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Subject details

At the completion of this subject students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to understand the ways in which the categories of nation and national identity are inscribed with a series of normative values that function to construct othered subjects that are disenfranchised and/or excluded from the official corpus of nation.
  2. Develop the ability to synthesise and articulate the relations between knowledge and power in the context of nation.
  3. Develop ethical skills that will enable students to address issues of cultural difference and social justice concerns within the context of the Australian nation and its relation to global events and issues.
  4. Deploy analytical skills that enable students critically to evaluate institutions of authority in order to disclose such things as institutional racism and other discriminatory practices.
  5. Deploy critical argumentation skills that will enable students to support and materially evidence their particular viewpoints on contentious national issues.
  6. Employ cultural literacy skills that will enable students to address issues concerned with cultural difference in an informed manner.
  7. Develop socially active and responsible skills that will enable students to analyse and solve problems collaboratively.

  • Topics

    • Introduction
    • Contested Histories and Aboriginal Sovereignties
    • Whiteness
    • The Racialisation of Punishment
    • Aboriginal Law Versus Colonial Law
    • The Racialisation of Crime and Cultural Panics
    • Workshop
    • The Camp and Histories of Internment
    • The Cultural Politics of Suburban Space and Ethnic Architecture; 'Fighting with Our Tongues'
    • At the Border
    • The politics of Fear and Terror

  • Study resources

    • Instructional Methods

      • Discussion forum/Discussion Board
      • Online assignment submission
      • Standard Media

    • Online Materials

      • Resources and Links

Entry Requirements

Equivalent Subjects

You cannot enrol in this unit if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

  • MAQ-CLT310

Others

You must complete Level 1 and 2 Cultural Studies before starting this subject.

Special requirements

No special requirements

This subject was previously known as CLT310 UnAustralian Studies.

In this subject we examine a range of embodied subjects that stand in a relation of crisis and/or dissent in the context of dominant Australian culture. We focus specifically on how such apparatuses of racialised punishment as the camp, prison, reserve and detention centre have been constitutive in founding and shaping the Australian nation. We examine: Aboriginal sovereignty and the colonial camp; the cultural politics of terrorism and state violence; the power of whiteness; the racialisation of criminality and the prison industry; histories of political internment; and Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. These topics are examined through the lens of social justice and are situated in the context of film, documentaries and contemporary news media. The subject brings into focus the manner in which targeted communities have mobilised activist networks and a range of media in order to work toward social change and a more just society.

  • Assignment 1 (15%)
  • Assignment 2 (20%)
  • Assignment 3 (25%)
  • Assignment 4 (40%)

Textbooks are subject to change within the academic year. Students are advised to purchase their books no earlier than one to two months before the start of a subject.

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Related degrees

undergraduate MAQ-ART-DEG-2018

Bachelor of Arts
7 available majors
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  • Major in Ancient History
  • Major in English
  • Major in Modern History
  • Major in Philosophy
  • Major in Politics
  • Major in Society and Culture
  • Major in Sociology