Professor Susan L. Carruthers' new book explores romantic life in wartime, how and why relationships break down, and the consequences for men and women in uniform, through the phenomenon of the “Dear John” letter, that most notorious of wartime missives.

This month’s Resonate Festival theme asks the question, ‘What does it mean to be human’? Dr Martha McGill, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History, discusses historical beliefs about supernatural beings and how these shaped the ways that our ancestors thought about their own humanity.

Want to hear more? Sign up for 'Invisible Worlds - Humans and the Supernatural', taking place as part of the Resonate Festival on Thursday, 24th February, 6:30-7:30pm at Canley Community Centre, CV4 8FT.

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.

Speaking on the topic of Freedom as part of the Resonate Festival, the University of Warwick’s year-long programme of events for City of Culture, Professor Kate Astbury discusses her research into the experiences of the Napoleonic Prisoners of War who were held at Portchester Castle, and the performances that they staged while they were there.

Tying in with the launch of the Resonate Festival, the University of Warwick’s year-long programme of events for City of Culture, and its focus on the idea of Invention throughout the month of May, Dr Richard Wallace (Film and Television Studies) brings us the film ‘Digitalisation and Cinema Projection in the UK’. Rick’s film explores his work on the AHRC funded ‘Projection Project’ and the history of film projection practices, reaching from the earliest days of cinema to the current digital revolution in film exhibition.

Dr James Hodkinson (German Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures) delivers a conversation with one of his key collaborators, the artist Mohammed Ali MBE (https://www.soulcityarts.com), explores the relationship between his research into Islam in Germany in the 19th Century and his public engagement projects including the Art of Empathy (2019) and Congregate (2020-), a collaborative livestream of visual art, film, music and conversation. James explores the concepts of kinship and empathy, and the power of art to allow us to view the world from alternate cultural perspectives.

Dr Fabienne Viala (Director of the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies) explains the concept of ‘artivism’ to us, in its Caribbean context, as a fusion of art forms and practices through which artists confront and engage with a range of publics. Fabienne argues that artivism activates the empathetic imagination, and looks at how environmental and racial justice are brought into dialogue through her work with Caribbean artivists.

Dr Chantal Wright (Warwick Writing Programme) delivers the first of our ‘Literature, Language and Translation’ Faculty of Arts at Home films: ‘The Literary Translation: A Guide for the Perplexed, Curious and Uninitiated’. Chantal is an important advocate for translation as a profession and a practice, and she draws our attention here to the creative processes of literary translation. She highlights, for example, the significance of the #namethetranslator​ hashtag, and the campaign to properly credit translators for their work. Her film urges us, more broadly, to appreciate the fact that translated works are the result of the creative endeavours of two people.