University of Sydney Handbooks - 2017 Archive

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American Studies

Errata
Item Errata Date
1. AMST2606: Stand Up USA: American Comedy and Humour will be available in 2017 6/1/2017

American Studies

AMST1001 Global America

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Assessment: 2x1000wd essays (2x30%), tutorial participation (10%) and 1x1.5 hr exam (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: Students intending to do a major in American Studies must complete AMST1001 and either HSTY1023 or HSTY1076
Why does America have so much influence globally? What is the nature of this influence? And what are the consequences of this influence? What are the nature and consequences of the influence of the rest of the world on America? Why given America¿s global influence, and globalisation in general, does America remain such an insular society? This unit takes an interdisciplinary approach to these questions with a focus primarily on the United States in the 21st century.
AMST2601 American Foundations

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: AMST1001 and (HSTY1076 or HSTY1023) Assessment: 3x1500wd essays (3x30%) and tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit introduces students to the contradictory richness of 'Americanness' from an interdisciplinary standpoint and prepares them for the Major in American Studies. It is divided into different modules, each addressing a core national myth. We will approach each module from a variety of angles: historiographical, literary and visual, opening lines of interrelation between historical and imaginary forms in the construction and ongoing redefinition of the United States.
AMST2606 Stand Up USA: American Comedy and Humour

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: AMST1001 and (HSTY1076 or HSTY1023) Assessment: 1x500wd Essay Proposal (20%), 1x2500wd Research Essay (40%), 1x1500wd Take-home Exercise (30%), Tutorial Participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle, this unit charts comedy's discussions of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and of party and identity politics in the form of parody and satire. Influenced by ethnic, minority, and working-class cultures, comedy challenged and transformed existing norms of American family and institutions, and American identity, sex, and gender. Through forms such as literature, television, stand-up, cinema, and new media, students will learn that comedy provided a space for resistance, profit, and community.
AMST3601 American Perspectives

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week and 1x2hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Senior Credit Points of AMST including AMST2601 Assessment: 2x 200wd Online reading response (20%) and Essay 900wd proposal with annotated bibliography (20%) 3000wd Research Essay (50%) and Tutorial Participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This capstone unit will discuss key texts from Politics, History, English, Film Studies, and Music to critically examine the ways the United States has been idealised as exceptional - as democracy, utopia, and empire. Students will study works ranging from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to the film Birth of a Nation with the aim of developing a critical appreciation of both classic and contemporary debates about American society. The unit will conclude with a discussion of the ways American Studies as a field deals with these long standing debates in innovative and challenging ways.
AMST4011 American Studies Honours A

Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x2-hr seminars Prerequisites: A credit average or better in 48 senior credit points of American Studies, including AMST2601 Assessment: A thesis of 18,000-20,000 words and 6000-8000 words of written work or its equivalent for each semester. Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The Honours program in American Studies consists of: 1. A thesis written under the supervision of one member of the academic staff of the American Studies program 2. Two seminars that meet weekly for two hours for one semester, one offered by the American Studies program, one chosen, in consultation with the coordinator of American Studies, from the Honours seminars offered by the departments of English, History and Film Studies. The thesis should be 18,000-20,000 words in length. Each seminar requires 6000-8000 words of work. The thesis is worth 60% of the final Honours seminar and each of the seminars is worth 20%.
AMST4012 American Studies Honours B

Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1 Prerequisites: A credit average or better in 48 senior credit points of American Studies, including AMST2601 Corequisites: AMST4011 Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Refer to AMST4011
AMST4013 American Studies Honours C

Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 2 Prerequisites: A credit average or better in 48 senior credit points of American Studies, including AMST2601 Corequisites: AMST4012 Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Refer to AMST4011
AMST4014 American Studies Honours D

Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: A credit average or better in 48 senior credit points of American Studies, including AMST2601 Corequisites: AMST4013 Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Refer to AMST4011
ARHT2614 Pollock to Psychedelia

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (ARHT1001 and ARHT1002) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Assessment: 1x1500wd Artworks review (40%), 1x3000wd Essay (60%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit studies the interplay between high art and popular culture in America from the 1950s onwards. Pop Art, Minimalism and Performance formed alongside emerging youth cultures of political protest, drugs and rock music. We examine the interactions of high art, youth culture and mass media.
ARHT2657 Contemporary Hollywood

