Student Life Last updated 19 February 2016
Last week, final year sociology students from the School of Social Sciences went on a trip to London to learn about one of the most influential minds in history.
35 students were taken on the Karl Marx Walking Tour, taking in some of the places the famous socialist worked and lived. As one of the founders of modern sociology, Marx plays a big part in any study of the subject. The impact of his work on the struggles of humanity is unavoidable.
Following this, the students also had time to take in a tour of London’s Dockland Museum. In a city full of fascinating museums, this one was of particular interest to the sociology students due to its exhibition on London, sugar and slavery.
Hoping to challenge preconceived ideas about how slavery was abolished, and highlight the differences between the enslaved and the slavers, this tour offered the students a chance to engage with surviving artefacts that show the sometimes horrific realities of the time.
The trip was an example of Birmingham City University’s push for “applied knowledge”. Dionne Taylor, a lecturer in Sociology, said:
This trip represented a chance for students to get out of the classroom, and actually see first-hand the differences Marx brought to the city he called home for most of his life.