Principia at the NCHC in Boston
Published: 1 November 2019
The Principia team visit the beautiful and historic city of Boston for the National Collegiate Honors Council 2018.
In November 2018, we had the opportunity to visit beautiful Boston in the fall for the National Collegiate Honors Council conference. Principia co-ordinator Dr Ronnie Young and Karen Allen of the School of Critical Studies, arranged the University of Glasgow’s annual reception for the honors directors from the Principia Consortium and also attended the conference to promote postgraduate study and study abroad at Glasgow as a whole.
The 2018 meeting, titled ‘Learning to Transgress’, took place in the Sheraton Boston, not far from Boston’s back bay and a few minutes walk from Boston Commons. As ever, the event was well attended, with over two thousand registrants composed of 1106 professionals and 913 students, and provided an excellent opportunity to connect with staff and students from all over the United States.
This is the second year where the University has sponsored the event and ran a vendors stall in the lobby of the Sheraton, the only UK Russell Group University who currently do so. Dr Young said “as with Atlanta the previous year, our stall gathered considerable interest. We spoke to students from not only the US, but South America and a China also, about postgraduate studies – or ‘grad school’ - at Glasgow, and interests that ranged from STEM subjects through to War Studies. Honors students are still surprised to learn that a postgraduate Masters degree only takes one year to complete in the UK.”
Following the conference, we visited Laramie to speak to our friends in the University of Wyoming at the invitation of Donal C Skinner, then Dean of the Honors College at Wyoming. While there, Dr Young chatted with prospective students, ably accompanied by Wyoming and former Principia student Jasper, and also took part in a Symposium organised by Professor Caroline McCracken Flesher on Heritage Tourism from Scotland to Disneyland. Ronnie’s paper addressed American tourism to the ‘land of Burns’ in the nineteenth century.
Ronnie will be attending the National Collegiate Honors Council in New Orleans this year accompanied by Moira Hansen, who co-ordinates the Principia outings programme. We’ll be there from 6th to the 8th of November and will be sending out arrangements for the annual Principia gathering to Honors directors and Principia contacts soon. The University will also have a study abroad stall on the Thursday and Friday of the conference, and hope our Principia partners can drop by.
First published: 1 November 2019