Subjects for Visiting Students

Courses available

Visiting Students in Biology normally take a major (8 tutorials) and a minor (4 tutorials) each term. The courses offered are listed below. It is recommended that, in addition to tutorials, students attend University lectures which are relevant to the major and minor subjects they are studying.  Advice and guidance will be provided on which lectures to attend depending on students current knowledge and background.

The following courses are available, and can be mixed to provide a bespoke set of tutorials depending on a student's interests:

• Genetics
• Cell Biology
• Regenerative Biology
• Genome Evolution
• Genomics
• Molecular Biology
• Molecular Evolution
• Molecular Genetics

Students needs to have the requisite background, noting that the courses offered in Oxford are typically very rigorous. The content of tutorials will be matched to a student's current levels of knowledge (beginner through to expert) and one of the main goals will be to help develop communication and writing styles for different audiences (members of the public through to other scientists).

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent pieces of course work or test papers. Applicants are also requested to supply descriptions of the courses that they have already followed.

Classics, Ancient History, Classical Archaeology

Visiting Students who apply for ‘Classics’ will be able to select their options from a wide range of courses available in the field of Classical Languages and Literature, Ancient History, and Classical Archaeology. Please review the range of courses on offer below.

Classics

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

• All the subjects below assume some background in the study of classical literature, whether in translation or in the original languages.
• All the subjects below can be studied entirely in translation if desired. If you are offering them in Greek or Latin, please note that while the subjects marked * can be taken by those who have reached an intermediate linguistic level, ALL OTHER subjects require an existing linguistic level ABOVE intermediate (and should be considered ‘advanced’ subjects). 
• Subjects marked § cannot be offered as minor subjects, and involve choosing (in consultation with your LMH tutor) a smaller number of texts/authors to study in detail from the wider range given in square brackets. 

Greek Literature

Homer: Iliad

§ Early Greek Hexameter Poetry [Homer, Odyssey; the Homeric Hymns; Hesiod; the Epic Cycle]

§ Greek Literature of the Fifth Century BC [Simonides, Plataea Elegy; Pindar and Bacchylides; Gorgias; Thucydides, History Book 2; Sophocles, Antigone; Aristophanes, Clouds; Plato, Symposium]

* Herodotus’ Histories

* Oratory in the Athenian Lawcourt: Lysias, Isaeus, and Demosthenes

Greek Tragedy

Greek Comedy

Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War

Latin Literature

§ Latin Literature of the First Century BC [Cicero, pro Marcello; Livy Book 5; Virgil, Eclogues; Horace, Odes Book 3; Propertius, Elegies Book 3; Ovid, Fasti Book 6]

Cicero the Orator 

* Catullus and Propertius 

Virgil: Aeneid

* Ovid: Metamorphoses

Petronius and Juvenal

Ancient History

Athenian Democracy in the Classical Age
The Greek World, 479-403 BC
Alexander the Great and his Early Successors
Roman History, 146-46 BC
Roman History, 46 BC – 54 AD
Roman History, 54 – 138 AD
Augustan Rome
Tacitus and Tiberius
Cicero & Catiline
Religions in the Greek and Roman World from c. 31 BC to AD 312

Classical Archaeology

Greek Art and Archaeology from c. 500 to 300 BC
Art under the Roman Empire, AD 14-337
Greek Vases
Greek Sculpture

Advice on submitted written work

Preferably an essay on a Classical subject of more than 1500 words. Please DO NOT provide multiple choice tests or translation exercises.

We have an active economics program at Oxford and LMH. Within the college, we have around 8 undergraduates in each year studying economics. Visiting Students studying Economics are fully integrated into our undergraduate program. 

Our Economics programme for Visiting Students is demanding and will expose students to approaches to the study of Economics that they are unlikely to have encountered before. Most courses are taught through a combination of lectures and tutorials in small groups. Some of the more technical courses are taught through small-group classes instead of tutorials. Students carry out a substantial amount of self-guided study every week to prepare an essay or problem set for each tutorial or class.

Transfer of Credit

It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that credit may be transferred to their home institution. We can provide course synopses on request to facilitate this. We cannot, however, make changes to course content.

Course selection

Please read the Economics course information sheet  and the course pre-requisites information carefully before choosing your tutorial topics.  These contains essential information about course prerequisites and the course structure.  We cannot guarantee that all courses will be available in any one year.  If any of your chosen courses is not available, the Director of Visiting Students will discuss a suitable alternative with you.

Economics Diagnostic Test

Instead of submitting written work, all visiting student applicants for Economics must complete and submit the Economics Diagnostic Test. Please carefully follow the instructions on the first page about which questions to attempt, which will depend on the courses you have already completed.

The Oxford English Faculty is the largest and highest ranked within the UK and visiting students are encouraged to make full use of its teaching resources, including lectures and seminars open to all. Lady Margaret Hall as a college has a very strong English department with expertise across the full range of literary history. 

About English at LMH

The College has four full-time English tutors: Professor Sophie Ratcliffe researches literature from the nineteenth century to the present day; Dr Ben Higgins is an expert in Shakespeare and Dr Cosima Gillhammer works in Old English and Old and Middle English. Finally, Dr Oliver Clarkson is an expert on Wordsworth and the Romantic period more broadly. We are fortunate that our College Principal is the renowned scholar, Professor Christine Gerrard, an expert in eighteenth century literature.

At any one time there are around 50 students at undergraduate and postgraduate level studying English at the college. LMH currently takes an average of 4 visiting students in English every year. Visiting students may be taught in tutorials with regular undergraduates or have individually arranged tutorials, depending on their choices.

How is the teaching organised?

Your term will be structured around taking a major course, which usually requires 8 tutorials per term (one per week) and a minor course, which will usually involve 4 tutorials per term (one on each alternative week). Therefore, an average 8-week term for a Visiting Student will involve 12 one-hour tutorials. You will usually be asked to write a short essay for each of these tutorials. Your work will be individually assessed and marked and feedback will be given on a week-by-week basis, generally via individual tutorials. Your final term grade will be awarded on the basis of both the quality of your written work and how well you have engaged in tutorial discussions with your tutor. Hence both written and verbal skills are developed and evaluated during the course.

What courses can I take?

Visiting students in English can take courses in practically any area or period of English, American or post-colonial literature they wish to pursue, from Anglo-Saxon to Zadie Smith! Many students choose as one or more of their major tutorials the individual period papers in English literature which our own second year undergraduates take. These give a very comprehensive grasp of the history of English literature in the making and coincide with Faculty lectures which will enhance your learning. These periods are: English literature from 1550-1660 (the ‘Renaissance’ or ‘early-modern’ period); 1660-1760 (the ‘Restoration’); 1760-1832 (the ‘Romantics’); 1832-1900 (‘Victorian’); 1900-present day; or finally, Shakespeare. If LMH doesn’t have a specialist tutor in that topic, we can find one from another college. Please consult the English Faculty website for details of the courses when selecting the tutorials for your application form.

Additionally, we have compiled a list of the more bespoke English tutorials that we have offered to visiting students in recent years; you are welcome to list some of these on your application form.

Advice on written work to be submitted

Please submit 2 pieces of written work (no longer than 1500 words each) with your application. It is important that at least one of these should be on a literary or literature-related topic.

There is a large range of available courses. Visiting Students would usually be expected to take one of seven outline British History papers or one of eighteen outline European and World History papers. Some optional further subjects may be available. However there may be restrictions on the terms in which specific papers are available.

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent essays relevant to the topics you are interested in pursuing at LMH.

Courses Available

Please click on the link below to view a full list of the History courses:

History courses for visiting students

Oxford is a place of significant architectural interest in itself, and with its numerous museums and art collections, the city provides an excellent platform to survey developments in western art and architecture. 

History of Art at Oxford

Visiting Students who apply for ‘History of Art’ will be able to select their options from a wide range of courses available in the field of art and architectural history. No previous of knowledge in the subject is required. Please review the range of subjects on offer below. It would also be possible to focus on specific artists and architects as required.

Students may apply to study courses in History of Art as their major or minor subject, but must also select tutorials from one other subject area.

What courses can I take?

• A Survey of Western Art and Architecture from Antiquity to the Late Nineteenth Century
• Medieval and Renaissance Art in Italy
• Neoplatonism and Renaissance Art
• Donatello
• Michelangelo
• Titian
• Seventeenth Century Painting
• Baroque Art and Architecture
• Art of the Grand Tour
• Nineteenth Century British and French Art
• The Pre-Raphaelites
• Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
• A Survey of English Architecture
• A Survey of Oxford Art and Architecture
• English Gothic Architecture
• English Cathedrals
• French Gothic Architecture
• The Classical Language of Architecture
• The English Country House
• English Baroque Architecture
• Palladio and Palladianism
• Victorian Art and Architecture
• Museums and the History of Collecting

Specialist topics for LMH visiting students:

The Origins and Development of the International Gothic Style in Europe, c. 1380 to c. 1420:

International Gothic is a well-defined artistic current which although a product of the French and Burgundian Court spread rapidly to other European centres, including parts of Italy. Artists at this time desired to depict aspects of the real world. It thus witnessed to the development of naturalism in landscape and portraiture as well as costume detail. It is a unique period in the history of art which was also concerned to express sumptuous richness and courtly splendour. It reached a peak of naturalistic refinement in the famous illuminated manuscript, the Très Riches Heures, painted by the Limbourg Brothers for the Duke de Bury. Other works of a more rugged realism include Claus Sluter’s sculpted Well of Moses, or Broederlam’s Dijon Altarpiece, commissioned by the Duke of Burgundy. It was essentially a court art, the style and the taste for such luxurious works disseminated throughout the royal centres of Europe, each region expressing a variant of International Gothic. [This course would be appropriate for those who might wish to pursue it as a ‘minor’ element.]

Reality and Symbolism in Northern European Painting, c. 1400-c. 1500.

The course focuses on the remarkable developments which took place in fifteenth-century Netherlands / Low Countries (Belgium and Holland today) towards realism in painting. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Hubert and Jan van Eyck had perfected the oil painting technique which enabled artists henceforth to render objects and people with greater, convincing detail, exquisitely demonstrated in their famous altarpiece of the Adoration of the Lamb. The course involves looking at other key artists, such as Rogier van de Weyden, whose deeply emotional Descent from the Cross was influential on many artists. Other major painters include Hans Memling, Hugo van der Goes and Gerard David. This course offers the opportunity to study these artists’ technical and stylistic approaches, the symbolic function of their altarpieces, as well as patronage of these works in this important period of artistic development. [This course would be appropriate for those who might wish to pursue it for a ‘major’ or ‘minor’ element.]

Advice on written work to be submitted

While no prior experience is necessary applicants are asked to submit written work in History of Art or related subjects.

How is the teaching organised?

For each course there will be a 1-hour tutorial (where your essay will form the basis of the discussion). You will usually be asked to write a short essay for each of these tutorials. Your work will be individually assessed and marked and feedback will be given on a week-by-week basis. Your final term grade will be awarded on the basis of both the quality of your written work and how well you have engaged in tutorial and seminar discussions with your tutors. Hence both written and verbal skills are developed and evaluated during the course.

What courses can I take?

Civil Rights

This course will engage in a theoretical and comparative analysis of Civil Rights where the students will consider theory topics such as;

• Do Natural Rights exist?
• What is the relationship if any between a duty and a right?

And engage in comparative analysis such as;

• Comparison of UN Declaration of Human Rights with The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.
• Comparison of the Right to Privacy in the US and European contexts, with particular reference to abortion.
• Comparison of Freedom of Expression between US and EU jurisdictions

Law and Liberty

This course will consider the nature of individual liberty/autonomy and the relationship that has with the law. We will examine the well-established concepts of positive and negative liberty along with Republican Freedom. The course will consider whether law is restrictive of freedom or creative of it. We will consider cases where the courts have put limits on an individual’s autonomy and the justifications for same. Relevant legal cases will be given careful consideration such as R v Brown.

Theory of Criminal Law

The course will consider fundamental concepts germane to criminal culpability such as;

• The ingredients of blameworthiness
• What does it mean to be Responsible?
• The Harm Principle
• Wrongdoing
• Public and private wrongs
• Comparing criminal concepts of fault between UK and Germany
• The Wrongness Requirement
• Justifying Punishment?

Legal Philosophy

Students taking this course will consider the deeper philosophical questions such as - What is law? What is the nature of authority? Does the law have authority? If so, in what way? Do we have a moral obligation to obey the law? Are there any principled limits on the reach of law? Along with considering aspects such as; the natural law tradition, positivism, the rule of law and the enforcement of morality.

