Introductory description

Issues related to water are among the main challenges of our time and only a global, interdisciplinary approach to them can ensure steps towards possible solutions.
During the course of the module you will consider the effects of scientific discoveries in the field of water on our planet's history, ecology and future. You will also consider the central role of water in our society and how exceptional and extraordinary it is - despite the fact that we all take it for granted.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The module will consist of ten two-hour sessions, for up to twenty students, from across the University’s departments. The module leader will attend all of each session, to integrate and stimulate the interdisciplinary learning.
The core design is that each week the module leader and a subject specialist will choose how they wish to deliver a combination of 1hr of discipline or application grounded material with 1hr in which the students (with the module leader) will develop their learning in an interdisciplinary style that will help them to explore and deepen their knowledge of that week’s theories and set texts/materials. Active learning methods (i.e. Team Based Learning; Open Space Learning) will be implemented in order to heighten student engagement and understanding of the week’s topic.

Weekly topics
Here reported the topics of the lectures held by the experts. The second part of the session will always be a workshop led by the module leader for facilitating the learning experience of the students.

Week 1: Introduction to the module
Issues related to water are among the main challenges of our time and only a truly global and interdisciplinary approach can ensure steps towards possible solutions. Therefore, the main aim of this module is to present the topic of water in all its complexity and to get you involved at every stage of the learning process so you can discover, research and experiment with the great potentialities of a holistic approach to the subject.

Week 2: Ecosystems and water
Prof. Rosemary Collier (School of Life Sciences)
Although much of the water cycle is controlled by physical processes, ecosystems, and in particular, wetland ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, marshes and coastal areas provide many ‘services’ that contribute to human well-being. Examples of such ecosystem services are the regulation of flooding, erosion protection, soil formation, the retention, recovery and removal of excess nutrients and pollutants, and provision of habitats for resident and transient species (e.g. migratory birds). This lecture will consider the diversity and importance of ecosystem services related to water and will discuss some of the pressures that industry, agriculture and other human activities puts on them.

Week 3: Water and culture (visiting speaker)
This session explores water in relation to human culture, different conception of nature and socio-economic contexts.

Week 4: Water and Philosophy (Dr Lorenzo Serini)
In this session, students will: consider and reflect on the important role water plays in the history of philosophy, from antiquity to the present, in Western and Eastern traditions; deal with different philosophical questions about water (including metaphysical, ontological, epistemological, historical, ethical, and political questions) and engage in philosophical thinking about and with water, in particular discussing the ethical-political question as to water should be thought as a human right.

Week 5: Water and the Law (Dr Rebecca Limb)
In this session students explore whether there is a legal right to water, beginning with a discussion of how English law regulates our relationship with and access to water before broadening the analysis to consider the international law regulating everyone's access to water. Using two cases studies (one fictional and one real) students will critically examine the law in practice.

Week 6: Water quality (guest speaker from Severn Trent)
Water quality is increasing affected through what happens in river catchments. Our guest speaker is a Senior Agricultural Adviser at Severn Trent Water who will look at the risks to water quality as well as the management of pollutants by a water company.

Week 7: Water and Citizen Science
This session will cover the 'citizen science' water testing local efforts as well as the emerging participatory process of River Hope which aims to catalyse love and stewardship for water bodies, catchments and their biodiversity through creative activities and events. This session showcases methods from arts activism and communication engagement.

Week 8: Water on Campus (guest speaker, Estates)
A representative from the University Estates Sustainability Team will reflect upon the water issues on campus. You will analyse data regarding water consumption at Warwick, its cost, regulations and associated carbon emissions.

Week 9: Case-studies (group presentations)
Students will continue to explore a global and/or local approaches to water-related issues across the world. During this week's session, they will examine a chosen case study with the tasks of identifying the different aspects of complex water-related problems and proposing a variety of solutions to the identified problems.

Week 10: We are Water (assessment preparation)
This workshop reflects upon the interdisciplinary features the module to prepare students for their Student-Devised Assessments, through group activities and peer-to-peer feedback.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand the effects of scientific discoveries in the field of water on our planet’s history, ecology and future.
• Explain the central role of water in our society, in the organisation of our cities and in the development of political scenarios.
• Understand the importance of a global, significant and different approach to issues pertaining to water based on dialogue across the boundary.
• Summarise their multidisciplinary learning into a global approach to water related issues and problems (= interdisciplinarity), developing their own research in a holistic way that crosses disciplinary boundaries (= transdisciplinarity).
• Understand how to apply this more systematic and global approach to problems in order improve their own learning and investigative practices both in and beyond academic disciplinary studies.

