Sutton Trust Summer School: The Colonial Hangover (August 2021)

^{Image credit: Langladure/ Wikimedia Commons}

“The content and wider reading has not only improved my knowledge on colonialism but rather challenged me as a person”
– Sutton Trust Participant (2021)

"I learnt so much and have began discovering new ways of thinking and challenging everything and everyone around me"
– Sutton Trust Participant (2021)

This year Liberal Arts and Politics were joined by the French Department for the “Colonial Hangover” stream of the Sutton Trust Summer School. Students explored complex issues around national identity, discourse around culture and national values, and the various ways in which the legacies of Empire can still be felt. Students worked together on academic presentations which explored different aspects of the “Colonial Hangover.”

Year 12 Discovery Day (March 2021)

Discover Warwick Day is a great opportunity to explore what it’s like to be a student at Warwick. Liberal Arts joined departments from across the University to offer lectures and taster sessions to give a flavour of what studying with us is like. Students in the Liberal Arts session explored some of the biggest problems facing our current society, and asked questions about what it means to flourish and thrive. Students reflected critically on three real-world interventions that thinkers and activists have proposed: eco-conscription, citizens assemblies and the Welsh Future Generations Act.

Sutton Trust Summer School: The Colonial Hangover (August 2020)

“Really enjoyed understanding Liberal Arts as a course and delving into the deeper meanings of statues” – Sutton Trust Participant (2020)

Liberal Arts and Politics and International Studies (PAIS) teamed up again in 2020 to explore how our lives intersect on a day-to-day basis with the legacies of the British Empire. Year 12 participants were asked to think about the relationship between civic art and collective memory. Focusing on statues, they reflected on who and what we remember, who and what we commemorate, and on the process through which "collective memory" is developed in public space. In a summer marked by Black Lives Matter protests and the overturning of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol, the discussion could not have been more relevant.

Read our news item on the Sutton Trust Summer School 2020 here.

Bright Stars Primary School Project (December 2019-February 2020)

A group of Liberal Arts students from all four years of our programme worked together to design and deliver a Liberal Arts module for Year 5 students in a local primary school. The three-week module aimed to introduce primary school students to the principles and benefits of interdisciplinary education in a fun, active way.

Read our news item on the 2019/20 Bright Stars Primary School Project here.

Sutton Trust Summer School: The Colonial Hangover (July 2019)

"I enjoyed learning about the colonial hangover...because it showed me a side of politics that was very engaging and relatable for people like me" - Sutton School Summer Trust Participant (2019)

Liberal Arts, Politics and Sociology delivered an academic programme on the theme of “The Colonial Hangover” to Year 12 students. Posing questions about the hidden legacies of Empire in everyday life, workshops covered topics such as the question of reparations, public memory and memorialisation, boundaries and belonging, securitisation, and cultural legacies. Participants made use of the rich collection of material relating to race, ethnicity and migration in the Modern Records Centre and produced 'zines to showcase their research and responses.

Gradu8 Year 8 Boys Summer School (July 2019)

Students were asked to describe their Gradu8 experience in three words: "Fun, exciting, challenging", "Very very inspirational", "Best thing ever" - Gradu8 participants (2019)

Liberal Arts contributed to a session on "Sustainable Futures" to the Warwick Gradu8 Summer Scheme programme. After thinking critically about what public art can achieve, students debated what a flourishing future society might look like and how to engage communities in order to create it.

Metamorphoses of Frankenstein Year 9 Taster Day (November 2018)

"Thank you so much for having us and putting so many insightful activities together! Our students have definitely benefited from today's event and loved contributing. We look forward to taking part in similar events in the future" - Year 9 Teacher (2018)

Liberal Arts collaborated with English, History of Art, and Film & TV Studies to deliver an interactive day to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the release of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The day gave Year 9 students an insight into different subjects in the Faculty of Arts and hoped to inspire students to continue studying the Arts to GCSE and beyond.

The Liberal Arts session explored the relationship between ideas put forward by Frankenstein and twenty-first century debates by using biohacking and artificial intelligence as case studies to consider questions about scientific and technological innovation, what it means to be human, and the ethics of "messing with nature."

Sutton Trust Summer School: Objects with Agency (July 2018)

"The highlight of the week was the lectures, as it was a new environment of learning for me and gave me an insight into what University education might be like" - Sutton Trust Summer School participant (2018)

In 2018, Liberal Arts teamed up with History, Classics and French to deliver the historical and cultural stream of Warwick's Sutton Trust Summer School programme. The Sutton Trust works to combat educational inequality and their funded summer schools offer young people the opportunity to experience University life. The week's theme was "Objects with Agency" and workshops covered a diverse range of topics such as the circulation of power in ancient coins and currency, sacred medieval relics, a museum of the NHS, rap music and brand identity, posters and virtual reality.

Year 12 University Taster Days: "Wakanda Forever": Exploring Utopia

"It was very interactive and the topic was very interesting. I didn't really know what Liberal Arts was before but now I have a much better idea." - Year 12 Student (2018)

Liberal Arts regularly contributes to Year 12 University Taster Days. "Wakanda Forever": Exploring Utopia uses the box office hit Black Panther (2018) as a case study to explore the purpose of imaginary utopias and critically discuss their real-world practices and beliefs. The session introduces students to problem-based learning by considering how utopias respond to the "big questions" of what a better or perfect society would look like and how it could be brought about.