This capstone unit will discuss key texts from Politics, History, English, Film Studies, and Music to critically examine the ways the United States has been idealised as exceptional - as democracy, utopia, and empire. Students will study works ranging from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to the film Birth of a Nation with the aim of developing a critical appreciation of both classic and contemporary debates about American society. The unit will conclude with a discussion of the ways American Studies as a field deals with these long standing debates in innovative and challenging ways.

From Herodotus to Robert Darnton; from Thucydides to John Mearsheimer; from Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar to Barack Obama's autobiography. In this unit of study you will compare ancient and modern ways of writing history. You will study relevant key texts, theories, and methods - both ancient and modern - and use them in your own historiographic practice. Brace yourself for an unusual, insightful, and challenging journey from ancient Egypt, via Greece and Rome, to modern France and Australia. Looking at history will never be the same again.

Southeast Asia is a region of great geographic and cultural diversity, a meeting point for civilisational influences from India and China including the religions of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. It is also the laboratory for much anthropological inquiry, attracting the attention of prominent anthropologists and social scientists, like Geertz and Anderson. This unit will examine Southeast Asia in historical and contemporary context, and give grounded ethnographic illustration to such issues as nationalism, cities, migration, political violence, environment and agriculture.

The unit examines how Indigenous Australians have long engaged with the 'modern world', despite dominant ideas that juxtapose Western modernity with Indigenous tradition/static past. The unit uses an anthropological lens to investigate changing Indigenous lifeworlds since colonisation with a focus on state policy and Indigenous rights politics.

This unit explores the social and cultural dimensions of gender and sexuality in non-western societies. The main focus is the body in two interrelated senses. Firstly, how the body is culturally constructed by giving aspects of gender and sexuality meanings that do not simply reflect biology. Secondly, how bodies are socially constructed, for example through ritual. The relations of the dimensions of the body to the articulation of power and social change are also considered.

Where does nature stop and culture begin? This is why anthropologists study kinship. In this unit we will survey the development of this field from its origins to its contemporary form as a critical investigation of how culture shapes the way we think about personhood, relationships, sex, gender and the body. We will compare various types of kinship systems and discuss controversies over kinship - same-sex marriage, single-parent households, cloning, in-vitro fertilization, and alternative forms of family - from a cross-cultural perspective.

This unit examines the history of Muslim veiling, the religious discourses which are regularly cited as dictating a dress code for Muslim women, and the historical, political, regional, and cultural variations in veiling practices. We also consider the multiple meanings that the veil has had for Muslim women, and pay attention to Muslim women's voices of resistance toward stereotypical images of the veil as they are disseminated by the media and by fundamentalist Islamist regimes.

This unit traces the history and development of Arab diasporic communities over the past two centuries in Australia, Europe, and the United States. We explore the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of these communities both at national and local levels and examine the multiple ways in which Arab immigrants are maintaining and reconfiguring their cultural, ethnic, and religious identities through cultural and artistic productions. This unit also offers an experiential learning aspect through structured encounters with various Arab communities in Sydney.

This Unit focuses on power, resistance, and political change in the Arab World and Middle East, from the First World War until today. It examines the trajectory of the State, transnational politics, the developments of civil society, mechanisms of power, transformations of gender politics, and resistance to authoritarianism.

What is contemporary art? Today we encounter art on our phones, in the street, at festivals, in the natural environment as well as in galleries. We explore art's expanded field from a global perspective. Themes include the art of de-colonisation, globalization, art and environment, feminism and queer art, traditional and new media, art as spectacle, art curating, aesthetic value, art and the everyday. We spend time at the Biennale of Sydney, explore university collections and city galleries, adding our voices to current art debate.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait art is the major Australian movement of the last 50 years. Surveying its development from Papunya Tula to the present, the unit focuses on critical issues like appropriation and copyright, art and native title, women artists, the market and curatorial practices.

While India and China emerge as present-day superpowers, their historical inter-relations are not well known. This unit provides an overview of cultural interactions between Indian and Chinese civilisations, especially as these have shaped Tibetan cultural identity. A key focus is upon how pre-modern cultural interactions with India and China provide ideological contexts within which Tibetan religious and cultural traditions and political institutions developed. This is undertaken in order to understand interactions between all three cultures on the current global stage.

This advanced unit explores key issues in the relationship between youth, language, and society in insular Southeast Asia. It equips students with the major theories and analytical tools for analysing youth language practices in a range of contexts and their relation to language use and cultural practices in wider society.