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (ARHT1001 and ARHT1002) or (18 Junior credit points including ENGL1011) or ((AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Prohibitions: ARHT2057 Assessment: 1x3000wd Research essay (60%) 1x1500wd review Essay (30%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit of study will investigate the last two decades of the cinema of the USA, including Hollywood. Students will be introduced to the work of a number of established and emerging American filmmakers, to the work of a number of important film critics, and to issues concerning the theory and practice of film criticism. Critical and analytical focus will centre on the changing relation of subjectivity and time in independent cinema. Films that explore questions of subjectivity and that experiment with narrative structure will be featured.
ENGL2603 Imagining America

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points from English) or (6 Junior credit points from English and AMST1001) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1076 or HSTY1023)) Prohibitions: ENGL2003 Assessment: 1x500wd Oral Presentation (10%), 1x2000wd Essay (50%), 1x1500wd Take-home exercise (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This course takes as its point of departure the notion of America as fashioned by diverse and even conflicting acts of imagination. Beginning with writers in the mid-19th century and working our way to more recent imaginings of filmmakers and songwriters, we will examine the various ways in which visions of America have been put in play in the national consciousness in prose, poetry, song and film, to construct and to challenge the 'imagined community' of the United States.
ENGL2617 Postmodernism

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points from English) or (6 Junior credit points from English and AMST1001) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1076 or HSTY1023)) or (18 Junior credit points including ENGL1011) Prohibitions: ENGL2017 Assessment: 1x1500wd Essay (40%), 1x2000wd Take-home exercise (40%), 1x500wd equivalent Tutorial presentation (10%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit will explore some of the most interesting and innovative theoretical, literary and multimedia texts of the last half century. Some of the topics to be explored include the relationship between modernism and postmodernism; movements, communities and subcultures; experimentalism and activism; small press publishing and independent cinema; politics, history and cultural value; genre, style and intertextuality; auteurism and the 'death of the author'.
ENGL2627 Screening Sexuality

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Assoc Prof Kate Lilley Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr seminar/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points from English) or (6 Junior credit points from English and AMST1001) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1076 or HSTY1023)) or (18 Junior credit points including ENGL1011) or (12 Junior credit points from GCST, SCLG, ANTH, ENGL1008, ENGL1026, PHIL1011 or PHIL1013) Prohibitions: ENGL2027 Assessment: 1x1500wd word essay (40%), 1x2000wd take-home exercise (40%), 1x500wd tutorial presentation (10%), tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores the relationship between cinema and sexuality in classic films through detailed, historicised readings. Questions to be investigated include the erotics of cinematic genre and form; the sexual politics of representation and spectatorship; stardom, scandal and cult appreciation; cinema and sexuality as technologies of modernity; cinema, sexuality and pedagogy.
ENGL2660 Reading the Nation: American Literature

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: ((12 junior credit points from English) or (6 junior credit points from English and AMST1001)) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Assessment: 1x2000wd essay (45%), 1x500wd class exercise (15%), 1x1500wd take-home exercise (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit, we study a variety of American literary and visual texts to consider what it means to read "nationally". We first examine the rise of literary nationalism to look then at the ways in which exigencies of empire, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexuality, for example, have exerted pressure on the fantasy of a cohesive national culture. We will also consider the transnational turn of recent decades to understand the nation's function in a global context.
ENGL2664 Transpacific American Literature

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: ((12 junior credit points from English) or (6 junior credit points from English and AMST1001)) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076) and (ENGL2617 or ENGL2660)) Assessment: 1x2hr exam (30%), 1x500wd presentation (10%), 1x1500wd essay (25%), 1x2000wd research essay (35%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit of study will consider ways in which American Literature has engaged with the opening up of Pacific space. Questions to be considered will be the nature of westward expansion, the opening up of California and it's engagement with Mexico, the relation of native peoples to U.S. Nationhood both on the mainland and Pacific Islands, and the legacy of World War Two. A representative range of poets and prose writers will be studied.
ENGL3609 Mapping American Literature

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: (18 Senior credit points from English or Australian Literature) or (12 Senior credit points of American Studies including AMST2601) Assessment: 1x1000wd annotated bibliography (30%), 1x2500wd Essay (50%), 1x500wd equivalent Seminar presentation (10%), Seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit, we will map the places and spaces-urban, suburban, regional-of American literature as these are represented in a variety of film and literary texts from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. Our study will also include consideration of specific locales-Chicago and Hollywood, for example-that have given rise to important literary movements and cultural forms, as well as consideration of the ideological work that certain regions, such as the South, perform in relation to the nation.
ENGL3616 Reading Contemporary America

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: (18 Senior credit points from English or Australian Literature) or (ARHT2656 and 6 credit points from (ARHT2652 or ARHT2653 or ARHT2655 or ARHT2657 or ASNS3616 or ENGL2627 or ENGL2638 or ENGL3604 or FILM2601 or HSTY2608 or ICLS2637 or MUSC2663)) Prohibitions: ENGL2035 or ENGL2635 Assessment: 4x500wd reading response exercise (30%), 1x4000wd research essay (60%), seminar particiaption (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit we will investigate the most interesting and engaging cultural work done in the US over the last decade, focusing on intellectual and aesthetic cultural engagement with cultural and political diversity. In particular we will be considering: how 'quality' televisions reconfigures the aesthetic ecology, how protests movements (Black Lives Matter, Occupy) affect the aesthetic representation of citizenship, how LGBTIQ concerns are reflected in new and familiar aesthetic domains, and what reading does to your brain.
GCST2605 Race and Representation

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points from (Gender and Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, ENGL1008, ENGL1026, PHIL1011 or PHIL1013) Assessment: Tutorial participation (10%), 1x500wd group presentation (15%), 1x400wd journal (15%), 1x1000wd midterm Essay (25%), 1x2200wd final Research essay (35%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit introduces students to cultural theories about race and ethnicity and uses these theories to examine representations of racial minorities across a range of media such as film, literature and performance within multiple national contexts. By interrogating the relationship between these representations and those of other identity categories including gender, sexuality and class, it provides a complex understanding of how 'race' as an institutional force and lived experience helps shape perceptions of ourselves and others.
GCST2607 Bodies, Sexualities, Identities

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Winter Main Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points from (Gender and Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, ENGL1008, ENGL1026, PHIL1011 or PHIL1013) Prohibitions: WMST2007 Assessment: Tutorial participation and exercises (10%), 1x1500wd Essay (40%), 1x2500wd Essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit of study we will examine the ways in which feminist and other cultural theories have used bodies and sexualities in order to theorise difference and identity. The body and sexuality have been shown to be a major site for the operation of power in our society. We will look at how bodies and sexualities have given rise to critical understandings of identity. The unit of study will be devoted to working through some of the major theories of sexuality and embodiment, and the analysis of cultural practices.
GCST2612 Youth and Youth Culture

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Winter Main Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points from (Gender and Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, ENGL1008, ENGL1026, PHIL1011 or PHIL1013) Prohibitions: WMST2012 Assessment: 1xTutorial presentation equivalent to 500wds (10%), 1x1500 Short Essay (30%), 1x2000 Take-home Exercise (50%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit examines academic, public and popular ideas about youth and practices of youth culture. It will introduce students to some of the current parameters for studying youth cultural forms and practices and the significance of various conceptions of youth. Points of focus will include popular images of youth and youth culture, discourses on (im)maturity, development, and training, and critical perspectives on youth as an identity and an experience.
GCST2630 Consumer Cultures

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2,Summer Early Classes: 1x1.5hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points from (Gender and Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, ENGL1008, ENGL1026, PHIL1011 or PHIL1013) Prohibitions: GCST3603 Assessment: 2x500wd journal exercise (25%), 1x1500wd critical analysis (30%), 1x500wd final project outline (10%), 1x2000wd final project (35%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Consumerism is a contradictory cultural formation. It is a source of meaning, pleasure and identity, but also a cause of environmental degradation, social injustice and, for some, individual alienation. This unit sets out some of the ethical, environmental and social problems associated with consumerism, and examines in detail some of the creative, ingenious and determined responses to these problems.
GOVT2445 American Politics and Foreign Policy

