Cultural studies explores everyday life, media and popular culture. It shows us how we can make sense of contemporary culture as producers, consumers, readers and viewers, in relation to our identities and communities. How do various cultural texts and practices convey different kinds of meaning and value? Drawing upon key approaches in the field, students will learn how to analyse cultural forms such as advertising, television, film and popular music.

How does gender organise lives, bodies, sexualities and desires? How does gender relate to sex and sexuality? Are there really only two genders? How and why is gender such an integral part of how we identify ourselves and others? This unit introduces students to foundational concepts in the study of gender and critically engages with questions of identity, sexuality, family, the body, cultural practices and gender norms in light of contemporary gender theories.

This unit traces the history of screen cultures from film to apps, focusing on how popular media is used to produce and represent masculinity and femininity. Students will consider cinema, television, videogames, the internet and mobile devices, asking how changing media forms and practices impact on our gendered identities and everyday lives.

Diversity has become one of the most important issues in contemporary society. Increasingly communities and workplaces encourage us to support diversity. This unit introduces students to a range of diversity issues informed by race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality and dis/ability and the importance of cultivating understanding and respect for difference. It will appeal to students interested in social, economic and cultural marginalisation.

The idea of the 'animal' infuses western knowledge about what constitutes the 'human'. From 'humanism' to 'posthumanism', this unit teases out various animal/human connections; classifying, seeing, domesticating, eating, making pets, writing, thinking about rights, rhetoric and representation. How do gender, race and class play out in the realm of the animal/human? What cultural formations support and also challenge the line between animal and human?

This unit introduces students to cultural theories about race and ethnicity and uses these theories to examine representations of racial minorities across a range of media such as film, literature and performance within multiple national contexts. In particular, it interrogates the relationship between these representations and those of gender and sexuality. In so doing, it provides a complex understanding of how 'race' and 'gender' as institutional forces and lived experiences help shape perceptions of ourselves and others.

This unit examines academic, public and popular ideas about youth and practices of youth culture. It will introduce students to some of the current parameters for studying the experience of youth and youth cultural forms and practices. We will pay particular attention to the ways young lives are gendered and the role gender plays in the institutions and other contexts in which young people live. Other points of focus include changing conceptions of youth, relationships between policy and youth, images of youth and youth culture, and discourses on (im)maturity, training, and identity.

Consumerism is a contradictory cultural formation. It is a source of meaning, pleasure and identity, but also a cause of environmental degradation, social injustice and, for some, individual alienation. This unit sets out some of the ethical, environmental and social problems associated with consumerism, and examines in detail some of the creative, ingenious and determined responses to these problems.

This unit explores the cultural history of and intersections between sexuality, race and rock music in the United States from Elvis to Beyonce. Influenced by black and working-class cultures, and with sexuality embedded in its form and practice, rock music challenged and transformed existing norms of family, sex and gender. Through subjects including bwomen of colour, glam rock, disco and hip hop, students will learn that rock music provided a realm for rebellion, freedom, community and profit and has transformed the United States..

Cultural Studies was widely discussed as one of the "New Humanities" in the 1990s, but a long history of debates about and theories of culture precede the discipline, and the processes of deciding what are the key texts and concepts of Cultural Studies is ongoing. This unit overviews foundational and emerging critical concepts and writers in the field. Students will also undertake reading and analysis exercises designed to help them come to grips with using "theory" in their own work.

Our knowledge of everyday life is often taken for granted and yet cultural studies has developed some fascinating approaches to critically and creatively exploring the ordinary and extraordinary details that make up everyday life. Through case studies of everyday practices, spaces and experiences (waste, fashion, dreaming, eating, shopping, 'selfies') the unit explores key thinkers of the everyday as well as a range of research and writing methods (observation, thick description, close reading) that have helped to illuminate everyday life.

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.

Violence is one of the most prevalent themes in popular culture and public discourse today. It shapes our lives in all sorts of ways, both real and imagined. This unit examines the different ways we construct knowledge of violence and how representations of violence may be both compelling and confronting. It focuses on the interconnections between categories of sex and violence within culture.

Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.

This core unit of study develops scholarly skills of research, writing and argumentation, via the close examination of diverse examples from research in Gender and Cultural Studies. It caters to students in the early stages of thesis conception and development, guiding them in the reflexive development their own research practices and writing skills.

What is the relation between femininity, masculinity and culture? Does sexual difference affect our identity and, if so, how and in what circumstances? What are the connections between cultural and racial difference and sexual difference? Drawing on the work of major cultural theorists and feminist thinkers this unit examines various theoretical conceptualizations and popular representations of gender; the issue of embodiment; and how sex and race are articulated within gendered conceptual frames.

This unit examines theories of consumption in regards to cultural and media products and practices, with a specific focus on gender. Drawing upon a wide range of feminist media and cultural theories, we will critically analyse different forms of belonging and identity that are created through these practices. We will also pay close attention to the critiques of globalisation and consumption, theories of the 'citizen consumer' and the realities of geo-political and economic inequalities that underpin many forms of consumption.

Research towards and preliminary writing of an Honours thesis of 18-20,000 words, in collaboration with the supervisor, approved by the Honours coordinator.

Completion and submission of an Honours thesis of 18-20,000 words, in collaboration with the supervisor, approved by the Honours coordinator.