The buildings, technologies, gardens, symbols, weapons and arts of Asia reveal much about the region's history and culture. This unit examines these and other material objects with the aim of exploring sweeping traits that tie Asian societies together into cohesive cultural streams indicative of shared religions, languages, and practices.

On the brink of disaster in 1989, China has since become a political and economic power in the world. This unit of study examines the impact of globalisation on China with respect to the multilateral movements of ideas, capital and people. It will explore recent political, economic and social change in China, focusing on responses to China's expanded engagement with the outside world. Due attention will be paid to China's changing relations with its Asian neighbours and with Western countries.

This unit explores the media industry, processes, policies and practices in selected countries in East Asia, namely Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It takes a comparative approach to explore political, social, cultural and technological factors that affect the development of media in this dynamic region. The unit covers various aspects of old and new media in the region, such as the historical development of media, state-media and corporate-media relationships, the transformation of media industries, technological convergence and its implications.

This unit gives students the opportunity to undertake broad background reading in theory and methodology relevant to Asian Studies. The unit trains students to discuss published work exemplifying a range of approaches to humanistic and/or social scientific research. It thus provides models on which students can draw in creating their own research proposal.

This unit examines criminological approaches that explore intersections between criminal justice, law, media forms and cultural dynamics, including in the areas of moral panics, media trials, crime fear, cultural criminology, popular culture, serial killing, female criminality, surveillance, policing protest, organised crime, and terrorism.

This unit of study examines how economic interactions with the environment are conceptualised, and the nature of environmental problems, their emergence and how they are 'managed' within capitalism. Different conceptions of the economic-environment relation are explored largely through the lectures which introduce theories of environmental economics, ecological economics and radical critiques of human interactions with ecological systems. Tutorials examine concrete economic-environment problems along with the public policies and business management practices implemented in response.

This unit studies human rights in development. International debates about human rights and democratic legitimacy are linked to structural economic arguments and to cultural and structural debates over the process of socioeconomic change. This introduces the competing arguments over rights, the distinction between formal and effective rights and the social struggles that have created them. The approach of economic liberalism, emphasising property rights and the role of competition as an arbiter of equal opportunities in society, is discussed. The unit also includes international studies of indigenous rights and labour rights, the globalisation of capital and citizenship, and structural and cultural arguments over the nature of socio-economic change.

Capitalism is organised through the circulation and pursuit of money. The financial system is neither a parasite on nor a veil over the 'real economy', but its organiser and disciplinarian. It also breaks down from time to time, sometimes spectacularly. This unit explores money and finance from a political economy perspective. It covers the evolution of money from the gold standard to the present, the institutions, instrument and markets of modern finance, with a special focus on financial innovation and its challenges. It introduces mainstream and critical theories of finance, and applies them to understanding real world structures and events.

This unit fosters students' practice and knowledge of creative writing through interactive workshops, seminars and lectures led by established writers and academics. The emphasis is on writing as a creative mode of intellectual, historical and aesthetic engagement with the contemporary.

Australian theatre and cinema have lively, at times intersecting, histories, and have played significant roles at both national and international levels, from the depiction of various local 'types' on stage and screen, to the work of Australian actors, directors and cinematographers overseas. This unit examines selected plays and films over the last century or so through a number of thematic focuses, including: race, gender and national identity; comic traditions; Australia and the world; modernity and innovation.

Is one country's postmodernism the same as another's? Concentrating on works produced since the 1980s this unit looks at some of the early texts of Australian postmodernism, thinking about the range of local, domestic and international contexts with which they engage. It asks whether Australian postmodernism has any distinguishing features, trying to explain what these might be, and how they might have come about, and how it has developed in the contemporary era of digital and social media.

This unit examines literary and cultural expressions of modernism/modernity in sites that were or continue to be colonised. We will study how notions such as race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, and religion shape ideas of being modern, and how 20th and 21st century aesthetic works register the contradictory yet interconnected experiences of modernity.

This unit approaches literary theory and criticism as such in three ways, synoptically, historically, and polemically. First, a generous sampling of kinds of theory and criticism establishes the ambit of the field. Second, a more concentrated sampling explores the history and importance of a particular period or mode of theory and criticism. Third, another such sampling evaluates the nature and significance of a matter of current theoretical and critical controversy.

This unit will examine issues arising from a comparative study of literature and cinema, including: the continuities and discontinuities between the two mediums; the cultural and historical contexts of literary and cinematic texts; authorship, auteurism and aesthetic authority; adaptation and intertextuality; the figurative styles of literature and cinema; narrative and narration in literature and cinema; genre study.