Advice on written work to be submitted

Please submit your best piece of writing where you have argued for a particular proposition.

Courses available

The courses available to Visiting Students are usually the first (prelims) and second year (part A) courses as listed on the Mathematics Institute (MI) webpage: All courses | Mathematical Institute. Most of these tutorials are in Michaelmas (winter) and Hilary (spring) terms: Trinity term is mainly devoted to revision of courses studied earlier in the year.

Very occasionally and after consultation with the subject tutor, a student might be able to take a third (part B) or fourth year (part C) course. The student needs to have the requisite background, noting that the courses offered in Oxford are typically very rigorous. In these cases the student would likely take either inter-collegiate classes (between 5 and 12 students per class) as opposed to tutorials or would be given tutorials by a DPhil student.

A student wishing to take courses from different years will need to be aware that these may be timetabled to clash and so various courses combinations may, in practice, be impossible. Courses will generally only be available in the terms in which the lectures are given in the MI.

Applicants are requested to supply descriptions of the courses that they have already followed.

Visiting Students are advised to check the courses offered on the Mathematics Institute course materials page (1st year courses under ‘Prelims’, 2nd year courses under Part A, 3rd and 4th year courses under Part B and C) and to study the various syllabi to fit courses into their home university’s course.

Application procedures

All applications will be considered as a gathered field by our Mathematics tutors after the application deadline.  Shortlisted candidates will be asked to attend a short interview (conducted on an online platform such as MS Teams) with one of our Mathematics tutors and the Director of Visiting Students.

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent pieces of course work or test papers.

Visiting students interested in Management have access to a wide variety of academic and non-academic opportunities while at LMH. We are one of the few Oxford colleges to offer tutorials in Management to visiting students. 

We can offer one Management major (or minor) per term – it is unfortunately not possible to take tutorials solely in Management subjects.

Oxford’s Saïd Business School (SBS) hosts an entry-level core undergraduate course in:

General Management (major or minor)

This course provides an overview of management as a function and as a field of study. It seeks to develop a critical understanding of management theory and practice, and to explore management change across time and national contexts. Concepts such as power, culture, and reward, which are crucial to the management of organisational resources and the production of goods and services, are introduced and critically assessed.  Extensive independent reading is required to be able to complete the tutorial assignments, which are predominantly essay-based but occasionally include a presentation. Students should expect to spend significant time and thought on independent consideration of relevant real-world examples of their own choosing.

Organisational Behaviour and Analysis (minor only)

By attending lectures and completing the tutorials associated with this course, students will:

• Understand how individuals behave and the relationship between individual and organisational performance is a key challenge for leaders in modern organisations.
• Look at the characteristics and processes of industrial groups and organisational characteristics such as structure, culture, change and communication
• Consider developments in organisation theory in relation to what is work, then is organised in terms of a focus on individual, group and the more macro organisation issues

Strategic Management (minor only)

This course is recommended for students who have also taken our course in General Management. By attending lectures and completing the tutorials associated with this course, students will cover a selection from:

• Theoretical foundations of strategic management
• Structural analysis of industries and industry dynamics
• The resource and capability-based view of the firm
• Strategy and organisation
• Nature and sources of competitive advantage and patterns of competition
• Competitive and co-operative strategies
• Corporate strategy and competitive advantage
• International strategy
• Strategic management in the public sector and not-for-profit organisations
• Current issues in strategic management

Note: Lectures in Organisational Behaviour are usually only in Hilary term and lectures in Strategic Management are usually only available in Michaelmas term.  It is possible, however, to opt to have the tutorials in any term.

In general, the availability of any course in any term will be dependent on availability of a suitable tutor. We would therefore ask students to be as flexible as possible regarding course choices.  Tutorial options in Management are finalised when students arrive in Oxford and meet with the Director of Visiting Students to discuss their interests.

It is important to note that the study of Management at Oxford tends to differ somewhat to that of other institutions; the course options use primary sources and not textbooks, and the courses are not intended to be functional, but rather scholarly, with the analysis of journal articles.

The Oxford community is a significant source for new science-based and social ventures to solve large and local-scale problems. Thus, students interested in entrepreneurship and social innovation are highly encouraged to get involved with Oxford Entrepreneurs, the largest student-run organization at the university, and the Oxford Hub during their stay. Many students also enjoy participating in the student-run investment Alpha Fund. 

