Departmental news

In the first week of October 2023 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. Dr Sebastian Pike CommentsLink opens in a new window.

Dr Hannes Houck has been announced as one of the recipients of the Royal Society’s flagship early career research schemes, distinguishing him as an outstanding scientist with the potential to become a leader in the field of sustainability.

The Faculty of Arts at the University of Warwick encourages outstanding postdoctoral scholars to apply for the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships scheme, for Fellowships hosted at Warwick starting in the 2024/2025 academic year. Please note that initial applications/expressions of interest need to be sent to Alan Ashton-Smith, the Research and Strategy Manager for the Faculty of Arts (Alan.Ashton-Smith@warwick.ac.uk) by 5pm Thursday 30 November 2023 containing the following information:

• A short description of the proposed project (maximum 2 A4 pages)
• A copy of the applicant's CV (maximum 2 A4 pages)
• The name of an academic in their proposed host Department or School. Candidates should contact their prospective mentor in advance of submitting an Expression of Interest.
• The names of three referees. Please note that referees will not be asked to provide a statement at this stage.

The full advertisement can be found here: Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at University of Warwick (jobs.ac.uk).

The Department of History is co-hosting the event "Affirming the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain: Hakim Adi and A. S. Francis in Conversation", 31 October 2023, 13.00-14.30pm, in person at the University of Warwick.

Prof. Hakim Adi is an award-winning historian. He was the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain when he was appointed Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester in 2015. In 2018 he launched the world’s first online MRes in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora which trained many students including six currently engaged in PhD research. His latest publication is Africa and Caribbean People in Britain: A History (Allen Lane, 2023) which was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize in September 2023.

A.S. Francis is a PhD student at the University of Chichester, researching women’s involvements in Britain’s Black radical organisations during the 1960s-1980s, and the development of a Black women’s movement. In addition to this PhD research, Francis has recently published Gerlin Bean: Mother of the Movement (Lawrence Wishart 2023), celebrating the longstanding and far-reaching activism of Gerlin Bean. Francis is also a consultant to the Young Historians Project, member of the History Matters collective and co-founder of the History Matters Journal.

The next PhD Open Days will take place on Wednesday 25 October (virtual) and Wednesday 8 November (in-person) at the Department of Statistics, University of Warwick. Register here

WMG’s Cyber Security undergraduate degree has received recognition for its cutting-edge education after receiving full certification from the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

The BSc Cyber Security at the University of Warwick offers a strong foundation in cyber security principles and practical skills, allowing graduates to make meaningful contributions in organisations by safeguarding sensitive information and defending against cyberattacks.

The course is one of only nine fully-certified undergraduate degrees recognised by the NCSC. This certification can help prospective students to make better informed choices when looking for a cyber security course. Employers will also recognise the degree and will benefit from recruiting employees who have had an opportunity to develop their skills in cyber security through a course which has high-quality teaching.

The BSc Cyber Security is the third programme at WMG to gain similar national recognition; both the MSc Cyber Security Engineering and the MSc Cyber Security Management are fully certified by the NCSC.

The University is also recognised by the NCSC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE) and an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). This level of recognition demonstrates Warwick’s broader commitment to excellence in cyber security education and research, both nationally and in local communities.

Dr Harjinder Lallie, Associate Professor at WMG said: “Being one of only two institutions in the UK with five NCSC certifications underlines the commitment to a world-class cyber security curriculum and associated research programme.

“The upgrade from provisional to full certification has highlighted the effort and commitment the cyber security team have made to the education we offer and helps provide confidence to incoming students as well as employers about our commitment to quality.”

NCSC Deputy Director for Cyber Growth, Chris Ensor said: “The certification of the University of Warwick’s BSc Cyber Security degree by the NCSC demonstrates our shared commitment to responsibly developing the cyber security talent pipeline.

“Offering an NCSC-certified degree helps prospective students make better informed choices about the quality of courses available, and employers can be assured that graduates will be well-taught and have valued industry skills.”

Find out more about the BSc Cyber Security undergraduate degree here: www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/education/undergraduate/cyber

Spiritualism and Italian Cultures XVIII-XX Centuries was an interdisciplinary conference organised by Bart Van den Bossche (KU Leuven), Fabio Camilletti (University of Warwick) and Gennaro Ambrosino (University of Warwick) in Leuven on 29-30 September.

The two-day conference examined the role and spread of Modern Spiritualism in Italian culture and literature since the second half of the 18th century. Modern Spiritualism and parapsychology, the discipline that seeks to explain supernatural events using scientific methods, originated in the United States in 1848 following the experiments of the Fox sisters. From the United States, spiritualism spread rapidly to Europe in the early 1850s, bringing with it the fashion for turning tables, invoking the spirits of the dead and communicating with them through mediumship. This phenomenon exerted a powerful influence on the European popular imagination, inspiring literary texts, occupying the pages of major periodicals and becoming the focus of scholarly debate.

