Departmental news

The University of Warwick, in collaboration with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, invites applications for a fully funded 3.5-year PhD studentship to explore co-creation in civic theatre. The project investigates how co-creation, as an emergent method and process, seeks to build reciprocal partnerships between arts workers and local communities for the purpose of promoting social justice and challenging notions of who has knowledge, expertise, and the right to be seen and heard in cultural organisations.

The Belgrade has placed co-creation at the heart of its role as a civic theatre, with an ambitious aim to "make the local community part of every show at the Belgrade." Spotlighting four productions—Big Aunty (2023), I, Daniel Blake (2023), Romeo and Juliet (2025), and Nanny of the Maroons (2027)—the project will discover how this commitment to co-creation shapes the values that drive the theatre's culture. It will particularly address Nanny of the Maroons, a retelling of Jamaican revolutionary leader Queen Nanny's history involving over 1,000 community participants drawn from the West Midlands Black Creative Network, Coventry Caribbean Centre, and other local groups. Employing mixed methodologies such as participant observation, interviews, and surveys, the project will ask: What does co-creation mean for artists, participants, audiences, and locals? How can co-creation offer alternatives to models in which creative professionals exclude or exploit the local communities in which civic theatres are embedded? What challenges and learnings arise from co-creation, and how might the Belgrade's experience inform wider arts policy and practice?

The student will be supervised by Dr Matthew Franks (English and Comparative Literary Studies) and Professor Nadine Holdsworth (Theatre and Performance Studies), and benefit from integrated support within Warwick's arts and humanities research environment and the Belgrade's professional networks, including Creative Director Corey Campbell and other staff members. The student will be able to determine whether to receive their doctorate from the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies or the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.

Cutting-edge WMG scanning technology led by Professor Mark Williams featured in BBC Two documentary, The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice  

Advanced scanning technology developed by Professor Mark Williams and his team at WMG, University of Warwick, plays a pivotal role in the powerful new BBC Two documentary series The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice.  

The two-part series, produced by Longtail Films and airing on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, reopens one of the UK’s most harrowing cold cases: the search for the final victim of serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, 12-year-old Keith Bennett. The documentary features never-before-seen documents and audio recordings, alongside new forensic investigations that challenge long-held assumptions about the case.  

Professor Williams is a leading expert in advanced scanning and imaging technologies, who contributed state-of-the-art forensic analysis to the programme. His team’s high-resolution 3D scanning and material analysis provided critical insight into key pieces of evidence uncovered during the investigation. The technology helped to scan an area of interest on the moors to identify anomalies and features in the landscape for potential body deposition sites.   

Congratulations to Joe Creegen who received The Ogden Trust award for exceptional contribution to Physics outreach highlighting his dedication and ongoing support of the department's outreach work.

The Institution of Engineering and TechnologyLink opens in a new window (IET), one of the world’s leading professional societies for engineers and technicians, has awarded professional recognition to the BSc Digital and Technology Solutions Degree ApprenticeshipLink opens in a new window at WMG, University of Warwick.

Accreditation was awarded following a rigorous review process, which looked at the programme’s content and delivery including its relevance, coherence, challenge, assessment, staffing, quality assurance, facilities and resources. This recognition underscores WMG’s dedication to providing high quality engineering education.

The BSc Digital and Technology Solutions Degree Apprenticeship is aligned to the Digital and Technology Solutions Professional (Level 6) Undergraduate Degree Apprenticeship StandardLink opens in a new window. The programme offers four specialist pathways, designed to best meet specific industry needs.*

Professor Kerry Kirwan has been announced as WMG’s new Dean, effective 1 August 2025. He succeeds Professor Robin Clark, who was appointed Dean of WMG in October 2020. Professor Kirwan comes to the appointment with over 30 years' experience at WMG, University of Warwick. He has been a part of the department since he completed his second-year project as part of his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering.

Ultrasmall CeO₂ with exceptional surface area and atom economy can be just as useful (if not better!) in photocatalytic processes than larger nanoparticles.

Digital platforms are increasingly taking engagement metrics into account when compensating journalists and other content creators – but does this have a negative effect on pay, quality, tone or coverage?

A new studyLink opens in a new window by Dr Mateusz Stalinski (University of Warwick) and co-authors is among the first to provide answers, based on a field study with a Kenyan digital news platform.

The writers were split into three groups – one-third continued on the existing per-article contract; one-third moved to a pay-per-click (PPC) model; and one-third chose between the two options.

PAY

• Although their articles received double the views of the control group – good news for advertisers! - the journalists who moved to pay-per-click saw their overall earnings fall by 49 per cent

CONTENT

• The pay-per-click journalists focused more on national stories, and on political topics. These shifts are consistent with writers maximizing reach by selecting topics with broad appeal. However, the resulting decline in comprehensive and locally-relevant coverage may carry important civic costs.

TONE

• The pay-per-click writers used fewer positive words in their headlines and produced articles with higher toxicity scores and more negative tone.