Advice on written work to be submitted

Applicants should submit 2 pieces of work that demonstrate their verbal and quantitative skills of analysis.

Overview

Visiting Students are offered selected core topics in music analysis, music history, theory and philosophy, performance and compositional techniques. Across all courses we encourage students to engage critically and creatively with a wide range of music(s) and critical issues. How, for example, might we interpret music in relation to broader aesthetic and cultural-historical trends? What does music tell us about the context in which it was conceived? And how might we engage with music as a lens through which to understand the human condition? In addressing these questions, our approach is guided by a desire to challenge received ideas about music history and to open up wider discussion about neglected figures, musical cultures, and repertoires. 

Further details of the vibrant musical scene at LMH, both academically and in terms of performance opportunities, can be found here. 

Tutorials in Music

Tutorials can be offered in any of these topics, in any term and any year:

Philosophy of Music

• Musical Thought and Scholarship
• Foundations in the Study of Music

Music Theory

• Musical Analysis and Criticism 

Composition

• Stylistic Composition
• Composition Portfolio
• Musical Arranging

Performance

• Keyboard Skills
• Conducting Skillls

Topics II

• Vernacular Song in the Long 13th Century 
• Polyphony and Polemic in a Fractured Europe, c. 1500–1650 
• 18th-Century Opera
• The Renaissance Madrigal

Topics III

• The String Quartet Between Classicism & Modernism
• World Jazz
• Women in Popular Music 
• Music, Technology, and Worldmaking in the Nineteenth Century
• History of Electronic Music

List C (special offering for LMH Visiting Students only)

• Musical Instruments and Organology
• The History and Practice of English Folk Music
• Music in Eighteenth-Century Oxford
• Musical Instruments and Organology: The study of musical instruments has developed massively in the twentieth century. This practical course incorporates museum-based tasks as well as setting essays based on key texts and key people in the history of the field. We will ask questions like: is it better to play these instruments or preserve them? How has the study of musical instruments changed since the birth of organology in the early twentieth century? How do electronic (and other sorts of) instruments fit the bigger picture?
• Music of the People: Folk, traditional and vernacular music through history and geography.  How do we define folk music and what is the difference between this and popular/national/traditional music? This course begins with an overview of the history of English folk music and opens the topic of what separates one music from the musics of other nations, with key examples from Ireland, Scotland and America. We will look at case studies of particular musicians and music collectors, and ask why the notion of folk song/music has captivated the imaginations over so many generations in so many countries around the world.
• Music in Enlightenment Oxford: The Eighteenth-Century was a time of flourishing for music in Oxford, as elsewhere, with musicians for the first time allowed to work ‘freelance’. We will study some key musical figures in the University and city, looking at the history of what they did and the impact it has had, incorporating the founding of the Oxford Music Room and history of performance there (this is not a music theory or analysis course, we will listen to music but focusing on the history and context).

Courses in Music

The following courses are offered through lectures (not tutorials) in different terms every year; and some are offered in alternating years. Subject to availability.  

Examples of lecture courses running in 2025–26: 

• Musical Thought and Scholarship
• Musical Analysis and Criticism
• Music in the Community
• Music and Philosophy: The Case of Wagner
• The String Quartet Between Classicism & Modernism
• Women in Popular Music  

Advice on written work to be submitted

Two pieces of written work should be submitted with your application.  Essay work should be presented to a high standard of literacy and of scholarly quality. Compositional work should be presented to professional standards of musical literacy and high level of technical competence.   

Courses offered

Visiting students may request courses from a wide range of philosophical subjects offered by the Faculty of Philosophy for Prelims (introductory) or Finals (advanced). Details of the courses and their “normal prerequisites” may be found by clicking on the links.  

Normal prerequisites may be met either through the courses you study at Oxford or, subject to tutor approval, via equivalent courses at your home institution. Finals courses are only available for students who have already obtained a philosophical background comparable to that obtained by studying the Prelims courses Introduction to Logic, General Philosophy, and Moral Philosophy.  

Note that not every option may be available in a given term or year. If necessary, we will advise you on alternative options. 

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent essays or test papers relevant to the topics you are interested in pursuing at LMH. Applicants wishing to study philosophy at LMH must submit at least one piece of philosophy written work. This piece should critically engage with a clearly defined philosophical question or issue and should not primarily consist in surveying the philosophical literature.

