Units

In this unit, you will be introduced to major developments in children's literature from the Victorian "Golden Age" to contemporary dystopian fiction. You will examine canonical works by British, American, and Australian authors in a range…

The concept of genre is a useful way of looking at how media texts are organised, categorised and consumed, and can be applied to both film and television. This unit describes genre as a complex situation that is at once enabled and limited…

This unit analyses the many ways that stories can be told on screen. It aims is to explore how screen-based media utilise different narrative structures and models, as well as various aesthetic techniques to offer possibilities to creators…

The meaning of a film or television series comes not just from what is represented on screen but from the contexts in which this representation takes place. This unit examines some of the key industrial and technological contexts that frame…

Finding strategies to respond to interconnected environmental and climate crises is one of the defining challenges of our era. In this unit, you will be introduced to the critical role that public policy and management approaches play in se…

In this unit you will explore and examine the critical importance of literature in developing an understanding of Indigenous story-telling and Indigeneity across the world. You will gain an appreciation of the ways in which Indigenous liter…

The unit prepares you to shape crime and justice policies in government agencies and non-governmental organisations by introducing them to the making and implementation of crime and criminal justice policies. It utilises contemporary case s…

The unit introduces you to issues of Indigenous justice and injustice in Australia. This unit focuses on critically understanding the relationship between colonialism in Australia, Indigenous Law and systems of justice and contemporary conc…

In this unit you will learn about the most common methods for collecting and analysing data to illuminate the practice and impact of crime and justice. You will learn how to plan, apply critical thinking to and undertake fieldwork during th…

The struggle of colonised peoples to attain independence from foreign domination is one of the defining features of contemporary world history. In this unit, you will explore modern anti-colonial movements in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and ot…

What can we learn from the past about how to effect change? This unit explores protest movements from around the world in the second half of the twentieth century. You will become familiar with selected case studies in the contemporary hist…

In this unit you will explore how gender is theorised, embodied, and lived in social life. You will be introduced to a range of exciting contemporary feminist theories and contextualise these within histories of feminist and queer thought a…

Sex and the media will examine contemporary media and the implications these have for gender, identity, relationships, communities and social policy. Critical interdisciplinary approaches are used to address the following key questions: How…

In this unit you will learn how unusual psychological and somatopsychic experiences were understood in premodern Europe. You will trace the long history of concepts such as ‘possession’, ‘ecstasy’, ‘melancholy’, ‘hypochondria’, ‘hysteria’,…

The unit examines the course of German history from 1918 to 1945, focusing on the development, policies, course and implications of National Socialism as movement and regime. It explores the development, nature and decline of the Weimar Rep…

This unit examines the Holocaust and its place in the broader phenomenon of genocide and mass killing in history. Major topics covered include antisemitism, the Nazi state, ghettos and death camps, responses of victims, and the role of perp…

In this unit, you will explore the history of Japan and East Asia via an examination of Japan’s final samurai-dominated shogunate, the Tokugawa (1603-1868), and the expansionist Empire of Japan (1868-1947), and its post-WWII transformation.…

The unit examines the origins, development and challenges of global governance. You will be introduced to the core theoretical perspectives on global governance, and will critically examine its historical development over the 20th century,…

In this unit, you will explore socially and culturally diverse forms of human movement, mobility and migrant experience. This includes colonial settlers, permanent voluntary migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced peoples, and form…

Why are some parts of the world wealthy while others face persistent poverty, and who really benefits from development? In this unit, you will tackle some of the biggest questions shaping our world today by exploring how global inequality i…

How have cities contributed to the progress of globalisation over the past two millennia? This unit analyses a series of major world cities, examining their histories, contemporary situation, and emerging or possible future development scen…

The unit investigates bioethical issues related to global justice, global commerce (e.g. market-driven border crossings of biomedical professionals, patients, and human body parts and tissues), exploitation, commodification, human rights, a…

When, if ever, is warfare justified? What about humanitarian intervention? What about violent revolution and terrorism? Why should civilians be protected in conflict? This unit will introduce you to theoretical approaches to the ethics of c…

In this unit, you will explore the dynamics of continuity and change in the society, culture, and politics of Japan today. You will examine important aspects of contemporary Japan such as employment, education, domestic life, and consumer c…

Is there something that all languages of the world share? Is our capacity for language innate and somehow hard-wired in our brain or is it essentially based on social learning, interaction and imitation? And what role do such questions play…

The study of speech sounds is essential to industries such as: speech recognition and AI; forensic linguistics; speech pathology; education; and more. This unit begins by exploring how the wide variety of sounds of spoken languages around t…

The unit examines basic concepts of intercultural communication: face and politeness in language; the relation between cultural values and discourse; cultural variation in speech acts, turn taking rules and formulaic patterns; cultural diff…

Who gets to belong—and who remains a stranger? In a world shaped by global migration, people move across borders in search of opportunity, safety and new futures. Yet migrants’ experiences are far from equal. While some are welcomed, others…

In this unit, you will focus on intimate relationships and the complexities of contemporary love and changing families. You will examine theoretical perspectives on personal life and put diversities of contemporary relationships and familie…

Doing social science research requires us to think conceptually, to systematically plan how we might obtain valid information relevant to the research questions we are asking, and to analyse information. Because social science research draw…