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points in Government and International Relations) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Prohibitions: GOVT2405 Assessment: 1x2000wd Essay (40%), 10x30wd tutorial quizzes (10%), 1x2hr exam (40%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit will be an overview of the American political system and the formulation of foreign policy. It will cover the major Federal political institutions: the Presidency, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. The unit will consider how foreign policy is made through the interaction of these institutions and with other elements of civil society. Finally, it will examine the outcome of this process - US foreign policy itself - with special emphasis on the post-Cold War period. We will seek to answer two key questions: (a) what is the influence of domestic politics on US foreign policy; and (b) how does the US system cope with the apparent contradictions between its ideals and the imperatives of global power?
HSTY1023 Emerging Giant: The Making of America

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prohibitions: HSTY2634 Assessment: 1x500wd document assignment (15%) and 1x2000wd research paper (40%) and 1x2000wd exam (35%) and tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Touching down on the shores of the 'New World', the first European colonists imagined the creation of an earthly paradise. But their mission soon floundered in the face of internal dissenters and alien cultures pursuing their own ideals. Fierce clashes between regions, races, social groups and other nations have marked American history ever since. Exploring the origins and outcomes of these contests from first settlement onward, this unit charts America's emergence onto the world scene in the nineteenth century.
HSTY1076 American History from Lincoln to Obama

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prohibitions: HSTY2035 Assessment: 1x500wd tutorial paper (15%), 1x250wd Essay outline (5%), 1x1500wd Essay (35%), 1x250wd group Tutorial presentation (5%), 1x2hr exam (30%) and Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit examines the United States in the years in which Americans felt their society, culture, politics, and individual and national identities, were taking new, 'modern' forms. It offers insights into a nation that is one of the principal forces shaping the world in which we live. We will explore topics such as the rise and fall of racial segregation, immigration, social reform movements, mass consumer culture, sexual revolution, and the changing stance of the United States in the world.
HSTY2656 A House Divided: The American Civil War

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Frances Clarke Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points of History, Ancient History or Asian Studies Prohibitions: HSTY2056 Assessment: 1x500wd essay proposal (10%) and 1x2000wd research essay (40%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (35%) and tutorial participation (15%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The Civil War had momentous consequences for America - realigning the nation's political culture, ending slavery and forever transforming millions of lives. This unit analyses the social, cultural and political history of the Civil War and Reconstruction. We begin by looking at combat experience, civilian mobilization and state formation, the war's effects on gender and race relations and the causes for Reconstruction's failure, and we end by focusing on how and why this war continues to resonate in American culture.
HSTY2662 Atlantic World in the Age of Empire

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points of History or 12 Junior credit points of Ancient History) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Prohibitions: HSTY2062 Assessment: 1x250wd Essay bibliography (5%), 1x250wd Essay outline (5%), 1x2000wd Essay (40%), 1x2hr exam (40%) and Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Between 1450 and 1825, the nations of Europe began building a series of overseas colonies and empires that fundamentally shaped the world in which we now live. This unit will survey the creation and development of the new Atlantic World that resulted. Starting with the voyages of Columbus, and focusing on the experiences of natives, settlers and slaves, we'll explore early encounters, immigration, the slave trade and finally independence movements and revolutions that created the new nations of the Americas.
HSTY2667 Politics and Cultures of US Imperialism

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Summer Main Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points of History or Ancient History Prohibitions: HSTY2067 Assessment: 1x250wd bibliography (5%), 1x250wd Essay outline (5%), 1x2000wd Essay (40%), 1x500wd tutorial paper (10%), 1x1.5hr exam (30%) and Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, public debate about American power has been dominated by the question: is the United States an empire? Taking this debate as a starting point, students examine: the expansion of American power across the continent and then overseas; political, economic and cultural forms of domination and the subsequent transformation of societies overseas and the US itself; and the value and limits of applying the concept of imperialism to US power.
HSTY2670 Black Manhattan

