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News
May 01 2026
by, Roy Jackson
After one bus, two planes, one train, and more than 20 hours of door-to-door travel, the Global Literature in London class has arrived safely—albeit a bit disoriented and jet-lagged. After settling in at St. Athans Hotel in Bloomsbury, a hotel with a decades-long relationship with the college, we are now comfortably situated.
Following a community dinner and a much-needed night of sleep, many of us woke with the sun at 5:00 a.m. Richard and I noticed as we roamed for coffee at 6am students already out jogging and grabbing coffee themselves. In class, we discussed the history of Brixton Market and previewed the reading before heading out to explore it.
With deep roots in Caribbean and African diasporic culture, Brixton is also a site shaped by systemic racism, over-policing, and the exploitation of Caribbean immigrant labor in post–World War II Britain. The class examined both the colonial legacy and the ongoing gentrification of the area before spending the day exploring the market and surrounding neighborhood.
Up next:
Our first weekend will continue our focus on cultural markets and historical readings of place, with visits to Camden Market—often associated with the rise of punk and alternative subcultures—and Borough Market, one of London’s oldest markets, with origins dating back to the medieval period and now known for its artisanal food vendors and global cuisine. Alongside these visits, students will engage with essays on the modernization and gentrification of urban markets, as well as Act III of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We will also tour Shakespeare’s Globe and attend a performance of the play.
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By Hillary Harder This week for our final group trip during the Study period, we traveled to the western edge of the Amazon rainforest. This was our first time leaving the central sierra region of Ecuador and traveling to a…