New Full-Cohort Course Launched in Notre Dame London Curriculum

This year we are proud to have launched a new 1-credit course offering an in-depth introduction to London to the entire Notre Dame London cohort. Starting in academic year 2025-2026 all students who pass through London on a semester program will take “...what strength I have…”: London, Shakespeare and Studying Abroad.

Through the lens of Britain’s most significant cultural figure, this class provides students with the opportunity to reflect constructively on their time in London and to explore the academic, personal, and spiritual dimensions of studying abroad.

In examining the intersection between local cultural encounters and their own intellectual growth, students are encouraged to act as global citizens and to approach their time in London as academically rigorous, culturally enriching and existentially meaningful. Students engage in a series of site-specific experiences, interdisciplinary class discussions, and reflective assignments to increase their intercultural competency and understand both themselves and London in more depth, approaching a range of activities with curiosity, openness, and self-reflection.

One significant aspect of this course and its pedagogical commitment to experiential learning has been through collaboration with Actors From the London Stage. During the Spring semester, Actors From the London Stage joined instructors and students in Fischer Hall to lead hands-on Shakespeare workshops, using the central text of the class as a starting point. By exploring the Epilogue of The Tempest through physical performance, students forged personal connections to the text and gained a greater familiarity with Shakespeare’s language.

Collaborating with AFTLS also created the unique opportunity to transform the classroom space into a performance space for the first time. Actors From the London Stage treated students to two performances of As You Like It, making Notre Dame London the final stop of their 2026 touring production.

“‘...what strength I have…’: London, Shakespeare and Studying Abroad” is taught in four sections, each named after a bridge over the River Thames—Blackfriars, Lambeth, Southwark, and Westminster—to symbolize the course mission to build bridges between cultures, academic disciplines, and between the study abroad experience and a student’s future.