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 junior credit points of History or 12 junior credit points of Ancient History) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Assessment: 1x500wd essay outline (10%), 1x500wd essay biblography (10%), 1x2500wd essay (50%), 1x1000wd take-home exercise (20%), tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In the twentieth century Harlem was the black metropolis, the black capital of the world. This unit will explore the history of African Americans in New York City, from its beginnings as a Dutch settlement down to today. We will look at the people, images and events that defined Black Manhattan, paying particular attention to everyday life in Harlem in the twentieth century.
HSTY2671 Law and Order in Modern America

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points of History or Ancient History) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Assessment: 1x1000wd tutorial paper (20%), 1x250wd Essay bibliography (5%), 1x250wd Essay outline (5%), 1x2000wd Essay (40%), 1x1hr exam (20%) and Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores crime in the United States from Civil War to the present. It begins by examining historical approaches to crime, using murder as a case study. We look at the development of the criminal justice system, focusing on the police, the FBI, and extra-legal justice and lynching, and explore specific crimes: morals offenses; sex crimes; white-collar crime; and organized crime. Our focus is on the changing incidence, definitions and representation of crime in modern American culture and society.
HSTY2687 Alliance Anxiety: Australia-USA-Asia

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 junior credit points of History or 12 junior credit points of Ancient History) or (AMST1001 and (HSTY1023 or HSTY1076)) Assessment: 1x1000wd historiographical debate (20%), 1x250wd essay bibliography (5%), 1x250wd essay outline (5%), 1x2000wd essay (40%), 1x1hr exam (20%) and tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit examines the history of Australian-American relations in the Asia-Pacific from the early twentieth century to today. Topics covered include the respective US and Australian approaches to the region and the world, the creation of ANZUS, the West New Guinea crisis, Vietnam, and the recognition of China. Among other questions, the unit asks whether the alliance relationship has been one of simple subservience, or whether politicians and policymakers have tried to use the alliance to further Australia's own national interests.
HSTY2694 New Orleans: From Mardi Gras to Katrina

This unit of study is not available in 2017

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points of History or Ancient History) or (AMST1001 and HSTY1023) Assessment: 1x500wd Proposal and Bibliography (10%), 1x2500wd Research Essay (40%), 1x1500wd Exam (40%), Participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Explores the history and representation of New Orleans from its founding in 1718 through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Sitting at the intersection of French, Spanish, Caribbean, and American history, New Orleans presents a unique window on the history of the US as well as American and world cities. Specific attention will be paid to environmental history, French colonialism, slavery, Latin American trade relations, neo-liberal urbanism, and race relations, as well as the city's famed musical and parade culture.
MUSC2654 Popular Music

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: A/Prof Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2 hrs/week Assessment: Two critical analyses 1,000 words each (20% each); tutorial test 1000 words (20%); major essay 3,000 words (30%); class participation (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
How did early American blues and country music develop in tandem? How was punk different in the US, the UK and Australia? What are the origins of the DJ culture? This unit of study presents a thematic overview of a wide variety of styles, movements and spectacles. It examines major genres of popular music, their stylistic features and historical antecedents as well as modes of reception and the role of popular music in everyday life. No formal music training is necessary.
MUSC2666 A Global Sound: African American Music

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 hr lecture, 1 hr tut/week Prerequisites: 18 junior credit points. Prohibitions: SSCP1002 Assessment: Critical Interpretation, 1500 words (20%), Musical analysis, 1500 words (20%), Final Project 3,000 words (30%), Participation (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
How did the music of enslaved and marginalised people eventually become a dominant force in contemporary popular culture? This unit will examine the local reinvention of a wide variety of African American music in communities around the world. From soul and funk in West Africa to ska and reggae in the Caribbean, we will examine how music moves around the world and within local communities to make new forms of meaning.
PHIL3615 Contemporary Pragmatism

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL3015 Assessment: 1x1000wd Tutorial Exercise (20%), 1x1000wd Take-home Exercise (30%), 1x2500wd Essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit will explore the distinctive philosophical outlook known as "Pragmatism" which many see as a third way beyond the analytic-continental divide. After a brief survey of classical American Pragmatism (C.S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey) we will consider in depth neo-pragmatism (Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam), linguistic pragmatism (Robert Brandom, Huw Price), and methodological pragmatism (David Macarthur). Key issues will include realism, empiricism, naturalism, scientism, metaphysical quietism, the fact/value distinction, and the agent point of view in philosophy.
USSC2601 US in the World

