Departmental news

Congratulations to Dino Jakusic who passed his PhD viva yesterday. His thesis title is 'The Possibility of Ontology'

Angie Hobbs has selected 'Self-Knowledge for Humans' by Quassim Cassam as her recommendation for the 'Best Modern Philosophy Book' on the current 'The Reading Lists' (TRL) website.

Professor Hobbs is Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Her chief interests are in ancient history and literature, ethics and political theory. She describes Professor Cassam's book as a "lucid, revealing and engaging account of the many non-epistemic and non-rational factors that cloud our ability to know ourselves (and indeed others, and various states of affairs). Professor Cassam argues persuasively that we should start with the human predicament, not an unrealistic ideal of homo philosophicus."

Dr Andrea Giananti is visiting the Philosophy Department during the spring and summer terms, 2018. In his own research, Andrea works on perceptual knowledge and self-knowledge, and has a post-doc in Fribourg as part of the Fribourg-Warwick SNF project on Perception, Rationality and Self-Knowledge. Read more below:

 https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/research/researchcentres/wma/current/perception/

In 1997, Quassim Cassam published his first authored book Self and World, exploring the connections between self-consciousness, spatial representations, and bodily awareness. It is a seminal work in the Kantian-Strawsonian tradition, which became out of fashion at the beginning of this century. However, it cannot be denied that there is much to be learned and reconsidered in this work, and the 20-anniversary seems to be an apt time for us to take stock and further pursue the relevant issues. This event brings together perspectives from different traditions, including the Kantian, the phenomenological, the analytic, and the empirical. It is an attempt to understand the contemporary relevance of Cassam’s seminal work, and to explore the future of the Kantian-Strawsonian tradition in general.

We are delighted to announce that University of Warwick Philosophy Department has been awarded a Bronze Athena Swan award by the Equality Challenge Unit.

The Department is amongst the first Philosophy Departments in the UK be successful in achieving such an award and we look forward to working on our detailed and lengthy action plan over the coming months and years.

We are committed to ensuring an inclusive and supportive working environment in our department and to making a positive contribution to the culture of the discipline of Philosophy in the UK.

Our priorities include improving gender balance on our postgraduate programmes, proactively identifying and encouraging female applicants for academic positions, implementing a formal mentoring programme to support early- and mid-career researchers, and continuing a conversation with our undergraduate and postgraduate students about issues affecting the culture of our department and our discipline as a whole.

Our Athena swan Submission and Action Plan can be found here along with details of past and forthcoming events and activities.

The Department has also subscribed to the British Philosophical Association / Society for Women in Philosophy Good Practice Scheme more details of which can be found here

We’re delighted to share that the Department of Economics has achieved an outstanding overall satisfaction score of 95% in the 2025 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) - our highest result in recent years. This places us well above the Russell Group average of 86% for Economics and reflects the continued strength of our postgraduate programmes.

The PTES invited feedback from MSc and second-year MRes students on their experiences of teaching and learning at Warwick. With a response rate of 54%, exceeding the University average of 47%, our students have shown a strong commitment to sharing their experiences and helping us enhance postgraduate education.

Our top-performing areas include:

• Learning Resources – 96%
• Dissertation Supervision – 91%
• Teaching and Learning – 90%
• Organisation and Management – 90%

We’re particularly proud to have scored above the institutional average across all key themes, reaffirming our position as one of Warwick’s leading departments for postgraduate student experience.

At the question level, students highlighted that:

• The course is intellectually stimulating - 95%
• Teaching staff are good at explaining things – 93%
• They have appropriate access to subject specific resources – 97%
• They were given appropriate guidance and support throughout their course – 91%
• Dissertation supervisors have the skills and knowledge to support dissertations – 94%
• They would recommend the Department to others – 97%

While the overall results are highly positive, we recognise that opportunities for interaction among postgraduate taught students scored lower. We’re actively exploring ways to strengthen peer engagement and build a more connected postgraduate community.

Professor Jeremy Smith Head of Department, commented:

“These results highlight the strength of our postgraduate programmes and the dedication of our teaching and professional services staff. We’re proud of the experience we offer to our students and remain committed to enhancing student satisfaction, with a particular emphasis on building meaningful connections and engagement across our student community. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed to this success - and to our students for their thoughtful feedback”

Lynet Mwangi, currently studying on our LLM in International Economic Law, recently attended the Viennese Symposium on International Tax Law at WU, Institute of Austrian and International Tax Law in Vienna, Austria. An event that brought together researchers, tax professionals, government officials and thought leaders in international tax policy.