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 modernism, modernity and postmodernism through a range of 20th century concepts, practices and movements, including the avant-garde; feminism; the 'everyday'; mass culture; cinema and visual technologies; ethnography and the invention of 'culture'; and the emergence of postcolonial thought. The unit will provide an important foundation for some of the key intellectual ideas in cultural studies.

Pleasure is often thought to make everyday life worthwhile, but it is also commonly positioned as the antithesis of health. In this unit we explore how key strands of cultural studies have approached this paradox with reference to specific examples: drug use, sex, consumption, leisure activities are possibilities. By considering how authorities have attempted to govern these practices, and with what effects, students will develop new associations between conceptual innovation, cultural intervention and policy impacts.

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.

This unit examines cultural policy across a range of sectors such as museums and heritage, the arts, media, and the cultural industries. It will provide theoretical perspectives and practical insight into policy formation processes in Australia and internationally. The multiple actors and rationales that shape policy and ground claims for its relevance amid social change and cultural diversity are considered. Students learn how to analyse policies in relation to the institutional, social and political contexts of their emergence.

Cultural studies involves the study of texts and practices that constitute the ways that people live. In this unit, students explore and analyse the concepts and debates that recur in this field, such as representation, cultural relativism, subjectivity, agency, identity, difference, and everyday life. Students will focus on how arguments about culture can be developed in line with these and other concepts, through various forms of evidence and methods of analysis of culture.

Based on a close reading of individual authors, this unit introduces students without in-depth background in cultural theory to key thinkers for contemporary cultural studies. Students will learn how theoretical fields as Western Marxism, psychoanalysis, critical race theory, feminism, queer theory, science studies, and environmental thinking have shaped the development of cultural studies. They will also develop skills for relating cultural research to the cross-disciplinary traditions of structuralism and poststructuralism as these have been taken up in different intellectual contexts around the world.

In this unit students will examine recent transformations of everyday life in the context of new digital communication technologies, cultures and platforms. Through in-depth case studies of everyday practices, spaces and experiences in a digital age (visual culture, algorithms and automation, communities and activism, locative and mapping technologies, the sharing economy, digital health and food cultures, social media), students will engage with theories of everyday life and research contemporary, real-world examples and contexts.

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.

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.