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x 2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 18 junior credit points Assessment: 1x500 word reaction paper (15%); 1x midterm exam (30%); 1x 2500 word policy report (40%); participation (15%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit of study introduces students to the key global transformations of the contemporary era, focusing on the role of the United States amid the challenges posed by: globalisation, free trade, the rise of Islamic extremism, nuclear proliferation, and the emergence of China and India as world powers. The unit is designed to give students the ability to look behind today's news headlines to understand the underlying forces driving them, particularly the behaviour and views of key policy makers and opinion leaders.
USSC2602 US Politics: Elections, Presidents, Laws

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive June,Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 18 junior credit points Assessment: 1x2000-2500wd major paper (45%), 1x2hr exam (45%) and participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit introduces students to US political institutions and political culture. The unit will examine the electoral system and recent presidential elections as well as presidencies from 1960 onwards. It will explore US public policies in the area of race, welfare, and criminal justice and analyse how policy ideas and proposals come into law. It will also introduce the dominant ideologies in US politics. By the end of the unit students will have a comprehensive understanding of American Domestic politics.
USSC2603 Americanism and Anti-Americanism

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 18 junior credit points Assessment: 1x1000wd essay (30%), 1x1hr exam (20%), 1x2500wd learning journal (40%), participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The United States is regarded by many as an exceptional nation, a haven from the ¿Old World¿ constituted by ideals of liberty and democracy. Others see America as an oppressive state with a militaristic foreign policy. This unit explores the origins and development of negative and positive opinions of America around the world, and from within. It undertakes a critical analysis of American politics and foreign relations, taking the perspectives of individuals and publics. We consider a range of concrete historical and contemporary responses to the U.S., its politics, foreign policies and culture, drawing widely on historical, cultural and policy sources.
USSC2604 Sex, Race and Rock in the USA

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points from one of the following subject area; American Studies, Anthropology, Music, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, English, European Studies, Government and International Relations, History, International and Global Studies, Media and Communications, Performance Studies, Philosophy, Political Economy or Sociology Prohibitions: HSTY2057 Assessment: Annotated bibliography (500wds) (15%) research paper proposal (1000wds) (25%) research paper (2500wds) (40%) group presentation (500wds) (10%) Class participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores the cultural history of and intersections between sexuality, race and rock music in the United States from Elvis to Beyonce. Influenced by black and working-class cultures, and with sexuality embedded in its form and practice, rock music challenged and transformed existing norms of family, sex and gender. Through subjects including bwomen of colour, glam rock, disco and hip hop, students will learn that rock music provided a realm for rebellion, freedom, community and profit and has transformed the United States..
USSC2605 US Studies Internship

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2,Summer Main Classes: Minimum 140 working hours, with academic supervision (small group, face-to-face meetings with USSC staff every 2-4 weeks, dependent on actual internship hours and type of placement) Prerequisites: At least one of USSC2601, USSC2602, USSC2603, USSC2604 Assessment: 1x2500wd research essay (50%), 1x1500wd reflective journal (40%), 1x500wd oral (10%) Mode of delivery: Professional practice
Note: US citizens cannot be placed in an US Consulate General internship.
This unit will be taken by students accepted into the United States Studies Centre's internship program. Students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real-world problems through a unique internship placement in an American-based or affiliated business, government or non-government organisation located in Australia or the US. The unit provides academic support for students to discuss and refine research approaches and questions about issues arising from the placement. Assessment includes a reflective journal and research essay, based on the internship experience.
USSC3601 Public Opinion and Voting in the U.S.

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2 hr lecture/week and 1x1hrtutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 senior credit points and USSC2602. Assessment: 1x2000wd Major essay (45%), 1x2hr Final exam (45%), Tutorial participation (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores political beliefs and behaviour in the United States. Using survey studies, we explore what Americans know and believe about politics, how their attitudes are formed, and how and why they vote. We look at voting patterns in recent elections and examine how these have been affected by attitudes towards race and party identification.