Indicative reading list

Alok Jha, The Water Book, 2015, Headline Book Publishing (selected chapters)
Alok Jha, Water: the weirdest liquid on the planet, The Guardian, May 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/may/11/water-weirdest-liquid-planet-scientists-h2o-ice-firefighters
Philip Ball, H2O A Biography of Water, 2000, W&N; New Ed edition (selected chapters).

Ecosystems And Human Well-being: Wetlands and Water www.unep.org/maweb/documents/document.358.aspx.pdf
What Has Nature Ever Done For Us?: How Money Really Does Grow On Trees. Tony Juniper. Profile Books
Woodland for Water: Woodland measures for meeting Water Framework Directive objectives. Forest Research Monograph 4.
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/FRMG004_Woodland4Water.pdf/$FILE/FRMG004_Woodland4Water.pdf

Jamie Linton, What Is Water?: The History of a Modern Abstraction (UBC Press, 2010).
Ruth A. Morgan and James L. Smith, ‘Premodern Streams of Thought in Twenty-First-Century Water Management’, Radical History Review 116 (Spring, 2013), pp. 105–129.
Erik Swyngedouw, ‘The Political Economy and Political Ecology of the Hydro-Social Cycle’, Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 142 (August, 2009) pp. 56-60.
Johann Templehoff et al, ‘Where has the water come from?’, Water History, 1 (2009), pp. 1-18.

Garde-Hansen, J, F Krause and N Whyte (2013) 'Flood Memories - media, narratives and remembrance of wet landscapes in England' Journal of Arts and Communities, 4: 1-2.
Csikzsentimihalyi (1975) Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies in the Flow in Consciousness (Cambridge University Press);

Jane Adams, Healing with Water: English spas and the water cure, 1840-1960 (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2015);
Hilary Marland and Jane Adams. ‘Hydropathy at home: the water cure and domestic healing in mid-nineteenth century Britain’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 83 (2009), 499-529;
Roy Porter, ’Introduction’ in Roy Porter (ed.) The Medical History of Waters and Spas, Medical History, Supp. No. 10 (London, Wellcome Institute for the History of medicine, 1990);
George Weisz, ‘Water cures and science: the French Academy of medicine and mineral waters in the nineteenth century’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 64(1990), 393-416.

A full week-by-week reading list is available here:
https://rl.talis.com/3/warwick/lists/D9478069-8014-2B75-8B78-C7F0DD7D824A.html?lang=en-GB

Research element

Students will summarise their multidisciplinary learning into a global approach to water related issues and problems (= interdisciplinarity), developing their own research in a holistic way that crosses disciplinary boundaries (= transdisciplinarity). They will do this through undertaking their own research utilising the methodologies and the holistic approach presented throughout the course. For example, students will understand how high quality research in the water field is developed through field studies and archival research and will learn to critically communicate their reading and research both orally and through scholarly essay writing.

Interdisciplinary

During the course of the module students will learn to recognise the importance of employing a truly interdisciplinary approach for the global understanding of the water phenomenon and for implementing possible solutions to the risks and the problems connected to it. They will also learn to appreciate the value of adopting inter-disciplinary approaches and trans-disciplinary research methods for understanding global topics such as the water and for attempting solutions to difficult issues.

International

The module features a range of international case-studies and direct examples of global water issues with reference to the UN SDGs. The module also considers the impact of global climate change upon local communities and indigenous people. Students are encourage to select international examples of water issues for their assessed work.

Subject specific skills

Appreciate the value of adopting inter-disciplinary approaches and trans-disciplinary research methods for understanding global topics such as the water and for attempting solutions to difficult issues.
Reflect on the possibility to implement this more global approach to their studies in their own master disciplines, potential research work and practises.
Become integrative system thinkers - independently identify and/or devise interdisciplinary connections between all disciplines.
Reflect on the value of the use of different methodologies (i.e. field studies and archival research) for tackling issues related to a diverse range of disciplines and for expanding the approach to their own research.
Comprehend how to utilise the communicative and collaborative skills used in the module in their professional life.

Transferable skills

Identification of transdisciplinary issues.
Manage their own learning and research time to meet deadlines.
Recognise the importance of collaboration and team effort through team-based learning activities.
Solve problems creatively
Theory-building