Welcome to the Experiments in Social Sciences and Humanities module.

This is a short (approx. 20 minute) course which covers the basics of research ethics at the University of Warwick, including why research ethics is important, what needs ethical review at Warwick and what makes a good ethics application. The course is suitable for staff and students.

Please find us here Course: Researcher Development Online (RDO) | Moodle@Warwick

Dear Study Abroad student

This Moodle has been set up to support you during your exchange year. 

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Keep this Moodle and the study abroad website https://warwick.ac.uk/study/studyabroad/outbound/ as your resources and places where you can go back to if you have questions.

Beastly Sociology SO345

This module will investigate:

• the significance of animals to society and culture - both historically and contemporaneously - and how changing relations between society and nature, human and animal have been conceptualised sociologically;
• the philosophical and moral underpinnings of social and cultural attitudes and practices towards animals and their implications for animal welfare and animal rights;
• how human-animal relations relate to social change and the way non-human animals are incorporated into social relations;
• the ways in which society, social action, agency and notions of the self, have been understood and ask whether they can be mobilised to analyse the place(s) of animals in society and culture;
• the implications for sociology of post-humanist critiques of anthropocentric understandings of the world.

This module explores the place of animals in society and culture and how this varies cross-culturally and over time. It addresses the importance of animals to the organisation and development of society, exploring notions of 'co-evolution', 'domestication' and 'human exceptionalism' and the philosophical and moral underpinnings of human-animal relations. Animal studies, as a newly-emerging interdisciplinary area of study, draws on different theoretical traditions to make sense of its subject matter. Sociology has been particularly slow to take up the challenge of studying animals and the module will investigate why this should be so and whether studying animals poses a particular problem for sociology as a discipline. It will consider different aspects of human-animal relations and how taking animals into consideration might challenge our understandings of society.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module you should be able to:

• Explain how relations between humans and animals have changed over time

• Evaluate different ways of theorising human-animal relations

• Critically assess the material and cultural significance of animals in different types of society

• Research, using a range of methods, the key social, political and ethical issues influencing the position of animals in contemporary societies

This core module provides students with a sound foundation in the ‘basics’ required for good doctoral research. It also encourages students to engage with a broad range of issues that inform the research process. Key topics include the philosophy of social science, the role of theoretical ideas, the function of literature reviews, the relationship between theories, methodologies and methods of research, the specification of research questions, the importance of being able to communicate effectively, the diversity of forms of academic writing, the value of certain software packages, and the centrality of questions about the ethics and politics of research.

The format of seminars varies with the topic. Some sessions begin with a presentation by a member of academic staff before developing into open discussion; other sessions take the form of a workshop. Most importantly, all of you will make a presentation to the seminar about the challenges and opportunities of your particular research topics.

The aim of all sessions is to provide a supportive environment in which research students can learn from each other and can raise questions about all issues affecting the craft of research.

Advanced modules available within the doctoral programme enable students to specialise in areas of particular relevance or interest, thereby building upon the foundations provided in the Research Process and Research Design module.

There is also a requirement for all students to make a brief presentation on their thesis topic in the ‘Research Presentation’ sessions.  The emphasis in these sessions will be on ways of formulating ‘researchable’ problems, identifying clear research questions, and finding appropriate methods of collecting, storing and analysing information.  These presentations will form the basis for each student’s upgrade document (see ‘Assessment’), which is a key feature of monitoring student progress.

This is a Postgraduate Module running in the Spring Term (January - March 2021). 

Convener and Lecturer: Dr. Ana Chamberlen  E: A.Chamberlen@warwick.ac.uk 

Please see the ST341 Statistical Genetics Moodle page for information.

content from IE2C9 (13/14) https://moodle.warwick.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=5697 - INC0763394

Principal Module Aims

This module will introduce you to the practical craft of and the theoretical background to performance analysis and criticism. In the autumn term, the activity of the module is divided between seeing productions and writing reviews of them; workshopping these reviews in class; editing the reviews towards assessed submission; reading and discussing relevant academic and journalistic articles about criticism and particular critical principles/ methods/ approaches to analysing performance; and learning about alternative, digital, performative, and visual forms of criticism. In the spring term, the module will continue to provide you with a dynamic understanding of "performance" as a critical concept for the study of culture while at the time providing you with the opportunity to develop the basic strategies, methodologies and tools of analysis that you need to write scholarly essays from a performance and theatre studies perspective.

