Departmental news

Conference Report

Title of Conference:

Teaching Medieval French: Sustainable Approaches for the Next Generation

Dates: 27-29 April 2023

Organisers: Emma Campbell and Liam Lewis

Background and Objectives

This three-day event for U.K.-based university teachers, researchers, and early career academics came out of two online ‘state-of-the-discipline’ workshops for Medieval French Studies organised in 2022. Responding to a need identified at those workshops, this in-person event at the University of Warwick enabled participants to develop new, sustainable, interdisciplinary approaches to teaching medieval French materials to undergraduates across a range of HE institutions.

The interconnected aims of this event were: (1) to introduce participants to strategies that they could take forward in their teaching practice, (2) to provide space and time for attendees to workshop ideas they could integrate directly into their present or future teaching, and (3) to discuss the sharing and development of pedagogical resources cross-institutionally. To that end, invited speakers with expertise in areas that intersect with studies of medieval French–particularly performance studies, visual culture, and material culture–led workshops aimed at providing participants with a set of tools for their own practice. Participants worked on existing course materials or on new ideas in ‘developing ideas’ sessions incorporated into the workshops. There was a final session dedicated to discussing practical strategies for sharing resources and sources of potential funding.

Final Programme

Thursday 27 April: Texts & Material Culture

12-1pm: Arrivals

1-2pm: How to teach with medieval architecture (Jenny Alexander)

2-3pm: Developing ideas session

3-4pm: How to use collaborative transcription and editing (Laura Morreale)

4-5pm: Developing ideas session

5-6pm: How to grow our community—a discussion led by Grapevine charity  

6-7pm: Networking, with drinks reception

7pm: Dinner on campus

Friday 28 April: Visual Culture & Interdisciplinary Work

9-10am: Arrivals

10-11am: How to teach with medieval images (Debra Strickland)

11am-12pm: Developing ideas session

12-1pm: How to approach interdisciplinary work (Liam Lewis and Harriet Jean Evans)

1-2pm: Lunch

2-3pm: How to teach with medieval mapping (Marianne O’Doherty)

3-4pm: Developing ideas session

7pm: Performance at St Mary's Guildhall of ‘Silence’ by Rachel Rose Reid, followed by an after-show talk at 9pm.

Saturday 29 April: Performance

10-11.30am: Storytelling Workshop with Rachel Rose Reid

11.30am-12pm: Break

12-1pm: How to teach with storytelling (Daisy Black and Jane Bonsall)

1-2pm: Lunch

2-3pm: How to teach with medieval song (Emma Dillon)

3-4pm: Developing ideas session

4-5pm: How to foster cross-institutional support and sharing of resources—discussion led by Emma Campbell

Outcomes

The planned outcomes of the event were all met or surpassed. These can be summarised as follows:

• New teaching resources and approaches. Participants left the workshops equipped with new materials and methodologies for teaching medieval French literature culture immediately usable in their own institutional contexts. Where possible, sessions were recorded. These are currently being edited and will be made available online, so others can use them. 

We had numerous messages of thanks from participants after the event. For instance, a senior colleague emailed to say how generative the workshops had been for her: ‘My huge thanks to you and Liam, and your amazing speakers. It was a really fab few days. I feel really regenerated.’ Another colleague highlighted the value of the event for sharing ideas: ‘A huge thank you to you both for such a welcoming, inspiring event. It was the most innovative and exciting conference I have been to for a long time. Because of covid it has been a while since I have had a chance to meet and share ideas with colleagues outside my immediate circle, so this was very much welcome.’

• Strategies for collaborative working and resource sharing. The workshops enabled colleagues to explore practical strategies for sharing resources and expertise across institutions. The final session built on this by discussing actions for developing resources and possible platforms for cross-institutional collaboration. Emma Campbell is currently planning a follow-up meeting this summer to take these actions forward.

One of our speakers emailed after the workshops to say she had already started to work with other participants: ‘Since the event I’ve already got a little team of people to work on that Mandeville manuscript I showed and am also talking to Daisy about some kind of map-based public engagement project. It’s been not just brilliant for teaching ideas but also for research collaborations. I’d love to find out about any more events run with / by this group.’

