Modules | Liberal Arts | The University of Warwick

Our Liberal Arts modules

You will study a range of the most pressing and complex issues facing societies and the planet.

As you progress through your degree and your interests develop, you will have increasing freedom to tailor your own curriculum, culminating in a final-year dissertation that will address an issue of your choice.

Choose a route or pathway

Your core and optional modules

Liberal Arts at Warwick features core modules built around some of the world’s most fascinating and challenging scenarios. Optional core modules must be taken if you wish to follow a certain route or pathway. In addition, every year you will be able to take a different number of optional modules from Liberal Arts or in other departments across the University.

Year One

First-year core modules

Key Problems

Truth and Misinformation Liberal Arts: Principles and Praxis

This is your introduction to the history, skills, and fundamental values behind liberal education (principles) and what we do in the classroom (praxis). It is where you begin to think beyond the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines and how these might be transgressed. Although this module is core, it does not include any assessments.

Critical Issues

You will select at least one ‘Critical Issues’ module:

Revolution

This module explores the ways in which art (the things we make) prompts, predicts, or responds to revolutions across history. You will learn how to apply a range of research skills to generate original approaches to complex revolutions. You will also delve into the things we make in relation to moments of crisis and change.

Beauty

Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder? This module will not tell you what beauty is nor how to think about it. Instead, it will challenge your existing preconceptions and encourage you to develop critical thinking skills around the interdisciplinary issue of beauty through encounters with theoretical frameworks, detailed case studies, and focused problems.

Research Methods

You will also select one 'Research Methods' module:

Qualitative Methods for Undergraduate Research

This module introduces you to a range of methodologies used in social, historical, and cultural research. You will critically engage with theoretical debates, putting your learning into practice by conducting primary research using cultural, creative, archival, text-based and interview methodologies. The hands-on research assignments in this module link to other core modules, so activities will always be relevant to your studies.

Quantitative Methods for Undergraduate Research

How can we use quantitative data to understand the world around us? This module will introduce you to the foundations of quantitative analysis and the principles of quantitative research, descriptive statistics and data visualisation. You will begin to consider how we can use data at our disposal to draw conclusions about the wider world. This is an introductory module - you do not need to have studied Maths at A level (or equivalent).

First-year optional modules

The other half of your first year will be spent studying optional modules from the Liberal Arts Department or from across the University. This is your chance to start exploring your interests and where your passions lie!

Year Two and Final Year

Second-year core modules

Consuming Cultures

Consumption connects the local and the global. It is at the core of our lives: from our food to our clothes, to our cultural and leisure activities, to the services we use. This module interrogates the relationship between consumption, culture, society and identity in different time periods and cultural contexts. You will explore how consumption operates as an organising social force through the analysis of film, literature, music, advertisements, branding, case studies, social research, and critical theory.

Final-year core modules

Dissertation

The dissertation is a year-long project marking the culmination of your degree. You will design and carry out a significant piece of original research. This is the ideal opportunity for you to showcase what you have learned and what you can do next.

You will make a real contribution to an area of academic study, a policy debate, or a community issue of importance to you. You will draw on experts from across the University and you will work with a dedicated advisor who can help you achieve your project goals.

Year two and final year's optional modules

Across your second year and final year, you will take three optional Liberal Arts modules which are related to your route/pathway. You may choose how and when to take these (for example, you may take one in your second year and two in your final year). You are welcome to take more than three if you wish!

Optional Modules

Optional Liberal Arts modules

Across your second year and final year, you will take three optional Liberal Arts modules:

Emotion: Thinking with Feeling

People are emotional beings, but we often find it difficult to think and talk about feelings. On this module, we bring emotions into the spotlight, as we use interdisciplinary approaches to explore understandings of emotion as a cultural, social, psychological, and political experience. We consider what emotion means to individuals, communities, and societies, and examine how emotions feel, and, in turn, how we feel about emotions.

