The University of Warwick is proud of its long-standing connections with Venice. Our History and History of Art departments have collectively taught students in Venice for well over 50 years. From 2007, the University had a base in the Cannaregio district of the city. Other departments, including Italian Studies, WBS, Global Sustainable Development, Economics, WMG, and the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, also used this space to deliver short courses and host academic conferences.

Circumstances necessitated the search for a new premises. After an interim period during which we were hosted by Ca’ Foscari, a new location was identified: the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin.

The opening event for the new venue was held on the 22nd May followed by a series of bi-lateral meetings between academics from Warwick and their counterparts from Ca' Foscari University on the 23rd May.

Finance, mobile and digital technologies - or 'fintech' - are being heralded in the world of development by the likes of the IMF and World Bank as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty. But should we believe the hype?

In this seminar, Dr Nick Bernards (Global Sustainable Development, School for Cross-Faculty Studies)Link opens in a new window will introduce his new book, A Critical History of Poverty Finance. The book demonstrates how newfangled 'digital financial inclusion' efforts suffer from the same essential flaws as earlier iterations of neoliberal 'financial inclusion'. Relying on artificially created markets that simply aren't there among the world's most disadvantaged economic actors, they also reinforce existing patterns of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the colonial era.

Bernards offers an astute analysis of the current fintech fad, contextualised through a detailed colonial history of development finance, that ultimately reveals the neoliberal vision of poverty alleviation for the pipe dream it is.

Find out more about the seminar and REGISTER here: SCFS Research Seminar: A critical history of poverty finance (warwick.ac.uk)

The event takes place on Wednesday 11 January 2023 starting at 12 noon in R1.15 and online via Microsoft TEAMS.

Do you want to join us as we launch our new course developments in Innovation by Design? Are you able to inspire and support our students to become confident, capable, and impactful designerly change agents; working with diverse communities locally and internationally, to tackle significant design challenges with empathy, understanding and creativity? Do you have a vision for the application of new technologies? Can you support students to master new technologies and help others to utilise those technologies effectively?

As part of a University of Warwick Strategic Investment Funded initiative, the School for Cross-Faculty Studies is seeking applications for an Assistant Professor (Teaching-focussed) to support the development, launch and delivery of its new Innovation by Design course. The new interdisciplinary course will sit in the School for Cross-Faculty Studies, which is home to a range of the University’s inter- and transdisciplinary degrees. Currently, these comprise the undergraduate Liberal Arts and Global Sustainable Development (GSD) programmes and our recently launched postgraduate taught and research courses in GSD. All of our offerings are designed to be interactive learning experiences; placing our students as collaborators and co-creators in the classroom. Students take modules from other departments across the University. This enables them to benefit from different learning styles and perspectives and enriches their understanding of and responses to a range of contemporary global issues, allowing them to challenge and question solutions.

Accordingly, we are looking for an ambitious, forward-thinking academic who believes in the value of design thinking, problem-based, experiential and community-centred learning to develop, refine and generate the knowledge and skills required by our students to become ‘designerly change agents’.

As an Assistant Professor (Teaching-focused), you will use your knowledge of design thinking, research and practices, alongside your expertise in digital technologies and techniques, to create and deliver modules and courses that engage, enthuse and inspire students from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. You will possess knowledge of a range of teaching, learning and assessment strategies which you will employ in the development of high-quality teaching material.

You will join a successful and collegial team of academics in the School delivering cutting-edge research, innovative inter- and transdisciplinary teaching and outstanding student support.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and committed colleague, who is an excellent teacher and communicator, with a sound subject knowledge and who is passionate about making every aspect of our students’ experience of learning relevant and valuable.

Have a taste of what it is like to be a Faculty of Arts student through the video of the recent FAB Festival and opening of Warwick's new Arts Building.

In the final episode of the #FacultyofArtsatHome series, Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla gets us thinking about health and its delivery from a global perspective, by sharing her research on the Cuban Internationalist Solidarity Programme.

ListenLink opens in a new window to find out more about what healthcare means to the professionals on the programme, as well as how the programme itself has impacted Cuban society.

Amphibious Screens: The Sustainable Cultures of Water Seminar Series, hosted by The University of Warwick, begins on January 27th. This online series delves beneath the surface to connect new research ideas from around the world with professionals, practitioners, activists as well as the cultural sector in four online seminars.

You can join one or all of these free seminars to understand more about how the film and TV industries in Miami, Reykjavik, Cornwall and Venice are deeply connected to a watery sense of place, water pollution, water scarcity and water cultures.

For further details and to register click here.

In the latest Faculty of Arts at Home video, Dr Paul Grigsby discusses Coventry’s ancient history, tying in with the Resonate festival’s theme of ‘Coventry in the World’ for November. Dr Grigsby uses the history beneath our feet to explore how Coventry has been a place of continual cultural change since prehistoric times, using archaeological evidence to trace how people from around the world have come to this diverse city.

As countries around the world come together to tackle the threat of climate change at the COP26 climate summit, the question of how cities can become more sustainable has never been more important. Tying in with the Resonate Festival’s theme of Futures, Dr Jonathan Clarke in Global Sustainable Development discusses what some of the key challenges are for transforming our cities to become more resilient, equitable and sustainable to adapt to our changing world.

Come and visit the beautiful University of Warwick campus and find out about our Arts departments and courses at our 2021 Open Days

There are 3 autumn 2021 in person Open Days for prospective students to come and visit the University of Warwick campus: 9 October, 23 October and 6 November. The 6 November is particularly focused on the Arts and Humanities, but if you cannot make the 6th you are very welcome to come on the other dates. Our new Arts building (FAB) is reaching completion and we hope to be able to offer tours on the 6th November.

We will have staff and students from our Arts departments available to answer questions at the Information Fairs on the 9th and 23rd October. On the 6th November we are planning a mixture of subject-based drop-ins, workshops and presentations.

Virtual Open Days with academic presentations about the courses are being held in the week 25-29 October 2021.

Booking has opened and we look forward to seeing you either in person or virtually.