Scholarships & Funding
Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies (FIGS) online
Visit the FIGS website for information about funding for graduate research activities.
Inaugural Lecture Series
Claire Thomson
1. What is your current role at UCL?
Lecturer in Scandinavian Film, and Head of Department of Scandinavian Studies (part of SELCS). My research focuses on intercultural, multisensory, and eco-critical approaches to Nordic cinema. I’ve just finished a book on the seminal Danish film Festen, and I’m co-editing a volume on Nordic ‘naturecultures’. I edit the international journal Scandinavica. I teach film and literature, and supervise PhDs on topics including national cinema, cinematic suburbs, translation, and Old Norse sex. I sit on the steering groups for the UCL Beacon for Public Engagement, Urban Lab, and the Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities, and I act as mentor/champion for enterprise and public engagement within SLASH.
2. What attracted you to this position?
The only explanation I can think of for my career path is that I must have done something really bad to Scandinavia in a past life (perhaps I was Erik of Pomerania, or Søren Kierkegaard?), so in this lifetime I’m compelled to burn off karmic debt.
3. What is the most enjoyable part of your job?
Undergraduate teaching is a genuine joy. I also find it very satisfying to make things happen by connecting people and opportunities: e.g. working with the Swedish Embassy to fund our two Impact PhD studentships, developing our little publishing house, Norvik Press, or helping first years realise their wish to learn Faroese. I’m too impatient not to get frustrated with certain aspects of the job, but I’m blessed with many dynamic and lovely colleagues and students. And opportunities in academia are exhilaratingly varied: in the last six months alone I’ve given lectures in Utah and Lithuania, taken a course at the London Business School, and made 500 people laugh at Bright Club LIFE at the Bloomsbury Theatre.
4. What is your life like outside UCL?
I live in the Vegetarian Republic of Crouch End, within walking distance of some of my favourite people, but a little too far from an art-house cinema. I’m most relaxed when enjoying very loud post-rock and noise rock in the cellar bars of North London.
5. If you weren’t doing this job, what would you like to do?
I used to run a youth hostel and I can imagine doing that again, maybe in the Pacific North West. My fantasy job is travelling projectionist for the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, operating their four 16mm projectors…
