Arts Faculty News

The NHS celebrates its’s 75th anniversary this year. From birth to death, and everything in between, the NHS is there throughout most of our lives. But what do you think was one of the biggest causes of death in the UK before the NHS came into being? Diseases? Childbirth? Leukaemia? BBC CWR Reporter Tom Cooke has been out to meet Professor Roberta Bivins from the Centre for the History of Medicine in Warwick's Department of History, who has been looking at the impact that the NHS has had on UK society and reveals what the biggest killer of people was before we had the NHS.

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.

For more than 150 years kings, queens and cardinals have been among the few people permitted to tread on one of Britain’s greatest treasures: a medieval mosaic foretelling the end of the world.

Made with rare marbles, glass and gemstones, the Cosmati Pavement in Westminster Abbey is the exact spot on which British monarchs have been crowned for centuries.

Days after the coronation of the King, the 700-year-old artwork will be opened to the public for the first time — on condition that they remove their shoes.

Professor Jennifer Alexander, an art historian at Warwick University, said the pavement tours would “certainly be a rare opportunity for the public to walk in the footsteps of medieval kings”.

She said it was “entirely fitting that they should be barefoot, as medieval pilgrims to St Edward’s shrine would have been”.

Join us from 6-10 March to celebrate languages, cultures, and the diversity of our global community.

Engage in virtual and in-person activities and events to develop your global outlook, meet new people, and be inspired to continue to enhance your international experience.

Exhibition comprising self-portraits, photographs and personal narratives created and curated by people who have experienced - or are experiencing - homelessness in Coventry. Held in the foyer of the FAB, 3 - 27 October 2022.

Congratulations to Professor Rachel Moseley who takes up the role of Vice-Provost and Chair of the Faculty of Arts from 1 September 2022.

Professor Rachel Moseley is a film and television historian, and has published widely on questions of representation, identity and popular aesthetics. Her most recent books have looked at stop-frame animation in British children’s television of the 1960s and 1970s in Hand-Made Television, Palgrave, 2016, and at the politics of landscape and place on screen in Picturing Cornwall, University of Exeter Press, 2018. Public engagement and research impact have been significant aspects of her work in recent years, in the Midlands and in Cornwall. Rachel is in her fifth year as Head of Film and Television Studies at Warwick, where she completed her PhD in 2000, after graduating from University of East Anglia with an MA (with Distinction) in Film Studies, and before that from Warwick with a BA Joint Honours (First Class) in Film and Literature. She has been an active supporter for widening participation in arts education at Warwick and beyond, and is a Parent Governor at a state secondary school in Birmingham. She sits on Senate, Council, ARC and a number of other University Committees.

Researchers from the Department of History will be delivering a series of talks at Warwick Words History Festival. Now in its twentieth year, Warwick Words is a popular annual event, bringing internationally acclaimed historians to share stories from the past to venues around Warwick.

Since 2012, the University of Warwick has collaborated with the festival on a series titled Tea Time talks, where academics from the Department of History discuss their research. This year, topics are:

History and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Professor Christoph Mick and Dr Claire Shaw, Saturday 8 October

Picking up the Pieces: Gender and Romantic Failure in late 20th Century Britain – Dr Zoe Strimpel, Saturday 22 October

The Politics of Touch in the late 18th Century – Professor Mark Philp, Saturday 26 November

The programme also includes a play written by PhD student David Fletcher and performed by Loft Theatre company. Taking the Waters tells the story of a cholera epidemic that took place in Leamington Spa in 1849, and the medical and political conflicts that surrounded it.

Other speakers at the festival include Tracy Borman, Max Hastings, Dan Jones, Adam Rutherford, Charles Spencer and Alison Weir. Tickets are available from Warwick Words’ website: https://warwickwords.co.uk/ 

Dr James Hodkinson from the School of Modern Languages and Cultures has been collaborating with Birmingham-based Soul City Arts on their latest project, Waswasa: a multi-disciplinary art show staged in an immersive setting at Birmingham Hippodrome, using real-life community narratives to explore the act of Islamic prayer and what that means in a modern, secular society.

Lead artist Mohammed Ali and his team aim to demystify this familiar yet misunderstood tradition through an extraordinary multi-media show that will challenge perceptions. The show relates deeply to people of no faith too, as we all struggle with achieving that higher state of focus with things like social media, technology and other distractions dominating our lives.

Thursday 25 Aug – Saturday 3 Sep 2022 at Birmingham Hippodrome

Part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival

Buy Tickets for Waswasa: www.bit.ly/waswasa

• Read more about Waswasa: www.soulcityarts.com/waswasa
• View the Waswasa Press Release: https://www.soulcityarts.com/waswasa-press-release

How do you find that elusive flow state? How can we focus in a world of distractions?

Join the conversation: #WaswasaShow #B2022Festival @SoulCityArts @AliAerosol @BrumHippodrome

Warwick Celebrates: 5 - 15 July 2022. Congratulations to all our wonderful Arts students from classes 2020-2021-2022 who are attending the graduation ceremonies this summer. Wonderful to see you all back on campus.

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.