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  1. Academic Programs
  2. English
  3. Kiplin Hall Trip

Kiplin Hall Program

The best way to learn a place is to experience it. Through the Washington College Kiplin Hall Program, students explore the landscapes, writers, and history of northern England, with particular focus on how those things intersect. Experience the poetry of William Wordsworth while standing in his former home, Dove Cottage. Investigate the grasses and wildlife making up the ecosystem of the Moors, the setting for multiple novels written by the Brontës. Explore Kiplin Hall itself, the ancestral country home of the Calverts, the founding family of Maryland, before their voyage to America. This 10-day short-term study abroad program takes students through the Lake District, Moors, Manchester, Richmond, and other sites of significant historic, literary, and environmental interest.

Students participating in the Kiplin Hall Program are taught and led by faculty and staff from the Department of English, Rose O’Neill Literary House, Center for Environment and Society, and the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. The three Centers of Excellence provide additional content and context to a reimagined, intentionally interdisciplinary trip that has been a staple of Washington College since the program’s inception.

The Kiplin Hall Program is open to any student, regardless of major. Curiosity and a sense of wonder are the only requirements. To apply, complete the Study Abroad Application available from the Global Education Office. For more information, contact Program Director Katie Charles, associate professor of English.

Rich Gillin Book Cover
 

Legacy of the Program

The inaugural trip of the Kiplin Hall Program took place in June 1998, led by former English professors Rich and Barbara Gillin  with support from former College President John Toll and then Board of Visitors and Governors Chairman Jay Griswold. In that first version of the program, students read the work of Romantic poets while hiking the locations they lived and wrote in. Read all about the Gillins’ iteration of the program in his book A Guide to Hiking the Liberal Arts: The Washington College Kiplin Hall Program.

 

Kiplin Hall: Birthplace of Maryland

Kiplin Hall, located in Richmond, UK, was the ancestral country home of the Calverts, before they founded Maryland. To learn more about Kiplin Hall, and hear from the Gillins, watch the Maryland Public Television documentary “Kiplin Hall: Birthplace of Maryland.”

For more information on the hall since the Calverts left it, and to see the state of the estate today, visit its website.