Keele University Prospectus Undergraduate | 2016 | Page 140

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Liberal Arts Overview Liberal Arts is an innovative and distinctive programme which builds on Keele’s sixty year history and founding vision of flexible, interdisciplinary education for good, global citizenship. It has a core curriculum of modules in social sciences and humanities, with some natural science related content. Research based learning and teaching differentiate this programme from the more familiar teaching focused model of liberal arts. Keele’s small size, together with its rich research culture and tradition of interdisciplinary teaching, ensure a special student experience. Much of the teaching and other programme activities are located in the architecturally impressive Keele Hall. The programme is informed and shaped by two core intellectual themes: sustainability and global citizenship; and creativity and innovation. It makes use of Keele’s 600 acre campus and the surrounding area of the West Midlands and Manchester as ‘living labs’, enabling hands on research into Britain’s industrial history and current/future oriented issues of economic regeneration, social innovation and environmental sustainability. Local field trips are built into the core modules. Learning a modern language is encouraged though not compulsory, and elective modules are available in a choice of languages. Studying liberal arts is intellectually exciting and challenging, and it will encourage you to think critically about the world around you. It will also equip you for a range of challenging careers. Course content First year Core modules: Meet the System: Understanding the World through the Liberal Arts Why the liberal arts? Why interdisciplinary? This is a survey module providing a grand tour of the liberal arts (social sciences and humanities) guided by the concept of the system and by systems thinking. It offers an introduction to systems theory and examines a range of systems including ecological, biological, social, political, economic, information, organisations, management and supply chains, and systemic change in the past, present and future. Ten Problems of Philosophy introduces you to ten of the most fundamental philosophical problems and the distinctive way that philosophers approach these problems. You will acquire a basic understanding of the problems themselves and the views taken on them by major philosophers. You will learn to critically assess the various philosophical positions and arguments, and will be encouraged to develop your own personal views. 140 The module incorporates metaphysical problems concerning free will and determinism, personal identity, time, universals, and consciousness, as well as epistemological problems concerning knowledge, scepticism, and induction, and problems of philosophical logic concerning existence. Media, Messages and Metrics explores reading literature, creative writing, cultural and technological literacy, uses of textual, semiotic and digital forms of communication, creative computing, networks, an introduction to quantitative methods and numeracy. You are encouraged, but not compelled, to take a language as one of your elective module choices. Other elective