The London Graduate School is a doctoral programme and postgraduate seminar in contemporary critical theory offered by Kingston University, with many supporting events in central London. The London Graduate School offers accredited PhD, MPhil and MA by Research degrees, in a richly stimulating and closely supportive environment that brings together world-leading scholars in literature, culture, media, theory, and philosophy, major figures in contemporary art practice, film-making and writing, and ambitious and creative students working at the forefront of their disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields. Students of the London Graduate School enjoy unprecedented access to a programme of cutting-edge academic and cultural events. Each will participate in conferences, symposia, seminars and practice-based and multi-media initiatives involving high-profile academics, writers, thinkers and art-makers from around the world. We aim at an ongoing programme of imaginative interventions in London’s cultural and intellectual life that will open new spaces and opportunities for the best among a coming generation of new scholars, thinkers, writers and creative artists.
Every student of the London Graduate School will benefit from the expertise of a carefully selected supervisory team from universities in London and the South of England, supported by some of the biggest names internationally in the humanities and creative arts. Through provoking a series of collaborations with London’s leading voices in cultural, artistic and academic life, the London Graduate School aims to foster connections between the most inspiring of contemporary scholars, intellectuals, writers and art practitioners, connections which will look to the future by including students of great promise in building new enterprises in the arts and humanities. We want to renew and transform the fields with which we engage, believing that such critical and creative renewal is best served by bringing together the strongest expertise with the most exciting talent.
The LGS is co-directed by Martin McQuillan and Simon Morgan Wortham, and is supported by a group at Kingston including Eric Alliez, Fred Botting, Peter Hallward, John Mullarkey, Peter Osborne, Matthew Pateman, Stella Sanford and Scott Wilson. It also includes a prestigious line-up of London Fellows, each of whom is a distinguished scholar based at a university in London or the South England region. All registered doctoral students will be co-supervised by an executive member and a London Fellow. In addition, the LGS is supported by a world-leading cast of International Fellows, outstanding scholars from around the globe who are invited to present their current research at the weekly graduate seminar in central London and to participate in other LGS events such as conferences, graduate and writing workshops, and cultural, artistic and multi-media events.
The London Graduate School officially launched in June and July 2010 with three events: The London Graduate School Inaugural Lecture by Professor Gayatri Spivak, held at Goodenough College, London, on 21 June, and two conferences, ‘Performatives after Deconstruction’, June 29-30 (Kingston University, London), and ‘Derrida Today 2’, July 19-21 (Goodenough College, London).