Another speaker emphasised the importance of the interdisciplinary exchanges: ‘Just a note of warmest thanks for a truly wonderful couple of days. I had the best time!!! I absolutely loved the workshops on storytelling as well as the magical performance of Silence. And it was such a lovely context for me to share ideas about teaching and also about the MUSLIVE project. I learnt so much from the conversations. Moreover, it was such an engaged and welcoming gathering -- I was so glad to be there. So many, many congratulations on convening such a marvellous event. I know, too, how much work went into this, both with the logistics and also building such a brilliant programme. Thank you.’

One mid-career colleague highlighted the importance of the networking that took place, as well as the pedagogical benefits of the workshops: ‘What a fantastic occasion the teaching workshop was! It was wonderful to see so many colleagues, and to meet new ones. I found it a truly inspirational moment, and it came at just the right time as I reflect on the relationship between teaching and research in my future work. Well done!’

• Future funding bids. We anticipate future funding bids to facilitate collaborations with community partners. Additional funding plans to support cross-institutional sharing of resources are under discussion (see above).

• Professional development. Participants of all career stages were able to learn new skills and integrate those into teaching plans.

• Community engagement. The workshops included a session co-led by Grapevine charity. There was also a public performance of a medieval text at Coventry’s Guildhall, a public after-show discussion, and a storytelling workshop accessible to the public.

HRC funding covered the cost of inviting external speakers to campus, as well as some of the cost of admin support for the event. In addition, the HRC Visiting Speakers Fund enabled us to host an overseas presenter, Laura Morreale, who would otherwise have been unable to attend. We are grateful to the HRC for generously increasing the VSF award to cover unexpected price increases in Dr Morreale’s flights.

Emma Campbell

Liam Lewis

25 May 2023

Research from Warwick Economics and the University of Munich has offered a new explanation for why tax systems have failed to address rising levels of inequality in many modern economies.

Empirical studies have shown that globalisation has raised wage inequality and the concentration of earnings at the top of the income distribution. Rather than tax levels increasing when top incomes rise, however, this is often accompanied by a fall in the optimal rate of redistributive taxation, meaning that tax systems fail to effectively share wealth across society.

Professor Carlo Perroni and colleagues argue that increased integration of markets and the prevalence of performance-based contracts help to explain why this is the case.

They observe that globalisation has led to greater integration of product markets, increasing competition and making it harder for any single firm to make a positive profit but allowing those that are successful to reap higher rewards. This feeds into labour markets and the prevalence of incentive contracts, where workers are awarded bonuses or other performance-based benefits: globalisation makes product markets potentially more profitable but also more competitive, translating into steeper incentive contracts and greater volatility of individual earnings.

The researchers’ analysis, based on US income data, reveals that while globalisation increases the income share of workers in successful firms, it reduces the effectiveness of income tax as a tool for redistributing wealth as redistributive taxation is unable to counter the higher income inequality that arises from steeper incentive contracts. At the same time, performance-based pay leads to a lower optimal tax rate, as workers are dis-incentivised from performing if tax levels are too high and more likely to opt for the security of fixed-salary contracts.

The researchers argue that a similar increase in income concentration in an economy with fixed contracts would lead to a higher optimal tax rate.

Find out more

‘Incentives, Globalisation and Redistribution’, by Carlo Perroni, Antoine Ferey and Andreas Haufler, is forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics.

Carlo Perroni is Professor of Economics at Warwick. View his staff profile.

Four undergraduate students from the Department of Economics presented research papers at the prestigious Carroll Round conference in April 2023.

The Carroll Round is an annual international economics conference at Georgetown University for the world’s top undergraduates to present their research and exchange ideas. They are joined by prominent members of the academic and policy-making communities in a forum that facilitates informed and productive discussion on global economic issues.

The students had the opportunity to showcase original research undertaken as part of the final year of their degree course at Warwick. They presented their findings in discussion panels moderated by economics professors and practitioners.

This year’s keynote lectures were given by Dr Lisa Cook, member of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, and Dr Signe-Mary McKernan, vice president of the Urban Institute’s Center on Labor, Human Services and Population.

Class of 2023 (pictured L-R)

• Mateusz Wiewiórski, ‘Effects of recent and prior migrants on native’s wages.’
• Jay Kavaiya, ‘Is net-zero a feasible approach? A theoretical model of sustainable growth & natural capital.’
• Daira Povez Gamboa, ‘The effect of child penalty in Peru’s labour market.’
• Andy Lau, ‘A model of online misinformation with endogenous reputation.’

