100-201 Australia Now: Environments, Cultures, Institutions

Credit Points

Coordinator

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This interdisciplinary subject has been designed for students who may be unfamiliar with Australia's social and physical landscapes. It presents analyses of contemporary Australia, critically using appropriate theoretical constructs, field work, and written and visual sources to focus particularly on: efforts to care for the land, transitions in the Australian economy and the social repercussions of these, Aboriginal identities in postcolonial Australia, and representations of Australian peoples and environments in a variety of texts. Students who complete this subject should be able to: understand the ways in which Australia's environments have influenced and been shaped by the experiences of its non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal societies; be aware of how Australian cultural practices, notions of identity and key economic and political institutions are being shaped in contemporary postcolonial contexts; analyse how Australian environments and peoples are represented in a range of visual, cinematic and written texts.

Assessment

A class paper presented orally (10%); written work not exceeding 5000 words in total (90%).

Prescribed Texts

A student guide containing material covered in lectures, and a reader including all essential readings, are available from the Australian Centre.