The Liquid Continent

This module explores the Mediterranean's crucial role in shaping human culture, society, and history. Through case studies of key ports (Alexandria, Beirut, Istanbul, and Venice), students will examine its influence on political systems, global exchange, religions, and social movements from ancient times to today. Emphasising interdisciplinary and collaborative learning, the course encourages students to focus on areas of personal interest, such as trade, migration, sustainability, or politics, culminating in a shared exploration of ideas and debates.

Do you hear the people sing? Revolution and the Modern Musical

This module explores the impact of musicals as a global art form, highlighting their social, political, and cultural significance despite being often undervalued compared to opera. Focusing on the theme of revolution, as seen in top musicals like Les Misérables and Hamilton, it examines how revolutions are represented on stage. Students will explore themes such as inclusion, voice, and appropriation, and will engage in problem-based learning to critically assess how musical representations of revolution can be both subversive and conservative.

Intersectionality and Power

This module explores the Black Lives Matter movement’s intersectional approach to addressing structural racism, particularly its impact on Black trans people with disabilities. It critically examines the persistence of systemic violence, the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and disability in shaping power and wealth, and the influence of these issues on various sectors like media, education, and policy. Students will engage with interdisciplinary debates on the historical and ongoing effects of oppression and institutional violence, while considering the role of liberal arts in advocating for reparations, intersectional identities, and radical change.

Quantitative Research Methods: Understanding Relationships in Data

How can we use data to analyse the nature and strength of relationships between variables? On this module, you will build quantitative foundations by thinking about this question.

You will develop a flexible toolkit of statistical skills and experience using specialist software. With this toolkit, you will use data to explore ideas of correlation versus causality, test significance and develop multivariate models which can help explain the world's phenomena.

The Quest I: Departures and Heroic Journeys

How do we conceive of the quest in an age that Max Weber characterised as dominated by rationalisation, intellectualisation, and above all, a profound sense of "disenchantment"? On this module, you will explore key problems that lie at the outset of all quests such as the departure from certainty to face unknown realms of fear and enchantments, and the question of who gets to be a hero or a heroine.

You will investigate complex problems using case studies from various fields, including literary texts, video games, films, visual arts, and business studies.

The Quest II: Exile and Homecoming

This module explores the problem that lies at the end of all quests: moving from being in exile to one's homecoming. What is the relationship between ourselves and our home? How does our environment shape us and the stories we tell?

You will explore case studies of exile, diasporas, nostalgia, postcolonial literature, imagined communities, surrealism, and the challenges in creating community in the modern world. Among other questions, we will explore what we hope to gain at the end of a quest, how we change along the way, and whether the concepts of home and homeland can offer comfort or certainty.

Health and Wellbeing Across the Life Course

This module examines how social factors shape health and well-being, using epidemiological, sociological, and demographic perspectives. Students will explore the relationship between social experiences—such as family, work, and education—and health across different stages of life. The course covers key determinants like class, income, and caregiving, providing an interdisciplinary understanding of health outcomes and their measurement throughout the life course.

A Sustainable Serenissima: Water and the Future of Venice

This residential module, held in Venice, explores the city’s sustainability challenges and resilience strategies. Using the three pillars of sustainability - social, environmental, and economic - as lenses, students will examine past, present, and future threats to Venice's sustainability.

Centred around the theme of water, the module addresses issues like rising sea levels, urbanisation, resource management, and energy distribution. Discussions will also cover historical Venetian industries such as publishing, shipbuilding, munitions, glassmaking, finance, and tourism. Additionally, the module will reflect on Venice’s long tradition of hospitality and the modern challenges it faces in welcoming migrants and refugees.

Venice: Resistance and Representation

This module explores Venice's rich history of cultural, social, and political resistance through an interdisciplinary lens. Students will examine how the city's unique environment and legacy of defiance relate to contemporary issues like mass tourism, depopulation, and climate change. Through site visits and case studies—including anti-fascist movements, labour activism, and Venetian feminism—students will consider how Venice’s past can inform modern resistance strategies.

The right decision...

As soon as I took the Truth and Misinformation module, I realised that I had made the right decision about picking Liberal Arts at Warwick and have not looked back since!

Prishika
Liberal Arts Graduate

Read Prishika's story