Find out more about the Carroll Round conferenceLink opens in a new window

We are delighted to announce that Professor Nigel Stallard is appointed as the new Director of Warwick Clinical Trials Unit. Read the full news item here

An RSC animationLink opens in a new window explains the work of an international team of scientists, led by Warwick Chemistry, and named winners of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Dalton Division Horizon Prize 2022.

The work of 'Team Ice' has been brought to life in a new RSC-commissioned videoLink opens in a new window celebrating their Chemistry Biology Interface Division Horizon Prize, 2022.

Dr. Maryna Utkina, BA Fellow at the University of Warwick Law School, became a part of the Ukrainian cohort and participated in a two-day British Academy-supported workshop titled “Development of academic skills in Great Britain and the international context”, which took place on the 24 and 25 May in Wigan.

Between 6 and 10 June the Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre and Department of History are hosting an IAS Visiting Professorship: Professor Dena Goodman (University of Michigan)

• Lunchtime talk: ‘Peace Dividends: Collective Kangaroos for Science, Public, and Nation During the Peace of Amiens’ (post attached), discussant Michael Bycroft, 6 June, 12-2pm, FAB 2.43.

• Postgraduate and Early Career Discussion ‘Understanding the American Academic System’, Tuesday 6 June, 3-5pm, FAB 5.01.

• Conference, ‘Sociability in Politics, Food and Travel in the Early Modern Era’ (see attached poster), Keynotes from Rebecca Earle (Warwick) and Dena Goodman (Michigan), 8-10 June.

The Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre at the University of Warwick, together with GIS Sociabilités/Sociability network in France, aims to explore the intersection of sociability with the themes of food, politics and travel in the early modern period (1550-1850).

Historical research on sociability has been developing for several decades. It has been enriched by theoretical frameworks for understanding networks and the rise of public spheres. Sociology and cultural anthropology have been especially helpful for conceptualising how, why and the conditions under which people interact in specific ways. Recent studies of emotions – individual and collective – have thrown light on various forms of sociability. Although there is a rich literature on the topic to draw from, the aim of this conference is to home in on how sociability was imbricated in other cultural phenomena. We are especially interested in exploring the relationship between sociability and political culture, food and drink studies, and trade, travel, and overseas exchange.

Conference programme here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ecc/eventsnew/sociability_politics/.

To register, email EMECC@Warwick.ac.uk indicating the days you wish to attend.

For further details about these events please contact Naomi Pullin naomi.pullin@warwick.ac.uk and Charles Walton charles.walton@warwick.ac.uk

Research from Warwick economists and collaborators, published in the World Development journal, has revealed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young migrant workers from rural areas in India.

Bhaskar Chakravorty, Clement Imbert and colleagues followed a cohort of 2,260 young workers from rural areas in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand who had participated in a national vocational training scheme that provides trade-specific training to disadvantaged rural youth and places them into formal salaried jobs, often in other states. They interviewed the same individuals three times after the first national lockdown in 2020, between June 2020 and December 2021.

They found that nearly a third (32%) of respondents who were in salaried jobs before lockdown lost their jobs, and half of those who worked out of state returned home shortly after the lockdown. Respondents also reported higher levels of anxiety and lower life satisfaction compared to the pre-lockdown period.

There was a stark difference between men and women: while many men who lost their jobs took up informal employment, most women dropped out of the labour force.

Using a randomised control trial, the researchers also studied the effectiveness of an app-based job platform used by several state governments in India to help trainees find work. However, they found that it led to no increase in job searching or employment rates.

Commenting on the results, Dr Chakravorty said: “Governments increasingly look to digital tools as low-cost interventions to engage job seekers but there is relatively little literature to date on how online platforms impact employment rates. Our findings suggest that bridging the gap between rural young workers and formal jobs requires more active and targeted policy interventions, especially for female workers.”

Read the full paper: Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on India’s Rural Youth: Evidence from a Panel Survey and an Experiment, by Bhaskar Chakravorty, Apurav Yash Bhatiya, Clement Imbert, Maximilian Lohnert, Poonam Panda and Roland Rathelot, was published in the World Development journal in May 2023.

A version of this article was published in July 2022 when the research was published in the Warwick Economics Research Paper series.

Horizons: A Global History of Science (Penguin, 2022) by Dr James Poskett has been shortlisted for the 2023 British Society for the History of Science Hughes Prize.

 The Hughes Prize "is awarded every two years to the best book in the history of science (broadly construed) published in English which is accessible to a wide audience of non-specialists.”