{"id":288,"date":"2017-11-30T14:46:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T14:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/?p=288"},"modified":"2018-03-03T10:40:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T10:40:17","slug":"social-betterment-and-healthier-happier-communities-phd-student-amanda-mcbride-reflects-on-her-experiences-as-a-cumberland-lodge-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/2017\/11\/30\/social-betterment-and-healthier-happier-communities-phd-student-amanda-mcbride-reflects-on-her-experiences-as-a-cumberland-lodge-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"Social betterment and healthier, happier communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

PhD student Amanda McBride reflects on her experiences as a Cumberland Lodge Scholar<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the beginning of September I was inducted into the Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity tackling social divisions by promoting creative thinking and inclusive dialogue. The Lodge was founded in 1947 when King George VI very kindly allowed Amy Bueller use of a house in Windsor Great Park,\u00a0traditionally the home of the Warden of the Park.\u00a0 Bueller’s intention was to use the facility to bring together academics and those invested in social issues\u00a0from across the board to reflect and debate on their work and its impacts. Bueller’s book Darkness over Germany was published in the same year and details various trips she made to the country to run symposiums with academics before war was declared.\u00a0\u00a0The upshot of these visits was that Bueller became committed to the idea that communication across\u00a0boundaries (academic disciplines, faiths, political positions)\u00a0would foster cultures of tolerance and ultimately peace.\u00a0 This is something the Lodge has done since that time, bringing together those with an interest in the ‘betterment of society’ to mutually engage in discussion. Each year six PhD students join the Lodge as Scholars for a two year period in which they work to support the interdisciplinary and cross sectional conferences and seminars that are run as part of its program.\u00a0As a Cumberland Lodge Scholar I will attend a number of events with the goal of\u00a0stimulating conversation and debate, offering interdisciplinary perspectives and helping to find common ground where it exists.<\/p>\n

My research looks at how pleasure is experienced and regulated in social contexts; I was drawn to the Lodge as\u00a0I am interested in how this might be related to\u00a0‘social betterment’ and healthier, happier communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My research looks at how pleasure is experienced and regulated in social contexts; I was drawn to the Lodge as\u00a0I am interested in how this might be related to\u00a0‘social betterment’ and healthier, happier communities.\u00a0\u00a0I met\u00a0my fellow 2017-19 Scholars over the first weekend of September at our first Scholars Retreat, a residential weekend hosted at the very beautiful Lodge. Our cohort is 7 rather than the usual 6, as we have an additional member in support of CARA<\/a>, and our research areas are suitably diverse including history, chemistry and IT ethics.\u00a0\u00a0The weekend included a Friday night lecture by Claire Foster-Gilbert of the Westminster Abbey\u00a0Institute<\/a>\u00a0and later a drinks reception and dinner.\u00a0 Saturday was focused on communications workshops to support our role as Scholars- covering writing styles and standards adhered to by the Lodge as well as public speaking training. Evening dinner was followed by heated conversations that lasted into the wee hours,\u00a0covering all sorts of social, political and philosophical issues.\u00a0On Sunday morning we debated the value of free speech before a final lunch together and then departures.\u00a0 It was an extremely stimulating weekend in many ways, and I look forward to my next visit there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PhD student Amanda McBride reflects on her experiences as a Cumberland Lodge Scholar At the beginning of September I was inducted into the Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity tackling social divisions by promoting creative thinking and inclusive dialogue. The Lodge was founded in 1947 when King George VI very kindly allowed Amy Bueller use ofContinue reading “Social betterment and healthier, happier communities”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-postgraduate-voices","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Ih7L-4E","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/lodge.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}