Dr Stalinski said “While PPC writers earned more per article, their overall earnings fell, lowering the firm’s wage bill and increasing platform profits. However, these profits come at a cost: PPC writers shifted content production away from local news and towards attention-grabbing political stories.

“PPC writers also used less positive language in both headlines and article bodies. Our results show that engagement-based pay boosts reader traffic, but we also caution that this may come at the cost of compromised coverage diversity, local news provision, and journalist well-being.”

• Incentivizing Engagement: Experimental Evidence on Journalist Performance PayLink opens in a new window Ivan Balbuzanov, Jared Gars, Mateusz Stalinski & Emilia Tjernström Warwick Economics Research Papers No: 1570 July 2025

The Department of Economics is proud to celebrate the achievements of our graduates - Class of 2025. The awards and prizes recognise not only academic excellence but also outstanding contributions to the wider student experience and community.

Outstanding Student Contribution Awards (OSCA) 2025

Three students were honoured with the OSCA for their leadership, service, and innovation:

• Gunisha Aggarwal (BSc Economics) – For her transformative work in student inclusion, international outreach, and global education initiatives, including her leadership in Enactus Warwick and the HELP Chennai project.
• Libby Bach (BSc Economics) – For her dedication to global education through Warwick in Africa, community volunteering, and her selection for the FCDO Fast Stream.
• Aimee Cornish (BSc PPE) – For championing gender equality and community through her leadership of the Warwick Women in Economics Society and impactful events like the Elevate Conference.

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of the Department of Economics, commented:

“Gunisha, Libby, and Aimee exemplify the values we hold dear at Warwick - leadership, service, and a commitment to making a difference. Their contributions have enriched our community and will continue to inspire future generations.”

Academic Prize Winners 2024–25

• Best MSc Project (Behavioural and Economic Science – Economics Track) - Anoushka Kumar
• Examiners’ Prize for Outstanding Performance in Economics - Jacob McLoughlin, Ren Jie Lim, Maddy Pedder, Oli Greenfield
• Examiners’ Prize for Best Research in Applied Economics (RAE) - Fasai Charoensudjai, Martin Huo, Jacob McLoughlin
• Rohin Modasia Prize - Aigli Danopoulou, Cian Lester, Matthew Stubbs, William Tang
• Shiv Nath Prize (Economics, Politics, and International Studies) - Finlay Davis, Yiran Huang
• Outstanding Student Contribution Prize (Department of Economics) - Matthew Murray – For his leadership as President of Warwick Economics Society and his role in launching the Policy Talks event.

King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2024

We also congratulate Modhurima Islam, Student President of Warwick Volunteers 2024-25, for her contribution to the work of Warwick Volunteers who were awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024.

Professor Jeremy Smith added:

“We extend our warmest congratulations to all the winners. Your achievements reflect the dedication, creativity, and excellence that define our department. We look forward to seeing the impact you will continue to make in your future endeavours."

Photo from left to right: Professor Stuart Croft, Gunisha Aggarwal, Libby Bach and Aimee Cornish

Autonomy – the feeling of control over how, when and where work gets done - has become recognised as a key driver of employee satisfaction and productivity, especially in the post-COVID hybrid workplace.

But, far from rising throughout a person’s career, new evidence looking at nearly half a million workers in Australia, Germany, the UK and England shows that autonomy peaks in mid-career then steadily declines towards retirement.

In their new paper, “The growth and collapse of autonomy at workLink opens in a new window,” published this month in PNAS, the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Professor Andrew Oswald of Warwick Economics and Associate Professor Redzo Mujcic of Warwick Business School analyse longitudinal data from more than 400,000 workers in three rich countries to trace in detail their own feelings about their job autonomy, and cross reference this with objective measures such as job titles.

They find that from the age of around 40, in all of the countries studied, job autonomy collapses as people move from middle age towards retirement – which may represent 20 to 30 years of working life.

It is the first study to identify this “hump-shaped” pattern, which remains true for both subjective data – the worker’s own feelings – and more objective measures such as whether a person holds a formal managerial or supervisory position, according to their job title.

The researchers suggest that formal and informal demotions and “sidelining” must play a greater part in the modern labour market than is usually believed.

They also highlight that the curve is not explained by people moving to a new employer in a lower-autonomy role – the data shows that the phenomenon mostly occurs within the same employer.

Professor Oswald said: “We assumed that older workers would today be the ones who ruled the roost and had high autonomy. That is not remotely what we found.”

Dr Mujcic added: “We hope that economists, psychologists, HR specialists and other social and behavioural scientists will pick up this baton and seek to uncover what is driving this international phenomenon; and to reconcile this “hump” with the “bath-tub” wellbeing evidence seen in many other studies.”

• R. Mujcic, & A.J. Oswald, The growth and collapse of autonomy at work, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (27) e2504419122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504419122 (2025).

The UK and India signed the landmark Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on Thursday 24 July, to foster greater research and scientific collaboration between the two nations. Professor Robin Clark, Dean of WMG, and Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG, share their thoughts on the deal.