Latest news

What's new in Arts? highlights the latest Faculty news concerning planned courses and developments with Humanities qualifications. Last updated 4 December 2008.

PHILOSOPHY BITES IN iTUNES BEST OF 2008

Philosophy Bites, the podcast series of interviews made by OU philosopher Nigel Warbruton and OU PhD graduate and BBC World Service radio producer, David Edmonds, has been included in the recently released iTunes Best of 2008 audio podcasts listing. So far the series has had well over 2.5 million downloads. See iTunes for more information.

PRESITIGIOUS PRIZE FOR OPEN UNIVERSITY LECTURER

Dr Carol Richardson, Lecturer in Art History, has received one of the prestigious Philip Leverhulme prizes for 2008. The prizes are awarded to outstanding young scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study. Carol's work on Renaissance Rome addresses the relationship between history, culture and art, pioneering studies of artefacts created to mark, celebrate or defend monuments of triumph and crisis in Papal Rome.

PRIX DU LIVRE AWARDED TO TIM BENTON

Tim Benton, Professor of Art History at the Open University, has been jointly awarded the Prix National du Livre by the Academie d’Architecture in France for his book Le Corbusier conférencier. Tim shared the prize with Philippe Prost, author of Vauban le style de l’intelligence (Archibooks, Paris). The prix du livre is the most prestigious prize for books about architecture in the French language. An English edition of the book, The Rhetoric of Modernism; Le Corbusier as a lecturer (Birkhauser) will appear in May 2009.

GETTING READY FOR AA100 WEBSITE

If you are thinking of studying AA100 The Arts Past and Present this autumn you might like to visit our new Getting ready for AA100 website. This has some useful suggestions for things you can do before the course start and also features a short video introduction to the course.

ETHICS BITES
From Wednesday 13th February on Open2.net

Some of the most contentious moral issues of today’s society are the focus of Ethics Bites – a new series of podcasts from The Open University that features contributions from some of the most eminent commentators in the field drawn from across the world. The latest thinking on issues as diverse as climate change, euthanasia, censorship of the arts and corporate responsibility is drawn together for the series, available at www.Open2.net.

Each podcast features Nigel Warburton of the OU Philosophy Department engaging in a short dialogue with an expert on a chosen topic. In an interview with The Independent (4 March 2008) Nigel explained: "Podcasting is the perfect medium for philosophy — the whole history of philosophy is based on conversation. Ideas don't emerge in a vacuum: it is through dialogue and engagement with another's thoughts that we develop our own".

AN EXPANDED SELECTION OF ARTS COURSE MATERIALS IS NOW FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE

The OpenLearn website gives you access to Open University learning materials that are freely available for you to study in your own time, away from any formal teaching environment. Now you can access a variety of Arts course materials on topics such as starting to write poetry and fiction; using family photographs for historical research; the French revolution; Delacroix and Goya; Brighton Pavilion; classical Latin and Greek; the Holocaust; introductions to philosophy and concepts such as freedom and the nature of persons; the history of medicine ... The extracts range from introductory level through intermediate and advanced to masters and contain from 4 to 16 hours' of study material. You can choose to use the site as a 'guest' or create a profile to log in and communicate with other learners. Go to the OpenLearn website and explore the 'Arts and History' section of the LearningSpace.

ARTS FACULTY IN TOP 100 IN THE WORLD

The OU has been ranked as one of the top 100 institutions in the world for Arts and Humanities according to the tables in the Times Higher Education Supplement (Friday, October 27). Professor Richard Allen, Dean of Arts, said: "It's nice to be recognised in the top 100 for the interesting and creative work being done in research and teaching. For our students, who already know they're a part of a special university, this can only reinforce their belief." The OU is one of only 20 UK institutions to make it into the top 100.

SHORT COURSE GIFT VOUCHERS

A range of five Arts short courses are now available to buy as Gift Vouchers. OU short courses are designed to be engaging, interesting and accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they have studied recently or not.  The courses available are Start writing family history; Start writing fiction; Start writing poetry; Shakespeare: an Introduction and Perspectives on Leonardo Da Vinci. Gift Voucher packs can be purchased on our website at www.open.ac.uk/vouchers

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