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). Your allocated research project will be confirmed in April.

1. Historical and Archaeological Approaches to Toy Soldiers: Reflections of War and Society in Miniature

2.Hidden Histories: Decolonising Everyday Landscapes 

1. Historical and Archaeological Approaches to Toy Soldiers: Reflections of War and Society in Miniature

Supervisor: Euan Loarridge

This project offers students the opportunity to engage in a multidisciplinary project focused on an underexplored but culturally significant artefact-type: the cast lead toy soldier. Rising to prominence in the late eighteenth century, and reaching their apex in the early twentieth century, hand-painted sets of cast lead toy soldiers dominated shop windows and children’s playrooms across the Western World. Working with their supervisor, students devise their own unique project which will contribute to a growing understanding of these objects and their place in society.

Projects may draw on historical and archaeological approaches, to explore a wealth of textual, visual, and material evidence, from contemporary catalogues, to works of literature, to surviving figures and sets. Previous students have explored topics such as representations of the black body and the significance of broken or repaired soldiers. The project allows students to explore a wide variety of interests ranging across political, gender, military, or games studies.

Indicative preliminary reading

• Loarridge, E. 2021. ‘War Through the Eyes of the Toy Soldier: A Material Study of the Legacy and Impact of Conflict 1880-1945’, Critical Military Studies, 7.4, pp. 367-383
• Brown, K. 1990. ‘Modelling for War? Toy Soldiers in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain’, Journal of Social History, 24.2, pp. 237-254
• Flower, C. 2023.‘The Exemplary Game: Going to War with H.G. Well’s Toy Soldiers’, Children’s Literature, 51, pp. 24-50
• Giddings, S. 2024.‘Chapter 3: Toy Soldiers’, in Toy Theory: Technology and Imagination in Play (MIT Press), pp. 85-110
• Duffet, R. 2016. ‘“Playing Soldiers?”: War, Boys, and the British Toy Industry’, in Children’s Literature and Culture of the First World War, ed. by L. Paul, R. Johnston, and E. Short (Routledge), pp. 239-252

Primary sources

• Old Toy Soldier Auctions USA, ‘Past Auctions’ < https://oldtoysoldierauctions.com/past-auctions-page/>
• Wells, H. G. 1913. Little Wars (Frank Palmer)

2. Hidden Histories: Decolonising Everyday Landscapes

Supervisor: Gala Georgette

This project invites students to explore how colonial histories shape the everyday landscapes of Glasgow, from streets and buildings to public spaces. Working closely with their supervisor, students will select a local site such as a street name, monument, or green space, and examine how their meanings have been shaped by colonial, imperial, and extractive processes.

Students will apply a decolonial methodology to their case study by questioning familiar heritage narratives and analysing digitised, publicly accessible materials (such as maps, newspapers, and online museum or heritage resources) to examine how their chosen site has been represented and normalised over time. Rather than treating sources as neutral, students will consider how particular histories are foregrounded while others may be obscured, situating the site within wider networks of power and empire. With support of their supervisor, students may wish to include reflective elements in their project, considering how everyday experience shapes interpretation.

Indicative preliminary reading

• Chakrabarty, D. 2000. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton University Press), ‘Introduction’, pp. 3-23
• Ingold, T. 2021. The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill (Routledge)
• Smith, L. 2006. Uses of Heritage (Routledge)
• Smith, L. T. 2021. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (Zed Books)
• Terry, N. et al. 2024. ‘Inviting a Decolonial Praxis for Future Imaginaries of Nature: Introducing the Entangled Time Tree’, Environmental Science & Policy, 151, pp. 1-11
• Tuck, E. and K. W. Yang. 2012. ‘Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor’, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1, pp.1-40

Indicative case study example

This project was inspired by a plant container on Byres Road, Glasgow, containing endemic flax from Aotearoa New Zealand. This plant embodies a history of colonisation, ecological exchange, and urban design, illustrating how global histories shape everyday spaces. It is part of the visual environment and a piece of heritage that reflects power relations and cultural imaginaries. Students might similarly investigate local sites to trace the historical narratives and colonial legacies inscribed in such landscapes.

Indicative materials

• Digitised sources such as Trove (Historic Environment Scotland’s online heritage database), historic Ordnance Survey maps (via the National Library of Scotland and PastMap), and It Wasnae Us website and associated resources.
• University of Glasgow library and archives, particularly published catalogues, digitised collections, institutional records, and materials relating to the urban landscape.

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@gla.systa-s.com