What’s new in Arts? highlights the latest Faculty news concerning planned courses and developments with Humanities qualifications. Last updated 8 February 2013.
See our Arts Matters blog for the latest updates and more detail on Arts news and events.
Is the world getting less violent? It seems unlikely. But Steven Pinker has amassed empirical evidence to show that it is. In this interview with Nigel Warburton for the Social Science Bites podcast he explains some of the possible causes of this transformation. He also discusses some broader questions about the nature of the social sciences. From Social Science Bites.
The OU Department of Classical Studies has just launched the third issue of the online journal Practitioners' Voices in Classical Reception Studies. This issue focuses on the relationship between classical antiquity and contemporary art, and includes interviews with six practitioners working in different genres and media: Christie Brown, Richard Shirley Smith, Norman McBeath, Robert Crawford, Marian Maguire and Craig Hamilton. Read this issue online now.
A major collaboration between the OU, the BBC and the Discovery Channel in the USA, the biggest exploration of human history since the BBC’s landmark series Civilisation, is broadcast on BBC One from 23 September.
The programme has been years in the making, involving Arts Faculty academic consultants including Dr Chris Williams (History), Prof Phil Perkins (Prof of Archaeology), Dr Aaron Alzola-Romero (Classical Studies), Dr Annika Mombauer (History), and Dr Colin Chant (History).
The series begins with ‘Survival’, with subsequent episodes on ‘Age of Empire’, ‘The Word and the Sword’, ‘Into the Light’, ‘Age of Plunder’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Age of Industry’, ending with the ‘Age of Extremes’. A free booklet will be available, produced by the OU and BBC. You can get this from the OpenLearn website, which will also feature exclusive video content from the series.
The Wasafiri panel discussion on Asian Bloomsbury with Professor Susheila Nasta and Dr Florian Stadler from the Beyond the Frame project, hosted by Director of Fiction Uncovered Sophie Rochester, is now available on iTunes. This was recorded live at Fiction Uncovered FM for Fiction Uncovered 2012. You can download this free from iTunes.
Recordings of the talks are now available online.
Professor Timothy Chappell
'Can doing philosophy make us happy? Should it?'
Dr Christopher Belshaw
'Pleasure, happiness and the evil of death'
Dr Piers Benn
'Happiness, meaning, and commitment'
Dr Julian Baggini
'The Politics of Happiness: Is well-being the business the government?'
The Ancient Olympics unit, a free-to-use learning resource exploring the links between the ancient and modern Olympic Games, has won an OpenCourseWare Consortium award for excellence for its use of multimedia. This was announced at the OER12 conference in Cambridge. The unit was written by Dr Aarón Alzola Romero (Classical Studies) in collaboration with a group of international scholars. Follow this link for a short video overview of the unit. Find out more about the OCW Awards.
Divine Women, which airs from 11 April at 9pm on BBC TWO, and each Wednesday after for the next three weeks, looks at the hidden history of women in religion. Bettany Hughes tells the stories of the extraordinary women whose legends and lives cast new light on some of the hottest arguments about the role of women in religion today. The OpenLearn Divine Women site includes further information about the programmes, a dedicated discussion hub and details of how to order your free Divine Women booklet.
Professor Tim Chappell, Director of the OU Ethics Centre, writes about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport for Platform. Is there a place for them? Should athletes be putting their health at risk to achieve medals? And will competing become more about the size of your wallet than your physique? Read this article now.
Symphony, which won the award for ‘Best Partnership’ at the BBC Audio & Music Awards, has now also claimed the Voice of the Listener and Viewer ‘Best Multiplatform’ award.
The series, presented by Simon Russell Beale, was produced as a collaboration between BBC4 television, the Open University’s Music Department and Open Media Unit, BBC Orchestras, Radio 3, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra Learning division.
The lead academic in the partnership was Dr Robert Samuels, and the associated material on OpenLearn also features essays by Dr Ben Winters and Dr Fiona Richards, which accompany each episode. Find out more from Arts Matters.
Empire is a major five-part series presented by one of British television’s most distinguished broadcasters, Jeremy Paxman. Produced in consultation with members of the A326 Empire: 1492-1975 module team, it tells the story of the British Empire in a new way, tracing not only the rise and fall of the empire but also the complex effects of the empire on the modern world – political, technological and social – and on Britain. The OpenLearn site includes further information about the programmes, an interactive event planner and a free wallchart. Find out more about this TV series. Find out more about A326 Empire: 1492-1975.
Beyond the Frame is touring an expanded twelve panel facsimile exhibition to seven cities in India in 2011-12.
The second phase of the exhibition will launch at the British Council library in Mumbai on 13 February, with further stops in Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Managed by the British Council in collaboration with The Open University and the British Library, this exhibition tour was launched at the British Council in Delhi on 25 November 2011. The display was hosted simultaneously by the National Archives of India in Delhi, where it launched on 29 November. The exhibition then moved to British Council libraries in Kolkata and Ahmedabad.
For further details, see Beyond the Frame's website.
Brian Evans-Jones, associate lecturer on Creative Writing (A215) in the Arts Faculty, has been named Hampshire Poet for 2012. He will write about Hampshire County Council’s cultural projects and activities during the year. He will also be working with new and upcoming writers of all ages. Find out more from our Arts Matters blog.
Chris Belshaw, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy will be giving a talk on The Language of Harm on 5 June 2013 at 2 pm, Meeting Room 11, Wilson A, 2nd Floor. All welcome, we’ll look forward to seeing you there! Follow this link for the abstract.
Phil Bates, (Open University Law School) will be giving a talk on Killing Law and Murdering Philosophy on 1 May 2013 at 2 pm, Meeting Rooms 1, 2, 3 Wilson A, Ground Floor. All welcome. Follow this link for the abstract.
The next seminar in the series Resources in Anti-Colonial Thought (Part 2) features Deaglán Ó Donghaile, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. This seminar was previously scheduled for 28 February but had to be cancelled. See the Post-Colonial Literatures Research Group website for further details.
The next seminar in the series Translation, Creativity and Creative Writing features Rachel Gilmour and George Szirtes. Further information (and a downloadable flyer) can be found on the Contemporary Cultures of Writing website. All are welcome.
The next seminar in the series Translation, Creativity and Creative Writing features Professor Lorna Hardwick and the poet Fiona Sampson. Further information (and a downloadable flyer) can be found on the Contemporary Cultures of Writing website. All are welcome.
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