Filling an important gap in the literature on occultism and (pseudo)science and their multiple interactions with Italian culture, the event provided an overview of the phenomenon, analysing it from different and complementary perspectives. While there is a great deal of studies on this subject in other European countries, there is no comprehensive contribution that examines the development and influence of this phenomenon in its entirety in Italy, with the exception of works dealing with the period between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century and Camilletti's Italia lunare. Gli anni Sessanta e l'occulto (2018), which focuses on the 1960s. Italian Spiritualism acquired original and innovative patterns due to the political situation in which it spread, the cultural background of the peninsula and its close relationship with the Catholic Church, making it a unique case study to be studied.

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and fields (literary studies, art history, history of science and medicine), the conference deliberately covered a wide period, taking into account not only the post-unification period, which, as already mentioned, marks the explosion of this phenomenon up to the First World War, but also the study of the 'supernatural' before the advent of Spiritualism and the Spiritualist literature of the second half of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st century.

The first day of the conference opened with Gennaro Ambrosino's analysis of the origins and spread of mesmerism in Italy between 1779 and 1853, focusing on the topoi and aspects that would later feed the Spiritualist rhetoric. Francesco Paolo De Ceglia (University of Bari "Aldo Moro") and Stefano Serafini (University of Padua) then analysed the Spiritualist movement in the second half of the 19th century. The former focused on the famous Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino, describing her career and the cultural context in which she became famous. The latter focused instead on the literary fortunes of Spiritualism from the 1850s to the 1890s and the relationship between science and the occult in this period. After lunch, the conference continued with Fabio Camilletti's lecture, which shed light on the Spiritualist elements in the works of the writer Pitigrilli and described the rise of Spiritualism in the 1940s and 50s. Simona Micali (University of Siena) focused on three novels from three different periods (the 1940s, the 1960s and the 2010s), analysing the different declinations and models of Spiritualism in the three authors (Landolfi, Buzzati and Zanotti). Finally, Corinne Pontillo (University of Catania) analysed the motif of "ghosts" in the literary works of the writer Alberto Savinio, who lived in the first half of the 20th century.

The second day opened with Stefano Lazzarin's (Università Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne) analysis and close reading of Alberto Moravia's short story "Seduta Spiritica" (1960), which has often been neglected by scholars. Martina Piperno (Università di Roma "La Sapienza") proposed a necromantic reading of Ombre dal fondo by Maria Corti, looking at the relationship between philology and necromancy. The last two papers focused on the visual aspect of Spiritualism in Italian culture in the 21st century: Paola Cori (University of Birmingham) analysed the art installation of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, with particular attention to Breath Ghost Blind (2021), which shows the phantom-like atmosphere of his works; Chiara Zampieri (KU Leuven) dealt with the literary motif of "ghosts in museums" in contemporary literature.

Overall, Spiritualism and Italian Cultures XVIII-XX Centuries was well attended throughout the day, with many lively discussions in the various panels. From early nineteenth-century Mesmerism to the Neapolitan Spiritualist Circle, which included the world's most studied and famous medium, Eusapia Palladino, from Buzzati's writings to Maurizio Cattelan's art installations, the conference was a unique and collaborative opportunity to explore Spiritualism in Italian culture and its influence on the popular imagination. As a result, a proposal for an edited collection is being prepared.

We are pleased to report that this year’s results of two national postgraduate student surveys show high levels of satisfaction amongst our postgraduate student community.

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 2023

The overall satisfaction with the quality of the course remains high – 91% with 96% of our postgraduate taught students saying that they would recommend the University of Warwick. This was achieved with a response rate of 51.6% of the postgraduate taught cohort.

The top satisfaction scores in PTES were in:

• Teaching: 92% agreed that ‘staff are good at explaining things’ and 91% agreed that ‘the course is intellectually stimulating’.
• Resources: 96% agreed that they ‘have been able to access subject specific resources necessary for their studies when on campus.’
• Dissertation: 97% were ‘happy with the support received for planning their dissertation.’

There were also high scores received in the categories of Skills Development (88%), Organisation (87%) and Support (85%).

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2023

The overall satisfaction amongst postgraduate research students was 85% with the top scores in:

• Supervision: 89% agreed that their ‘supervisor had the skills and subject knowledge to support their research.’
• Research skills: 91% agreed that their ‘skills in critically analysing and evaluating findings and results have developed during their programme.’
• Professional development: 89% agreed that their ‘ability to communicate information effectively to diverse audiences had developed during their programme.’

Dr Claudia Rei, Deputy Head of Department (Teaching & Learning) said:

“We value student feedback as we want to deliver the best teaching and learning possible. So, we’re very pleased to see such encouraging results. We also want to make further improvements in the future and are already looking at ways to address some of the areas where our scores could have been higher such as Engagement and Assessment in PTES and Support in PRES. We also encourage students to submit their feedback to us throughout the year.”

Further information about the two postgraduate student surveys can be obtained from the University's webpages for PTESLink opens in a new window and PRESLink opens in a new window.

Examples of how we have responded to student recently can be found on our webpage We have acted on your feedback: Postgraduate TaughtLink opens in a new window and Postgraduate ResearchLink opens in a new window.

If you are a student of the Department of Economics, you may submit feedback to us at any point via the Student Feedback FormLink opens in a new window.

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