Principal Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this module, students should demonstrate an ability to:

•           analyse various kinds of performance and introduce terminology  suitable to the analysis of theatre and performance

•           better understand, appreciate, and discern the different elements of theatre production (writing, directing, acting, design, the role of the audience)

•           produce critical response to (live) performance via various forms of writing as well as visual and digital forms of communication, and have improved skills in written critical expression

•           distinguish between various forms of performance criticism and critical theory and examine how they are shaped by social, political, and historical contexts

•           analyse the role of theory and criticism in the processes of theatrical production and reception

•           have a more nuanced understanding of contentious concepts such as taste, quality, and beauty

This module explores the relationship between identity and performance through a variety of artistic forms. The module will examine a range of practices from biographical drama to live art to stand up comedy in order to interrogate questions of selfhood, otherness, and identity. The module synthesises critical discourse with practical experimentation in order to better understand how and why we represent ourselves and others. Moreover, we will question what it means to have a 'self' to represent. We will examine questions of truth, authenticty, alterity, ethics, and antitheatricality. The module will begin by exploring key examples from different modes of performance (both practically and theoretically) and then, in the Spring Term, move towards developing devising skills and creating small group and solo practice-based projects. Throughout the course of the module we will not only investigate how and why people have sough to represent 'true' lives but consider the role of performance within the our everyday identities. The module, thus, aims to offer an engaging and challenging introduction to the politics of identity and performance.  

This module aims to position theatre and performance within the wider scene of the creative and cultural industries. It explores socio-cultural and political contexts of arts production. It introduces students to principles, practices and considerations in running an arts venue; programming, commissioning and presenting work; supporting artist development; marketing work to audiences and undertaking further outreach and engagement activities; setting up and running a theatre/performance company; conceiving programmes of work; planning tours; and identifying opportunities for funding and other sorts of professional development and support. It will also consider issues of sustainability into the future.

The module will be delivered in association with Warwick Arts Centre, building on close engagement between the Department of Theatre & Performance Studies and WAC.

The module will enable students to understand the pressures, contexts and informing principles that apply to theatre production, management and marketing. It will enable consideration and planning concerning specific company-based and individual projects. It will entail close consideration of specific producing situations and environments, and develop skills in producing, managing and marketing theatre and performance (in conceptual and emergent practical settings). It will facilitate an engagement with theatre and performance as disciplines that have effect within the wider sphere of the creative arts and cultural production.

The module will consist of sessions that combine contextual study, theoretical and conceptual overview and problem-based learning exercises. It will combine workshop and lecture-seminar approaches, with assessment activities designed to develop learning cognate to the areas studied. 3 hours per week over 9 weeks (Monday afternoons, 2.30 – 5.30) plus individual tutorials. All sessions (with the exception of the off site visits in weeks 2 and 3) will take place in Warwick Arts Centre.

This module is aimed to support you to develop your critically creative voice and practice. Through a series of structured workshops, tasks, and artist-dialogues in the first term we will work together to explore why and how you can make the work you want to make. We will think about strategies for developing work, question what ‘practice-based research’ even is, and support one another to develop our creative voices. We will also look at a handful of previous examples and alumni work and together consider what works, what stumbles, and what we can learn from those who have gone before. The module is structured to move from more supported work to more independent work as the year progresses. From the second term you will collaborate with your supervisor more and conduct more work alone/in your project group. By the end of the module you will not only have created your own piece of critically creative work but you will have learned what it means to do research through practice and also have a set of tools to take forward into your future practice -whatever that may be. Good luck, everyone!

There will be weekly skills sessions throughout Term 1 and Term 2.  These sessions are designed to help you explore beyond the taught components of your course. These sessions will include core academic skill support, but will go further into key employability skills that we have identified as useful, either through our work with students, or discussion with employers about what they're looking for. 

We will leave some of the sessions in Term 2 for you to suggest topics or skills that you'd like to cover. There is a forum below, please make suggestions of the things that you'd really like to learn/explore.  We will do our best to facilitate as many of these as possible. 

These sessions are supplementary, and optional.  But, we have designed them to support your learning and to assist you with assessments and future employability. So we really do encourage you to attend.

We will be awarding a new certificate in Transdisciplinary Skills to those students who attend 10 of the taught sessions over the course of the academic year.  In order to be awarded the certificate, we'd like you to write a brief reflection on what you've taken from the session  here on Moodle. This doesn't need to be extensive, a sentence or two will do. This helps us to explore the way that our learning connects to our broader academic experience.