Programme

Students With Terry Eagleton

Students With Terry Eagleton

We offer the following courses as part of our summer programme of study:

Text and Context: 12 July – 21 August 2027
Creative Writing: 12 July – 7 August 2027
Queer Studies: 26th July -7 August 2027
Theatre & Performance: 9 – 21 August 2027

 

 

 

Each summer, SUISS offers three Text and Context courses on British and Irish Literature from 1900 to the Present, alongside one course in Creative Writing, one course in Queer Studies, and one in Contemporary British and Irish Theatre and Performance.

The Text and Context programme includes courses in Modernism, Contemporary Literature, and Scottish Literature. These provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of British and Irish writing in relation to key social and cultural developments of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Over more than a century of literary innovation, students engage with the dynamic and diverse traditions of English, Irish, and Scottish texts, examined alongside developments in modern literary theory.

The Creative Writing programme is among the most vibrant and varied in the UK. This four-week course offers emerging writers an encouraging and collaborative environment to develop their craft across fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction. Participants also enjoy exclusive author-led masterclasses and readings by acclaimed writers.

The Queer Studies course explores the writing of Queer writers from the UK and USA from the twentieth-century to the present, featuring works by acclaimed authors such as Tabby Lamb, Alison Bechdel, Travis Alabanza, Tasha Dowd, Emma Frankland, and Ali Smith, Queer theorists such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Jose Esteban Muñoz, and writers of gay and lesbian pulp fiction from the 1950s and 1960s such as Ann Bannon and Harrison Dowd.

Beyond the classroom, the programme includes lively cultural activities such as a traditional Ceilidh dance and author readings by some of the UK’s leading contemporary writers.

The Contemporary British and Irish Theatre and Performance programme offers an immersive two-week course on the theory and practice of drama in the modern era. Students gain an in-depth, hands-on introduction to the vibrant landscape of contemporary theatre—timed to coincide with both the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The experience is further enriched through workshops delivered by Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, the country’s leading organisation dedicated to supporting playwrights.

View our Brochure and sample Sample Daily Programme for details of specific events, lectures and activities.