Philosophy and the Arts (Taught)

Philosophy and the Arts is an interdisciplinary degree, allowing you to combine philosophy with any or all of three arts disciplines. This MA is designed for students to take advantage of Warwick's strengths across Philosophy, English, History of Art, and Film and Television Studies.

This course allows you to combine the study of philosophy with any/all of three arts disciplines. Warwick has been a home for interdisciplinary work in philosophy and literature since the early days of the university.

This degree is designed to take advantage of our strengths across Philosophy, English and Comparative Literary Studies, History of Art, and Film and Television Studies. Warwick has excellent research strength in all of these areas, and it also has considerable scholarly interaction across these fields, especially through the programming of the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts.

This information is applicable for 2026 entry. Given the interval between the publication of courses and enrolment, some of the information may change. It is important to check our website before you apply.

Core modules

• Topics in Philosophy and the Arts

Optional modules
The programme gives students access to a wide range of modules across four departments.

If you write a dissertation, you will take three optional modules (one from Philosophy and two from the other contributing departments). If you follow the non-dissertation route, you will take five optional modules (up to three from Philosophy and at least two from the other departments). In previous years, optional modules have included:

• Appearance Matters
• Hegel's Aesthetics
• Revolutionary Aesthetics
• Nietzsche
• Philosophies of the Future
• 20th Century French Philosophy
• Husserl on Knowledge
• World Literature and the Anthropocene
• Critical Theory, Culture, Resistance
• Feminist Literary Theory
• Queer Theory and Praxis
• Ecopoetics
• Screen Cultures and Methods
• Film Criticism, Film Style
• Issues in Documentary
• Irony in Film
• Post-Colonial Cinemas
• Colour and its Meaning
• Visual Art and Poetry
• Reality after Film
• Latin American Modernism
• East meets West: the Visual Arts in Colonial and Post-Colonial India

You will submit assessed essays during the academic terms. You will also begin planning your dissertation and generally you will undertake your supervision sessions for this with your agreed supervisor during the summer term. As long as you pass your taught components, you will then focus on completion of your MA dissertation in the summer months (July and August).