Overview

The LMH Physics tutors will be happy to provide or arrange tutorials for Visiting Students in the courses being taken by our Physics undergraduates in years 1-3. These tutorials are closely linked to the lectures on the same subjects that are given in the Physics Department.  Should a student wish to mix courses from different years (or other departments) a meeting with the Physics tutors to check for scheduling conflicts will be required.

It is only possible to study Physics for the full academic year.  Please note that if your elect to study one of the 'Short Option' courses, you will be required to sit the associated exam at the end of Trinity term.

Please click on the Physics tutorials link for information on the courses available.

Most of these tutorials are in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms: Trinity Term is mainly devoted to revision of courses studied earlier in the year.

Visiting Students may also, on request, study one or two 4th year Physics Major Options; these are covered by lectures and departmental classes, but not by college-based tutorials. Visiting Students are usually able to join the relevant departmental classes.

Visiting Students may also attend other Physics Lectures, such as the Short Option Lectures given in Trinity Term. However, there are no tutorials associated with these lectures.

Physics Open Book Exercise

Instead of submitting written work, all visiting student applicants for Physics must complete and submit the Physics Open Book Exercise. 

What can I study?

Please select your tutorial options from the range of courses listed below. Not all courses are available every term and, although every effort will be made to accommodate interests, the availability of a course cannot be guaranteed. On arrival at Oxford visiting students will identify their courses for the coming term and, as far as possible, for subsequent terms.  Visiting students may in addition be directed to lectures and seminars; and they may choose to attend other seminars and lectures on the lecture list. 

*Taught in college
^Introductory courses not suitable for political science majors

Comparative Politics

• Introduction to the Practice of Politics*^
• Comparative Government*
• Comparative Political Economy

International Relations

• International Relations*
• From 2026-27, the two topics currently known as 'International Relations in the Era of Two World Wars' and 'International Relations in the Era of the Cold War' will be combined into one paper named 'Empires, States, and Capital: Historical Foundations of International Relations'.

Politics in Particular Countries/Regions

• British Politics and Government since 1900
• Modern British Government and Politics
• Government and Politics of the United States
• Politics in Europe
• Politics in Russia and the Former Soviet Union
• Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa*
• Politics in Latin America
• Politics in South Asia
• Politics in the Middle East
• The Government and Politics of Japan
• The Government and Politics of China
• The Politics of the European Union

Political Theory

• Introduction to the Theory of Politics*^
• Theory of Politics*
• Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau*
• Political Thought: Bentham to Weber*
• Marx and Marxism

Sociology

• Political Sociology*
• Sociological Theory
• Social Policy
• Comparative Demographic Systems (to be renamed as 'Demography and Population' from 2026-27)

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent essays relevant to the topics you are interested in pursuing at LMH.

Courses available

The options generally available for visiting students are the second year (Part A) courses taken by all Oxford students. Students at Oxford will have had taken a first year course in Statistics and an Introductory Psychology course, which covers Developmental, Social, Perception, Psychobiology and Cognitive Psychology. If you do not have background courses in Psychology, you may need to take these first year papers in advance of the second year option, or to take the option as an adapted major. Student with the requisite background can take second year courses as a major or a minor.

First year course components of the Introduction to Psychology may be taken as minors.

Advanced options, for third year (Part B) students, relate closely to research carried out in the department of Experimental Psychology. Tutorials in these areas might be available but cannot be guaranteed. Please feel free to add areas of interest beyond the core option, but please note that any options related to clinical psychology are routinely over-subscribed and unlikely to be available. Third year options generally pre-suppose some background from the Oxford second year course.

Course list

Second year courses (as a major or a minor)

• Cognition
• Behavioural Neuroscience
• Developmental Science
• Individual Differences and Clinical Psychology
• Perception
• Social Psychology

First year courses (take one component as a minor, or both in a term as a major)

• Introduction to Psychology: Social Psychology
• Introduction to Psychology: Perception
• Introduction to Psychology: Psychobiology
• Introduction to Psychology: Developmental Psychology
• Introduction to Psychology: Cognitive Psychology

Statistics for Psychology (as a major only)

This is a first statistics course which may be taken as a major in any term, although the lectures run across Michaelmas & Hilary terms, and also in weeks 1-3 of Trinity term.

