Liberal Arts Conversation
June 4, 2020
In our latest Liberal Arts Conversation, we speak to Daisy in Year 1 about her work. Daisy is studying History, Classics and Theology as part of her Liberal Arts degree. We discuss what it is like to study new areas and to make decisions about modules. We also speak about how subjects are linked together …
Liberal Arts Conversation
June 2, 2020
In the first of our interviews with current Liberal Arts students, we speak to Ella about choosing modules, discovering new areas of study and designing a programme that reflects your interests and your objectives. Ella talks about the studying within the programme and the assignments that have been part of the interdisciplinary work we do …
Dinosaurs and Extinction in the Age of the Anthropocene
June 1, 2020
In the latest episode of The Things That Made Us we look at dinosaurs. It might seem like an odd thing to say about a animals that last live on the planet 65 million years ago but dinosaurs are a very modern phenomenon. The discovery of fossils by humans crystallised into a distinct study in …
Invisible Cities and Inspiration
May 21, 2020
In the latest edition of The Things That Made Us, we’re talking about Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. This book was originally published in 1972, it describes a series of conversations between the explorer Marco Polo and the Emperor Kublai Khan. The book is a fascinating examination of what it means to be human as …
Music and Innovation
May 18, 2020
In the latest of the ‘Things that Made Us’ podcast, we talk about the connections between music and invention. This focuses on Mike Oldfield’s 1973 album, Tubular Bells. You might know the album from its use in the horror film, The Exorcist (1973). This has meant the music has been perceived as haunting but it can be …
Art and rethinking our world – the things that made us
May 5, 2020
In this podcast we discuss art and how we envision different worlds. We take the subject of Paul Nash’s, We are making a new world (1918). A work that was created to depict the battlefields of the First World War, but which also gives us a chance to see how creative works move us and …
Focused Thinking and Diffuse Thinking: How to Learn
May 4, 2020
In Liberal Arts, we are occasionally confronted with new subjects, new approaches and terminologies that we might not have worked with before. This is always the challenge for an interdisciplinary programme. However, this is the challenge that we like! We are interested in expanding ideas and learning new approaches. This can be made easier by …
Middlemarch and the Things That Made Us
April 24, 2020
The fourth episode of The Things That Made Us discusses the novel, Middlemarch. Published across 1871 and 1872 and written by George Elliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans), Middlemarch has the capacity to move and engage readers in an unusual way. I think it does this in a way that speaks to the …
Invention and Interdisciplinary Work
April 23, 2020
Research lies at the heart of what we do within Liberal Arts. It’s the process of discovering, testing, analysing and communicating. It’s what we do with our essays, coursework, exams and presentations. However, research is far important that because it acts as a means of seeing connections between subjects, issues and data. When we research, …
Star Wars and the Things That Made Us
April 20, 2020
In episode 3 of the Things That Made Us we discuss the 1977 film Star Wars. This might seem like an usual choice but bear with us! Star Wars is a cinematic classic, from the opening scene of a huge spaceship with the glow of a planet’s atmosphere below to the destruction of the Death …
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