LSE100

Happy last day of Autumn Term 2024 here at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) 💫 This term has been an exciting and busy time for LSE100! It was great to see so many students at our 8 Welcome events and introduce over 1800 new LSE undergraduates to the School's interdisciplinary course over the first fortnight of term. Together, students have been learning how to better understand complex, real world problems including the climate crisis, AI surveillance and urban inequalities through interdisciplinary analysis. Outside of the classroom, we've loved seeing students at our annual Awards Reception, our collaborations with LSE LIFE and LSE Library, and our events where students seized the opportunity to explore different parts of London in relation to their chosen LSE100 theme. We hope everyone has a restful and happy break over the coming weeks, and we can't wait to welcome students back to LSE100 in Winter Term 2025! For more information about the School closure and where to find support over the break, visit here: https://lnkd.in/eNujyw4r

Applications for the LSE Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme are now open until Wednesday 18 December! Building on LSE's expertise in social sciences, students learn to analyse and address complex problems while reflecting on leadership as an intricate, multi-faceted concept. This prestigious two-year interdisciplinary programme offers funded opportunities for first-year undergraduate students to develop their skills and networks. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/e84xM8Ci

Massive congratulations to LSE100 Fellow Nina Vindum Rasmussen and Taylor Annabell (Utrecht University) on the publication of this article discussing their fantastic Spotify (Un)wrapped project! LSE100 is super excited to be hosting a Spotify (Un)wrapped creative workshop for students with Nina and Taylor in January 2025 🎶 This will be a unique opportunity for students to gain a greater understanding of Spotify Wrapped as an algorithmic event, how Spotify presents users' data back to them, and to creatively express their own music tastes on their own terms. Check out Nina and Taylor's article here ⬇️

Last week, we hosted our final LSE100 theme event of this term - a trip to the renowned Serpentine Galleries to visit their new exhibition, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst: The Call. This fascinating collaboration and resulting installations propose new cultural, legal, and technical rituals for art in the age of AI. Students from LSE100's "How can we control AI?" theme joined the event and interacted with all of the installations, including singing into and with an AI data training model! A big thank you to the Serpentine staff for being so welcoming. It was great introducing our students to the space, and seeing them engage with different possibilities of AI. As well as being a wonderful learning opportunity, we finished our afternoon with drinks, snacks and chats, and our visit was also a great introduction to Kensington Gardens!

Earlier this week, Chris Blunt and I had the opportunity to share some of our work at LSE100 and our reflections on interdisciplinarity with a wonderful audience at City St George's (City, University of London/St George's, University of London). Their Autumn Education Day foregrounded the theme of boundary crossing, and it was fantastic to hear about the work underway to think about interdisciplinary learning opportunities in their newly merged institution. Huge thanks to the organising team at the Centre for Innovation and Development in Education (CIDE) for the invitation! #interdisciplinaryeducation #practicesharing

Earlier this week, we hosted an LSE100 Fair Society visit to London's historic Foundling Museum. The Museum is dedicated to telling the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for children at risk of abandonment and first public art gallery. We had the pleasure of being shown around the museum by our wonderful tour guide, David, who shared the story of the Hospital and its relationship to fairness in society. David also highlighted the vital relationship between the arts and social sciences in the founding of the Hospital and the continuation of the Museum today. In doing so, our students gained a deeper understanding of how people from all disciplinary backgrounds can affect change and envision a fairer society for all. Each of this year's LSE100 Autumn Term events focus on one of our three themes while introducing students to different parts of London, and helping them experience how the topics studied in our classrooms connect with their surroundings 🏙

We kicked off our 2024/25 LSE100 theme events last week with a fascinating Environment of London walking tour for our “How can we transform our climate futures?” students! Hosted by Dotmaker Tours, the afternoon cast new light on both familiar and unfamiliar London sights. Throughout the afternoon, our tour guide Rosie supported our students to gain a better understanding of how navigating climate challenges forms a part of the city’s rich history. All of this year’s LSE100 events focus on one of our three themes while introducing students with different parts and aspects of London - helping them see how the real world events studied in our classrooms connect with their surroundings 🌆 📸 These photos were taken by Danielle, our Student Experience Administrator, and our wonderful student Jiatong!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at last night's LSE100 Awards Reception 2024! It was great to see so many wonderful LSE students and staff in one place to celebrate the achievements and hard work of our award winners 🎉 From the 2023/24 cohort of over 1800 first-year undergraduates, 46 students from 16 departments from across The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) received LSE100 awards. This year, the Sir Robert Worcester Award for Exceptional Academic Performance was awarded to Mateusz Mikolajczak (LSE Department of Mathematics), who achieved the highest total mark on LSE100 across the entire cohort. 9 groups of students were awarded the LSE100 Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement in recognition of their exemplary, innovative and collaborative interdisciplinary research projects completed as part of the course. We were joined by Professor Emma McCoy, LSE Vice-President and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education), who shared kind and invigorating open remarks marking the award winners' achievements. Professor McCoy also reflected upon how students' interdisciplinary study on LSE100 and their time at LSE prepares them to meet the challenges of a fast-changing world with success. You can find out more about this year's LSE100 award winners, and their research topics here: https://lnkd.in/eyKD9DGw

Happy first day of Autumn Term here at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)! The LSE100 team are ready and excited for seminars to begin later today. We’ll be supporting over 1,800 students as they analyse complex, pressing questions of AI, climate futures and fair society from an interdisciplinary, social science perspective. We wish the whole LSE community an excellent start to the academic year!

That’s a wrap on our Welcome to LSE100 events for 2024! It’s been a pleasure to introduce over 800 new LSE students to the School’s flagship interdisciplinary course, which will form a distinctive part of their first-year education and experience. Thank you to every student who came along, and brought such wonderful energy to this week’s events! A big thank you also goes to our colleagues in LSE LIFE, LSE Library, LSE Alumni and LSE Digital Skills Lab for sharing information about the fantastic support available to students throughout their time on LSE100 and beyond!