Tales from Houghton Street: Scott Benowitz

Description

Date

10/07/2015

Duration

00:19:14

Interviewee

Scott Benowitz

Interviewer

Tom Sturdy

Relationship to LSE

2004 MSc Comparative Politics

Subject

Student life at LSE; LSE in the 2000s; Campus; London

Summary

Track 1 [16:50] [Session one: 10 July 2015] Born 1972. 2004 MSc Comparative Politics. Graduated from LSE in 2004 since then working in architect’s office, New York City; hoping to return to UK to study for a PHD in government studies. [00:19] Has not noted any great changes on campus since 2004, talks about public lecture programme providing access to world class teachers. [1:44] Didn’t get involved in student societies spare time spent exploring London; was an oral history interviewer for Reed College, Oregon where he studied previously. [3:02] Describes the College oral history programme [5:44] Notes the addition of Peacock Theatre, Saw Swee Hock and Cancer Research to the LSE estate but the campus is not very different. [8:00] Studied on July August 1996 Summer School and was impressed by the number of languages heard on the campus, reflects diversity of the city [8:59] London skyline changing with tall buildings, but walking around seems similar [9:40] Mentions LSE alumnus Ian Dunbar (1934-2010) worked in the prison service [Dunbar had a diploma in applied social studies from LSE.] [10:18] Talks about classes and professors globalisations course with David Held, mentions Libya connection; met Saif Gaddafi [11:04] Talks about other alumni including a WWF wrestler, Monica Lewinski, Queen Ann of Denmark [he means Queen Margarethe] and Mick Jagger. [12:17]. Currently reading Dahrendorf’s History of LSE. [13:29] Notes that in researching his MSc thesis on 1996 Ottawa Landmine Convention all resources were available on line. Used Library for classes not for dissertation. [14:22]

Track 2 [02.24] Conversation with taxi driver from Heathrow who had done a Masters degree in Sociology in the 1980s. Changes in social sciences.

Licensing information

This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license.

This license lets you remix, tweak, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as you credit us and license your new creations under identical terms.