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Subject descriptions
Second and Third Year
Fourth Year Honours
Coordinator: Dr John Rundell.
Social Theory analyses the ways in which social life is organised and, sometimes, transformed. It questions the everyday assumptions which shape our lives and reflects in a systematic manner about such issues as the division of power, the nature of identity, forms of agency and rationality and our experiences as pre-modern, modern or postmodern subjects.
Social Theory critically assesses the adequacy of the descriptions, analyses and critiques which are already prevalent in the social science literature and responds, at the level of theory, to the inadequacies it uncovers. In this manner it serves as a field of critical inquiry which is interdisciplinary in character and which addresses the various social and human sciences.
The interdisciplinary setting of Social Theory provides a context where the theoretical and substantive issues raised in such disciplines as Sociology, History, Women's Studies, Political Science, Anthropology and Cultural Studies can be further explored and critically reflected upon. This makes Social Theory an appropriate choice for students with a critical interest in any of the social or human sciences.
Students may elect to take individual subjects from the full list of Social Theory offerings or they may elect to begin a major in Social Theory.
Entry into Social Theory is at second year. There are no prerequisites apart from the completion of 50 points of Arts Faculty subjects; from any department.
Students may elect to take any one subject from the full list of Social Theory offerings or they may elect to begin a major in Social Theory. A major in Social Theory consists of at least five subjects at second and third-year level, totalling 83.3 points.
| Course structure | ||
|---|---|---|
| A major in Social Theory must include: | ||
| 136-209 Critical Theories | 1 | |
| 136-257 Identities in Conflict: Social Theory and the Politics of Identity | 2 | |
| and at least one subject chosen from: | ||
| 136-251 Theoretical Foundations of Sociology | 2 | |
| 136-260 Psychoanalysis and Social Theory | n/a | |
| 136-206 Gender, Science and Technology | 1 | |
| 136-272 Ethnic Nationalism and the Modern World | n/a | |
| 166-242 An/Other China: Theorising Everyday Life | n/a | |
The remaining subjects may be chosen from these or from those listed below:
Students undertaking an honours program in Social Theory will do so as part of a combined honours degree with another discipline; for instance Social Theory and English or Social Theory and History or Social Theory and Political Science. The prerequisite for entry to Social Theory combined honours is the completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Social Theory at an overall average grade of H2A or better, and admission to honours in another area of study within the Faculty.
Students enrol in either:
Students enrolled in the honours programme will be required to do one common seminar 136-454 Theories of Modernity. Students doing their thesis component in Social Theory (i.e. not in another department) will be required to choose their other Social Theory seminar from among the following:
| Honours subject choices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Social Theory | Semester | |
| 136-454 Theories of Modernity | n/a | |
| 136-482 Imagined Societies: Ideology, Subjectivity and Politics | 2 | |
| Department of Political Science | ||
| 166-445 Postcolonial Concerns, Postmodern Theory | 2 | |
| Students doing their thesis in another department may choose from this additional range of subjects: | ||
| Department of English | ||
| 106-403 Writing the Subject: Psychoanalysis and Other Stories | 1 | |
| 106-417 Feminist Readings | 1 | |
| 106-423 Romanticism and Modernity | 2 | |
| Department of History | ||
| 131-431 Gender and History: Issues in Theory and Historiography | 1 | |
| 131-637 Contemporary Feminist Theory | 1 | |
| 131-465 The 'Subaltern Studies' Reading Group | 2 | |
| Department of History and Philosophy of Science | ||
| 136-451 Disease and Culture | 1 | |
| 136-418 Risk, Environment and Modernity | 1 | |
| Department of Philosophy | ||
| 161-433 Political Philosophy I | 1 | |
| Department of Political Science | ||
| 166-481 Configurations of Prosperity: Political Economy and Culture | 1 | |
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