Creative Writing and Philosophy & Ethics BA (with Foundation Year)

CREATIVE WRITING

Liverpool is a city of poets and storytellers so the perfect location to study creative writing. Merseyside has a distinctive literary culture and at Liverpool Hope you are taught by writers, poets and academics with strong connections to the local writing community and international recognition for their work.

Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope will give you the chance to experience the joys of crafting the written word. The degree focuses on developing you as a writer of poetry and prose (fiction and creative nonfiction), across the broad field of literature (poems, short stories, novels, reflective and critical essays). Professional writing - reviews, blogs and articles for different kinds of media, including how to operate in today’s marketplaces - is also studied. Our focus on creativity and employability means you will be able to produce engaging, innovative and marketable texts.

By studying Creative Writing, you will be empowered with an enhanced command of your craft, increased confidence in expressing your thoughts and emotions, an understanding of the values that inform your writing practice, and the technical skillset to deliver your work to various audiences. Your writing will be enhanced by studying under leading published writers and academics, and you will develop a range of workplace skills to prepare for fulfilling careers.

The degree will often challenge you and ask you to reach beyond your own experience and interests into those of contemporary and historical communities. Using these as creative stimuli, you will be required to reflect upon social contexts, power, and how truth and justice can be communicated or miscommunicated through creative writing. By the end of the degree, you should have a wide appreciation of forms, genres and applications. Included in the degree are field trips which provide material for writing exercises as well as widening your student experience.

Lecturers are all practising writers, poets and academics and will include you in their working lives as writers whether this is book launches, public readings and festivals or writing workshops in the community. You will have the opportunity to read your work at open mics on campus and in the city, present at city cultural events or publish in the two literary magazines run by Liverpool Hope students and postgraduates.

Hear from one of our Creative Writing students.

PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS

The Philosophy and Ethics course at Hope explores life’s biggest questions and the nature of morality: on what basis do we judge things as good or evil? It challenges you to examine your assumptions, opinions, and worldview. Key questions include: Do we need to believe in God for life to have meaning? What does it mean to be human? Do we have free will, or is life determined?

This philosophy and ethics course uses primary texts by philosophers like Plato, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche. You will learn to analyse and evaluate arguments. Also, you'll enhance your ability to express your ideas clearly. You will learn the basics of philosophy. As you advance, you'll study topics like religion, political philosophy, and applied ethics. You'll also explore modern issues like human personhood, artificial intelligence, ecology, and animal rights.

Studying in Liverpool provides a rich cultural context for exploring the human condition through art, performance, and social life. The course at Liverpool Hope is contemporary and timely, particularly in applied ethics and the study of religion in the modern world.

This philosophy and ethics course gives you the skills to tackle ethical and ideological challenges today. You'll prepare for many jobs that need critical thinking and the ability to handle complex, conflicting ideas.