121-228 Critical Human Geography

Completion of 100 points of first and/or second year subjects, including at least 50 points at first year level from approved subject in your home faculty.

This subject is concerned with the history and philosophy of geography, covering key theoretical debates in the emergence of the discipline. This subject is also an introduction to cultural geography, and other disciplinary traditions that foreground cultural processes as constituted by, and expressed through, space, place and landscape. General concepts include social construction of places and selves, the exercise of power in and through space, and the inter-relation of local and global processes. Specifically the subject will address topics as diverse as: geographies of empire; postmodernity and urban formations; postcolonial politics and places; the contested nature of globalisation; exclusionary practices and cultures of resistance; cartographic power and modern militarism; iconographies of landscape, and geographies of visual and material culture. These themes will be elaborated by way of specific examples drawn from Australia and overseas. Students who complete this subject will develop skills in qualitative and interpretive analytical methods and critical thinking, be familiar with relevant social theoretical concepts from human geography and elsewhere, and be adept at intergrating theoretical concepts with empirical case material.

A tutorial presentation equivalent to 1000 words, written work arising from field-based practicals equivalent to 2000 words, an essay of 3000 words and a 2-hour examination.