The European Union is currently the world's largest economy and a major player on the international stage in humanitarian policies. It is also the world's most complex supranational political organisation consisting of 28 nation-states, each with its distinct culture, political life and social reality. This unit explores the European Union through the study of its integration processes, bodies of governance, and the main policies instituted over the last seven decades with the ultimate goal of a European federation.

This unit will introduce you to the nature of regional identities in Europe and the role of regional institutions within the EU and the individual nation-states. It examines regionalism and nationalism at levels below the nation-state and considers the relationships between central and regional powers in case studies.

The fate of the European Union hangs in the balance. But the crisis is about more than economics. Do Europeans feel ""European""? Or is Europe just a collection of states with a history of close interactions and devastating wars? Will Europe overcome its dilemmas? How are contemporary social theorists responding to the political, social and cultural questions raised by the crisis? We probe these issues in order to deepen our understanding of Europe in the context of contemporary social theory.

In this unit students will apply advanced methods from gender and cultural studies to examine experiences of belonging and formations of community. Students will analyse how power produces and regulates communities, identities and belonging. They will question the assumption that community is based on the unity and similarity of citizens and their location in specific cultures and places, and critically examine alternatives such as difference, diaspora, and other forms of sociality. Students will evaluate different theories of community in local, national and international contexts, and in relation to feminism, democracy, cosmopolitanism and hospitality.

This unit explores the idea of public policy as a major cultural force which shapes the way we live, how we are socially categorised, how we act, who and what we can become. Students also learn how they might influence public policy and of alternatives to policy for enacting social change.

This unit considers key themes in modern and contemporary political thought. It uses primary texts to address topics such as sovereignty, democracy, fascism, liberalism, human rights, politics and religion, violence, and political identity. Authors may include Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Kant, Nietzsche, Marx, J.S. Mill, Tocqueville, Rawls, Arendt, Schmitt, and Foucault.

In this unit you will independently frame, research and write an original Essay analyzing how historians have written about the past. In choosing your topic you may draw upon historical issues, approaches and debates encountered throughout your previous studies in history. The lectures and tutorials introduce you to new methodologies and approaches to the past, and guide you through the stages of identifying an issue or debate, researching and understanding its different aspects, and shaping your own argument in response.

This unit will look at different approaches to studying the relationship between literary texts and their social contexts. It will explore patterns of literary production and audience reception. Topics covered will include the politics and economics of literature production and the roles of author and reader. These topics will be explored within the framework of global, trans-cultural and comparative literary studies.

This unit provides an in-depth study of the Holocaust. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of Nazi ideology, in particular racial antisemitism, and the gradual implementation of this policy towards the Jews and other victim groups from 1933 to 1945. Other themes focus on the responses of the victims and the role of the by-standers, as well as post-war politics of memory and other issues, including Holocaust denial and war crimes prosecution.

Intercultural communication is common, especially in today's globalized societies. It is challenging for people who engage in it, as well as for theories of communication in different societies. We consider approaches including conversation analysis, speech act theory, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and discourse analysis. In analysing samples of cross-cultural communication we attend to how social relationships are reflected in linguistic practices. We explore applied perspectives on intercultural communication in educational, courtroom and workplace interactions.

This unit of study aims to give an overview of the languages of indigenous Australians. Of the 250 distinct Aboriginal languages spoken in 1788, most are dead or dying and just 20 languages are expected to survive another few generations. This unit of study will challenge this grim and oft-quoted statistic. We will see that new Aboriginal languages have emerged, apparently moribund languages have been gaining strength and distinctive Aboriginal ways of talking have survived. We consider why some languages have prospered while others have declined. We explore how Australian languages have responded to the challenges of non-Aboriginal settlement, in such arenas as education, land rights and health.

'You won't believe what happens next (and it's not what you think)'. This unit examines linguistic approaches to media discourse. The language of news texts and social media will form a special focus of the unit. We will explore general aspects of media institutions, the ways in which social identities are constructed in the media, differences between the language of various types of media texts, and relationships between words and images.

New technologies are developing at a rapid pace and have enabled significant breakthroughs in collecting, analysing and visualising the textual data that are at the heart of many subjects. This interdisciplinary unit will teach students how to use computer and digital tools for the collection or analysis of spoken/written discourse, for example social media, literature, fieldwork data, corporate communication, foreign language, interviews, news discourse and many more. The emphasis is on easy-to-use tools and no prior technical expertise is required.

This unit examines ethical questions concerning social justice. It surveys influential theories of which institutions and social relationships are necessary for a just society. The unit provides students with an overview of views of freedom and equality. Finally, it critically reviews attempts to reconcile these apparently conflicting goals, e.g. as they pertain to questions like: Is taxation theft? Is private education inegalitarian? Are there moral limits to markets? Should we be free to engage in speech that undermines others' statuses?