Third year options

Specialist courses from the third year of the Oxford degree may be possible, if the relevant pre-requisite courses have been taken.

Specialist topics for LMH visiting students

AI Unfolded: From Chatbots to General Minds

(Connecting familiar AI systems to the broader ideas of Artificial General Intelligence.)

Overview

This course introduces students to the world of Artificial Intelligence, linking everyday AI applications such as chatbots to deeper questions about how machines can think, learn, and reason. It provides a gentle, conceptual introduction with minimal mathematics, making it suitable for students from psychology, neuroscience, and related fields. This course will discuss and explore the work done in different research group at Oxford.

Topics Covered

Neuroscience foundations for modelling – How the brain inspires artificial neural networks and learning models.

A brief history of AI – From early symbolic AI to today’s deep learning revolution.

How large language models (LLMs) work – Understanding the principles behind systems like ChatGPT.

Limitations of LLMs – What they can and cannot do, and why.

Key Oxford contributions to AI and neuroscience – The Oxford Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence led by Dr. Simon Stringer – The Human Information Processing (HIP) Lab in the Department of Experimental Psychology, directed by Professor Christopher Summerfield.

Alternative AI approaches – Including work by Yann LeCun and others on self-supervised and embodied learning.

Philosophy of AI – Can machines truly think? Exploring consciousness, intelligence, and ethics in AI.

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent essays or test papers relevant to the topics you are interested in pursuing at LMH.

Tutorials

When selecting your tutorials, please consult the Theology Faculty website, which contains detailed information about the courses available.  You can request first year courses (prelims), or second/third year courses (final honour schools).

Please note that as visiting students are not matriculated, they are not eligible to sit university examinations, therefore students will be assessed on their weekly essays submitted and their contributions in tutorials.  

Bespoke LMH Tutorials

COURSE I: The Face of God in Visual Arts

Christianity has been a source of inspiration for countless artists throughout almost two thousand years and the Church was a major patron for the arts throughout centuries. Representations of Jesus abound, from the Good Shepherd in early Christian art (Dura-Europos) to contemporary representations (Emmanuel Garibay, Emmaus, 2000) wrestling with the artistic challenge of representing a body both fully human and fully divine. In this course, we explore how artists addressed this challenge: some seeking to represent the historical Jesus, some combining both natures in one image, some illustrating the theological implication of Jesus dying for the whole of humanity.

The approach is not chronological. We first focus on painters and writers who have highlighted the limitations of white Western Christian Art and have questioned the narrowing of God to white (male) representations. We then look at Western art being the product of inculturation, beginning with the early Christian period and how Christian art emerged and adjusted to pagan iconography in the Roman Empire. We finally look at artworks offering representations of God beyond the human face, mostly through abstract art.

Course Tutor: Rev'd Dr Stephanie Burette

COURSE II: God in Wartime: Visual Explorations from 1912 to 1946

In the midst of extreme situations, such as wars, what does art have to offer, especially in relation to faith? This course is not about theodicy, though it inevitably raises the question of the presence of God in the midst of wars. Instead, it explores how artists, especially British painters in the two-world war period, revisited Christian imagery to incorporate or respond to the lived experiences of their contemporaries. 

This course offers an in-depth analysis and exploration of a series of artworks in chronological order, highlighting overlaps, recurrences, as well as innovations and breakthroughs. What we observe is not a linear process. We begin with World War I examples of war painters, both at the front and at the rear, and end with artworks commemorating individuals and the collective suffering. We continue with the inter-war period, with both its puzzlement, revival, hopes and anticipation of another world conflict. We close with World War II, both in Britain and in the Far East, focusing on arts created in Prisoner-of-War camps and concentration camps. 

Course Tutor: Rev'd Dr Stephanie Burette

A Typical Week

Each week, students studying Theology devote much of their time to essay writing and doing the necessary in-depth reading and thinking in preparation for this. When completed, the essay will be discussed with a Tutor, either in LMH or with an external Tutor at another College. Students are also expected to attend the appropriate university lectures and classes recommended by their Tutor; these are often held in the Examination Schools, but may also be in the Theology faculty centre or elsewhere. 

Advice on submitted written work

Please submit 2 recent essays which are relevant to the topics you are interested in pursuing at LMH.