London Centre
On a tree-lined street in the heart of London's historic Bloomsbury district sits the University of Delaware's London Centre, the administrative heart of the London program. 49 Doughty Street, a four-story, refurbished Georgian town house, still has many of the decorative features of its late eighteenth-century heritage; cast-iron fireplaces and folding window shutters coexist with the computers and telephones of the Centre's staff.
Dr. Martin Postle, a past London Administrative Director, noted that the Centre is not only of historical interest (next door, in the Centre's town house twin, Charles Dickens penned The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby) but also a convenient location for visiting students. The Centre is within walking distance of the British Museum and the University of London's library, and is close to the underground "tube" rail system stop.
Students on the London program have appreciated the fact that they can see first-hand what they read about in class. Participants in the drama classes, for example, attend a variety of plays, from West End theater to fringe pub theater; art history students visit the paintings they have seen in art books; and geography students tour London on foot, studying the city's varied neighborhoods, streets and parks. One student, commenting on the program, wrote, "I was able to read the literature in the city where the stories took place. I was going home on the Bakerloo line reading The Buddha of Suburbia. And there I was, reading the part of the book that took place in Maida Vale, where we lived!"
Reid Hall, Paris
In a spacious 18th-century courtyard, an oasis hidden from busy Parisian streets, the sound of engines and horns gives way to conversation, laughter and fragments of lectures drifting down from open windows. This is Reid Hall, a long-time center for university-level study and the newest location for the University of Delaware's Paris Semester.
Owned and operated by Columbia University, Reid Hall has become one of the leading centers of American study in Paris, drawing program participants from colleges such as Smith, Hamilton and Wesleyan and from universities such as Columbia and Delaware. Reid Hall's setting, quiet and comfortable, also complements classes taught at the more urban Sorbonne Nouvelle-Université de Paris III. Its Left Bank location-close to major cultural attractions, including the Luxembourg Gardens, the Paris Observatory and Notre Dame-and its ability to draw faculty from the Parisian university system ensure that students who take part in UD's program are exposed to the rich cultural, academic and social life of the city.
A half-city block long, Reid Hall is both gracious and unobtrusive, its whitewashed walls overlooking the Rue de Chevreuse. Once inside, visitors to Reid Hall encounter one of the most formidable challenges the school offers: the concierge, who keeps an eye on all guests' comings and goings. An archway connects the concierge's foyer with an open courtyard, filled with hedges, trees, grassy areas and flower-lined walkways.
Windows on all three floors reveal the classes going on inside, and the sound of lectures and discussion mingles with the faint traffic noise from the street outside. Inside, narrow hallways open into spacious, comfortable and well-equipped classrooms.
Since the 18th century, Reid Hall has served as a number of different purposes. Built for the Duc de Chevreuse in the 1700s, it served as a private residence for the Chevreuse family. The French Revolution saw the home's conversion into a porcelain works, and from 1836 to 1893 the Chevreuse home became L'Insitution Keller, a well-known men's school. In 1893, Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, wife of the American minister to Paris (1898-1900), purchased Reid Hall for a new group of students, American women who wished to study art and music in Paris. WWI interrupted those studies, and Reid Hall was temporarily converted into a hospital for the wounded; after the War, however, Reid Hall once again became a center for cross-cultural study. Reid re-invented the school as a center where American university women could continue their college studies, and it remained so (except during WWII) until 1964. In 1964, Reid Hall was purchased by Columbia University and Barnard College to serve as a center for university-level study abroad programs.
Students at Reid Hall not only benefit from their proximity to so many of Paris' major cultural sites, but they also have the advantage of faculty drawn from a number of Parisian universities. Faculty recruitment is done by Vivianne Akoka, the Resident Director of the UD's Paris Program.
