The Culture Business

Students learned first hand about the rare book industry

How is literature marketed? Who controls its value? To what extent do authors cater for an audience? These are just some of the questions posed by ‘The Culture Business’, Prof Jane Moody’s module for second year English and Related Literature students. Providing an academic approach to the publishing, bookselling and print media industries, the module offers students a chance to gain an insight into one of the most popular yet competitive industries around. Looking at works from the Romantic period to the present day, students are invited to study the ways in which authors have interacted with the contemporary literary marketplace.

As a result of York WRCETLE sponsorship, students taking the module in the summer term had the opportunity to meet key industry players and find out how they achieved success. The literary—or culture—industry is notoriously difficult to break into and thus the chance to learn from people directly involved was invaluable. Isobel Dixon, from Blake Friedman, provided an insight into the importance of the literary agent in today’s publishing industry. Lisa Chaney, a successful biographer, inspired potential authors in the group when she talked through the research and creative processes that go into the creation of a successful biography.

The module countered the notoriously metropolitan nature of the literary industry through trips to some of York’s culture businesses. Of particular note was a visit to Spelman’s, the renowned rare and second-hand book shop on Micklegate. Students gained an insight into independent book selling and were treated to anecdotes about literary finds by the owner.  A visit to the York branch of Borders provided a more modern example of bookselling. Students learnt about the marketing of books, and were given a sneak peak at the Amazon Kindle e-reader before it hit the shop floor.

The module proved a huge success.

Hear from the students and their tutor first hand:

Article written by Helen Citron, originally published in Enterprise focus.

English E-zine Project

Kate Copland

To help English Literature students consider their future employment options, the careers service has set up an innovative new project: The E-zine.  Student teams compete through two pitching sessions for £2000 of CETLE-provided funds in order to design, write, launch and distribute an electronic (online) magazine, or e-zine.  The aim of the project is to create a specialist publication but also to explore the employment possibilities that an English Literature degree provides.

The Career Service’s Kate Copland is behind the project.  She says that the idea for the project arose when ‘careers advisers noticed that many English students feel unsure about what career path to take’ and ‘wanted to do something especially for English students to help them engage with the idea of career planning, but also give them an opportunity of developing more employability skills through participating in the project’.

The project allows participants to develop a comprehensive array of skills.  As well as journalists, each team requires project, finance, marketing, IT and events managers.  This builds skills in areas such as budget management and business planning which would not normally be developed within the student’s degree course.  Participants also have the opportunity to attend teaching sessions from industry professionals and are advised how best to incorporate their new-found skills into their CV.

To hear more about the project from the 2008 student team, and project developer Kate Copland, please watch our feedback video.

Originally published in Enterprise focus.

Enterprise across the Curriculum: Developing Enterprise Teaching and Learning at the University of York

CETLE helps students to get involved with enterprise

The University of York has an excellent reputation for teaching and learning across a range of academic disciplines so it was logical for us to approach the growing demand for enterprising graduates by looking at our existing strengths. We believe that enterprise and innovation are concepts that are too important to be confined to business schools and York is a leader in developing teaching and learning based firmly in the curriculum of traditional academic subjects. Activity in this area got underway in 1999 with the support of the then DTI’s ‘Science Engineering Challenge’ funds which enabled science academics to develop teaching that asked students to consider the knowledge and skills of ‘how to get things done’ in the application of their discipline.