This unit presents a variety of philosophical issues associated with the study and management of the natural environment. We will look at questions such as: what does it mean to live in harmony with the environment? what is sustainability? why should we preserve biodiversity? what is the best way to achieve conservation goals? what are ecological models and how do they work? and what is the proper relationship between environmental science and the values found in environmental policy and management?

This course examines a major movement in 19th and 20th century European philosophy, and focuses on key questions and figures from the movement. Topics to be considered include: the possibility of morality after the death of God, meaning in human life, the self, freedom, finitude and historicity.

We will explore philosophical questions about the nature of science, such as: When does evidence count for or against a scientific theory? What does it take for a theory to be explanatory? Should we believe that our best scientific theories are true (or approximately true), or only that they are predictively successful? What does it take for a truth to count as a law of nature?

This unit addresses philosophical issues concerning how we should live our lives. It surveys theories of which goals are good and which actions are right. Students will gain an overview of philosophical approaches to questions like: must we act for the greater good, or is it ok to show a special concern for our friends? Can we be justified in harming some people to help others? Can small benefits to many people justify imposing a great loss on a few? Is there an objective fact about what is morally right, or is morality subjective or relative?

This is a unit in metaphysics: the discipline that tells us about the nature of the world. The unit carries on from the Reality component of first year. We engage with questions like: What is time? What is space? What makes something a person? How much change can I undergo and still be me? Are objects four-dimensional space-time worms? Do the past or future exist, and could we travel to them? Are there numbers?

The 'hidden world' of rehearsal is typically off-limits to outsiders but the exceptional creativity of performance-makers makes it a compelling focus for research. Approaching the study of rehearsal through ethnographic theory, you will read and apply key texts on participant-observation fieldwork to rehearsal observation and workshop exercises.

Setting out from a distinction between special events and everyday life, you will investigate fundamental kinds of performative events, including play, ritual, work and carnival, developing an understanding of culture as performance. You will learn and apply ethnographic approaches to a range of contemporary case studies.

This unit examines the relation between sexuality, desire, gender and the sacred as presented in a diverse range of religious traditions; mysticism; tantra; cults of virginity and abstinence; sacred androgyny; philosophy of religion approach to gender and ontology, epistemology and ethics; cultural difference as it pertains to issues of religion and sexuality

The keys to human creativity have long been encoded in religious endeavour. Here we examine the thoughts and methods that have enabled profound artistic and literary responses within, and in response to, religious worldviews. The impact of inspiration, prophecy, dreams, drug-taking, and ritual on great art, literature, and film will be demonstrated.

This unit frames debates about social policy, delivery of public goods, and human wellbeing in relation to processes of globalisation. Drawing on sociological and interdisciplinary perspectives, it focuses on social policy issues and responses, including governance, regulation and service delivery at local, national, regional and global levels.

Global human rights and the idea of 'one humanity' became politically possible with the end of the Cold War. This unit explores the production of the human rights system as the top down process of legalisation, institutionalisation and intervention and the bottom up process victim claim-making, collective mobilisation and transnational advocacy.

This unit explores political beliefs and behaviour in the United States. Using survey studies, we explore what Americans know and believe about politics, how their attitudes are formed, and how and why they vote. We look at voting patterns in recent elections and examine how these have been affected by attitudes towards race and party identification.

This unit will introduce students to contemporary theories and practices of rhetoric, examining the work of Kenneth Burke and Chaïm Perelman, among others. It will trace the development of contemporary rhetoric from the classical era, comparing these approaches through examples of social, political, and popular rhetoric across a range of genres. Students will develop a better understanding of the relationship between rhetoric and writing and how to apply rhetorical principles to the analysis, interpretation and production of a range of texts.

What do great poets, preachers and politicians have in common? Using case studies of enduring persuasive texts from the pulpit to the courtroom to the concert hall, this unit introduces students to rhetorical hermeneutics as a method of interpretation. The unit extends their ability to interrogate and think critically about various text types and their affective qualities. It cultivates intensive and effective research and reporting practices, through which students develop discipline-based inquiry questions to effectively discover, invent, produce, and deliver their own arguments.

Effective communication in the modern workplace involves more than the production or reproduction of formulaic documents. To be persuasive, communication must be tailored to address the needs of differing audiences while sustaining a coherent and credible corporate narrative. This unit teaches the concepts of rhetorical awareness and user-centered design to enable you to craft a range of audience-focused, persuasive speeches, documents and visual texts for an increasingly technologized workplace.