Faculty of Humanities International Summer School

Residential summer school for undergraduate students from the USA, 19-26 July 2025.

Three students laughing and walking down a street in Manchester

The Faculty of Humanities is delighted to offer a one-week summer school for undergraduate students from our Special Relationship Partners - Morehouse College, Spelman College, Vassar College, and Xavier University.

We invite you to join us in Manchester this summer:

  • Meet new people, hear different perspectives, make new friends and allies
  • Learn about how we can all confront and learn from our challenging histories.
  • Celebrate the arts, music, and progressive culture of our present.
  • Engage in dialogues about how create an inclusive, sustainable, and radically better future.

Overview

In the 19th Century Manchester, nicknamed ‘Cottonopolis’, was the hub of the cotton industry with a market exchange, textile warehouses and banking establishing Manchester as one of the great industrial cities of the world.

At the same time, Manchester city officials, traders, and citizens became influential anti-slavery activists and engaged political advocates for abolition, pressurising the British government and slave traders with petitions, and boycotts. Leading tradesmen established key institutions in Manchester such as The Guardian newspaper (then the Manchester Guardian) and educational facilities, some of which went on to comprise the current University of Manchester.  

The value in studying subjects in humanities (whether politics, economics, business, development, urban planning or arts and culture) comes from the seriousness with which we can engage with, and learn from, the past. Studying our past and reflecting on our present allows us to create a different, and better, future.  

The summer school experience will include:  

  • Academic sessions taught by leading experts 
  • Opportunities to learn and apply research methodologies, which you can use in your undergraduate projects or dissertation 
  • Study in the John Rylands Research Library with access to the Anti-Slavery Archives and the UK Pop Music Archives 
  • Access to Manchester’s historic sites, vibrant cultures, music and food. Experience first-hand why the New York Times named the city as one of their ‘top places to go’ in 2024.

Further information

We are here to help. If you have any questions or need further information, please email us at humsinternational@manchester.ac.uk.