066) and the personalities of those ruling shaped England and Normandy in new – and often contested – ways.

This project invites students to analyse structures of power, and the ways in which authority was demonstrated, through the lens of gender. Using primary materials such as coins and chronicles (in translation), students can explore how noble (and royal) men and women had access to different tools and expressions of authority. Students may analyse how these figures did, or did not, succeed in achieving their goals, paying particular attention to how they were depicted in sources. Working with their supervisor, students may ground their research in recently developed methodologies in gender studies, and may choose to focus on one reign or take a comparative approach.

Indicative preliminary reading

• Anderson, C. 1999. ‘Narrating Matilda, ‘Lady of the English’ in the Historia novella, Gesta Stephani and Wace’s Roman de Rou: the desire for land and order’, Clio, 29, pp.47-67
• Cohen, T.V. 2024. ‘Masculinity as Competence’ in Premodern masculinities in transition, ed. by K. Eisenbichler and J. Murray (Boydell & Brewer), pp.31-52
• Cooper, M. 2021. ‘A Female King or a Good Wife and a Great Mother? Seals, Coins and the Epitaphic Legacy of the Empress Matilda’, The Haskins Society Journal, 32, pp.149-61
• Crouch, D. 2000. The Reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154 (Taylor and Francis)
• Green, J.A. 2008. ‘Henry I and the origins of the civil war’, in King Stephen’s Reign, ed. by Dalton and White (Boydell & Brewer), pp.11-26
• Neal, D.G. 2008. The Masculine Self in Late Medieval England (University of Chicago Press)
• Tanner, H. 2002. ‘Queenship: Office, Custom or Ad Hoc? The case of Matilda III of England (1135-1152), in Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lord and Lady, ed. by B. Wheeler and J. Carmi Parsons (Palgrave Macmillan), pp.133-58

Primary material

• Extracts from: Anonymous, Gesta Stephani: The Deeds of Stephen, ed. by K.R Potter and R.H.C Davis (Oxford University Press, 1976)
• Coins from the Hunterian Collection, University of Glasgow

4. Commemoration of Women in Ancient Rome
Supervisor: Kris Wong

The Late Republican and Early Imperial periods saw Roman culture undergo rapid change, including in roles played by elite women. This project investigates how lives of such women were remembered in ancient Rome. Working with their supervisor, and using translated materials as required, students are invited to consider material, religious, and historical commemorations, and the creation and re-interpretation of cultural narratives surrounding women. Projects may wish to explore the impact of commemorations on Roman cultural memory, engaging with new developments in the field of memory culture and examining memory as a social phenomenon.

Students may investigate case studies such as the so-called Laudatio Turiae funerary inscription – a uniquely multifaceted, extensive example of physical memorialisation dedicated to an elite woman’s life and her part in the Civil War; the contested commemoration (and eventual divinisation) of the Empress Livia Drusilla; and the Augustan reception of Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi) as an exemplary Roman matrona.

Indicative preliminary reading

• Daveloose, A. 2023. ‘A Roman Matron as Figure of Memory: Social Memory and Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi’, Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte, 72.4, pp. 444-468.
• Hemelrijk, E. A. 2004. ‘Masculinity and Femininity in the “Laudatio Turiae”’, The Classical Quarterly, 54.1, pp. 185–197.
• Kleiner, F.S. 1990. ‘An Extraordinary Posthumous Honor for Livia’, Athenaeum, 78, pp. 508-514
• Roller, M.B. 2018. ‘Cornelia: An Exemplary matrona among the Gracchi’, in Models from the Past in Roman Culture: A World of Exempla, ed. by M.B Roller (Cambridge University Press), pp. 197–232.

Primary sources

• Osgood, J. 2014. Turia: A Roman Woman’s Civil War (Oxford University Press)
• Suetonius. 1914. Lives of the Caesars, Volume II: Claudius. Nero. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Vespasian. Titus, Domitian. Lives of Illustrious Men: Grammarians and Rhetoricians. Poets (Terence. Virgil. Horace. Tibullus. Persius. Lucan). Lives of Pliny the Elder and Passienus Crispus. Trans. by J. C. Rolfe (Harvard University Press)

This course aims to:

• Provide an opportunity to undertake an independent research project in the Humanities under supervision.
• Introduce approaches to research and analysis in the Humanities
• Develop professional skills in research and analysis and transferable skills in oral and written argument.

 By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Assess scholarly literature and available sources to formulate a viable research question in the Humanities
• Contextualise and critically analyse sources to produce a convincing argument
• Express analysis and argument in written and oral forms

Weekly seminars specific to humanities (these may include group visits to the Glasgow University and Hunterian collections, as well as the course conference) and twice weekly supervisor meetings.

• GPA of 3.0 (or equivalent)
• you should be currently enrolled at an international higher education institution.
• two years of study in university-level Humanities courses with a major or minor in a relevant subject (Applicants who have only attended university for one year will be considered if strong performance in a relevant Humanities subject can be demonstrated).

If your first language is not English, you must meet our minimum proficiency level:

• International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module (not General Training) overall score of 6.0, with no sub test less than 5.5
• we also accept equivalent scores in other recognised qualifications such as ibTOEFL, CAE, CPE and more.

This is a guide, for further information email internationalsummerschools@glasgow.ac.uk