The Institute of British Studies has various extracurricular groups and events, including Screening Britain, Culture Club, and English Reading Group, which meet throughout the semester. This page also provides information about excursions and projects we have organised in the past.
British Studies in Leipzig News
Screening Britain
Culture Club
You won’t find a precise explanation of what Culture Club entails here, as we don’t exactly know ourselves. The club is ultimately whatever we all make of it.
Culture Club meets (irregularly) on Thursdays at 7pm, and is open to anyone who would like to be involved, whether as an expert, a speaker, or an audience member. Let us know if you have a suggestion for a Culture Club meeting! We’d love to hear about different projects, interesting MA or BA theses, your thoughts, stories, ideas, and experiences. Workshops that get us all on our feet from time to time would also be fantastic - we spend too much time sitting down as it is. Ultimately, we can only allude to what could be possible. Your interests are too diverse and numerous for us to be able to mention all of them individually; what we do know is that Culture Club can be their platform.
If you have questions, wishes, or ideas, contact Stefanie Jung and Maria Fleischhack.
A glance at Culture Club’s history shows the diversity of what it can be. In past years, we learnt how a mad idea in linguistics turned into a concert (Sumer is Icumen In), watched and discussed films together (Climate Crimes, Boys of St. Columbs, Work Hard Play Hard, Translations Revisited), played Bingo, and talked about playing, toys and swings. We have made Möbius strips, learnt about Shelter Box's green survival boxes, explored the myth of the Green Man in Leipzig, and learnt about historical travel accounts by Europeans who spent time in Wales. What else, you ask? Well, we have practised creative writing and storytelling (twice), explored career opportunities (Studying English... And then? - a recurring collaboration with the university’s Career Service), reflected on working and studying in the UK after Brexit and teacher trainees’ experiences of their school-based training. Beyond that, we have discussed language and literature at various meetings (Sharmaine Lovegrove: Your Ancestor's Wildest Dreams, Harry Whitehead: Nowhere, Jürgen Buchmann, The Crisis Inside: Short stories from the International Short Story Project, Translating Comics, Simon Horobin on dialects and standards in late Middle English), had a visitor from Wales, heard Stuart Anderson, the son of a former Colditz inmate speak, and heard from Picador Professor Alexander Chee. We have also discussed gender and sexuality in Old English literature, masculinity in James Bond films and identity, food, and language in queer cookbooks. And of course, Shakespeare (as a Dramatist) couldn’t be left out!
English reading group
The reading group was initially started as a collaboration between the British Council and the Institute of British Studies. It was first led by Dietmar Böhnke, and then by Maria Fleischhack. It is currently run by students. The group regularly reads and discusses English-language books in a relaxed atmosphere.
Further information about the group can be found on the FSR website.
Trips and projects
Interesting projects can develop from and during classes: our lecturers have taken students on trips to London, Scotland, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea, as well as exploring central Germany with them (visiting the town of Wörlitz, and going on a pilgrimage to Roßbach). Books and musical projects have been created, readings put on, and much more. You can learn more about some of these projects below: