Jason Moralee Named Director of Oxford Summer Seminar

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Jason Moralee, associate professor of history, has been appointed director of the Oxford Summer Seminar, a study abroad program that allows students to take two UMass Amherst honors courses in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences during a six-week term at Trinity College in Oxford, England.

Moralee will begin this position in the fall, succeeding outgoing director Jenny Adams, who is an associate professor of English. In assuming the directorship, Moralee will take charge of a program started over 50 years ago by former English professor Ernest Hofer. The seminar, which is one of the oldest American summer programs in Oxford, will run June 30-Aug. 10 and is organized through the International Programs Office (IPO).

“IPO is excited to work with Dr. Moralee and continue the brilliant work that professor Adams has done in aligning the Oxford Summer Seminar with the UMass curriculum and the needs of the 21st century study abroad student,” said Stacy Lutsch, IPO’s director of academic initiatives.

Summer 2018 course offerings will include Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the economics of Brexit, British politics and British perspectives on the American Revolution.

In addition to these courses taught by British academics, three UMass Amherst faculty will teach two courses: children, teens and media, taught by Erica Scharrer, professor of communication, and Lynn Phillips, senior lecturer of communications; and the psychology of Sherlock Holmes, taught by Tammy Rahhal, senior lecturer of psychological and brain sciences.

As part of the seminar, students will take field trips to London, Bath and Stratford. Applications for next summer’s program will be available in summer 2018 via the Oxford Summer Seminar website at www.umass.edu/oxford.