University of Sydney Handbooks - 2020 Archive

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Cultural Studies Descriptions

Semester 2 2020 unit of study availability

Some Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences units of study originally intended to run in Semester 2, 2020 are no longer available.

A full and up-to-date list of units of study available in Semester 2, 2020 from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, can be found on this webpage.
 

Cultural Studies

Major

A major in Cultural Studies requires 48 credit points from this table including:
(i) 6 credit points of 1000-level core unit
(ii) 6 credit points of 1000-level selective units
(iii) 12 credit points of 2000-level units
(iv) 18 credit points of 3000-level units
(v) 6 credit points of 3000-level Interdisciplinary Project units

Minor

A minor in Cultural Studies requires 36 credit points from this table including:
(i) 6 credit points of 1000-level core unit
(ii) 6 credit points of 1000-level selective unit
(iii) 12 credit points of 2000-level selective units
(iv) 12 credit points of 3000-level selective units

1000-level units of study

Core
GCST1601 Introduction to Cultural Studies

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive January,Semester 1 Classes: 1x1.5hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 2x2000wd equivalent blogs (30%), 1x500wd equivalent group presentation (15%), 1x500wd textual analysis (20%), 1x2000wd essay (35%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Cultural studies explores everyday life, media and popular culture. It shows us how we can make sense of contemporary culture as producers, consumers, readers and viewers, in relation to our identities and communities. How do cultural texts and practices convey different kinds of meaning and value? Students
will be introduced to some key thinkers and approaches in cultural studies and will learn how to analyse cultural forms such as advertising, television, film and popular music.
Selective
GCST1602 Introduction to Gender Studies

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive July,Semester 1 Classes: 2x1hr lecture, 1x1hr tutorial Assessment: Tutorial participation (10%), 1x1300wd Tutorial presentation task (15%), 1x1200wd short Essay (35%), 1x1500wd long Essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
How does gender organise lives, bodies, sexualities and desires? How does gender relate to sex and sexuality? Are there really only two genders? How and why is gender such an integral part of how we identify ourselves and others? This unit introduces students to foundational concepts in the study of gender and critically engages with questions of identity, sexuality, family, the body, cultural practices and gender norms in light of contemporary gender theories.
GCST1603 Screen Cultures and Gender: Film to Apps

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1x2500wd Media analysis journal (online) (50%), 1x2000wd Take-home exercise (40%), tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit traces the history of screen cultures from film to apps, focusing on how popular media is used to produce and represent masculinity and femininity. Students will consider cinema, television, videogames, the internet and mobile devices, asking how changing media forms and practices impact on our gendered identities and everyday lives.
GCST1604 Introduction to Diversity

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1x 1000 Close Reading of Real World eg. (25%), 1x 1000 Close Reading of academic text (25%), 1x 2500 Final Case Study (40%), nax na Participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Diversity has become one of the most important issues in contemporary society. Increasingly communities and workplaces encourage us to support diversity. This unit introduces students to a range of diversity issues informed by race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality and dis/ability and the importance of cultivating understanding and respect for difference. It will appeal to students interested in social, economic and cultural marginalisation.

2000-level units of study

GCST2603 Animal/Human Cultures

This unit of study is not available in 2020

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Cultural Studies Assessment: Tutorial participation (10%), 1x500wd tutorial question task (15%), 1x1500wd short essay (35%), 1x2000wd long essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
The idea of the 'animal' infuses western knowledge about what constitutes the 'human'. From 'humanism' to 'posthumanism', this unit teases out various animal/human connections; classifying, seeing, domesticating, eating, making pets, writing, thinking about rights, rhetoric and representation. How do gender, race and class play out in the realm of the animal/human? What cultural formations support and also challenge the line between animal and human?
GCST2605 Representing Race and Gender

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Cultural Studies or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Gender Studies or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Diversity Studies 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 Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
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. In particular, it interrogates the relationship between these representations and those of gender and sexuality. In so doing, it provides a complex understanding of how 'race' and 'gender' as institutional forces and lived experiences help shape perceptions of ourselves and others.
GCST2612 Youth and Youth Culture

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive January,Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Cultural Studies or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Gender Studies or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Diversity Studies Prohibitions: WMST2012 Assessment: 1x500wd close reading exercise (10%), 1x1500wd Short Essay (30%), 1x2500wd Take-home Exercise (50%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
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 the experience of youth and youth cultural forms and practices. We will pay particular attention to the ways young lives are gendered and the role gender plays in the institutions and other contexts in which young people live. Other points of focus include changing conceptions of youth, relationships between policy and youth, images of youth and youth culture, and discourses on (im)maturity, training, and identity.
GCST2630 Consumer Cultures

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive January,Semester 1 Classes: 1x1.5hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Cultural Studies 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 Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
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.
USSC2604 Sex, Race and Rock in the USA

This unit of study is not available in 2020

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 Faculty: University-wide
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..

3000-level units of study

GCST3604 Using Cultural Theory

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 credit points at 2000 level Gender and Cultural Studies) or (12 credit points at 2000 level Digital Cultures) Assessment: 2x 750 Critical Exercise (50%), 1x3000 Essay or Take-home Exercise (40%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Cultural Studies was widely discussed as one of the "New Humanities" in the 1990s, but a long history of debates about and theories of culture precede the discipline, and the processes of deciding what are the key texts and concepts of Cultural Studies is ongoing. This unit overviews foundational and emerging critical concepts and writers in the field. Students will also undertake reading and analysis exercises designed to help them come to grips with using "theory" in their own work.
GCST3630 Everyday Life: Theories and Practices

This unit of study is not available in 2020

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Cultural Studies or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Gender Studies Prohibitions: GCST2613 Assessment: 1x1000wd close reading task (20%), 1x1500wd (equivalent) fieldwork presentation (40%), 1x2000wd case study essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Our knowledge of everyday life is often taken for granted and yet cultural studies has developed some fascinating approaches to critically and creatively exploring the ordinary and extraordinary details that make up everyday life. Through case studies of everyday practices, spaces and experiences (waste, fashion, dreaming, eating, shopping, 'selfies') the unit explores key thinkers of the everyday as well as a range of research and writing methods (observation, thick description, close reading) that have helped to illuminate everyday life.
GCST3631 Gender, Communities and Belonging

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Gender Studies or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Cultural Studies or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Diversity Studies Prohibitions: GCST2613 or GCST2611 Assessment: 1x1000wd critical close reading task (20%), 1x2000wd research project (40%), 1x1000wd Take-home exercise (30%) and Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
In this unit students will apply advanced methods from gender and cultural studies to examine experiences of belonging and formations of community. Students will analyse how power produces and regulates communities, identities and belonging. They will question the assumption that community is based on the unity and similarity of citizens and their location in specific cultures and places, and critically examine alternatives such as difference, diaspora, and other forms of sociality. Students will evaluate different theories of community in local, national and international contexts, and in relation to feminism, democracy, cosmopolitanism and hospitality.
GCST3634 The Social Life of Policy

This unit of study is not available in 2020

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Gender and Cultural Studies or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Diversity Studies Prohibitions: GCST2632 Assessment: 10x 150 wd Reading synopses (25%), 1x 1500wd Close reading of a policy (25%), 1x 500wd equivalent draft final project presentation (10%), 1x 2500wd Final research project (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit explores the idea of public policy as a major cultural force which shapes the way we live, how we are socially categorised, how we act, who and what we can become. Students also learn how they might influence public policy and of alternatives to policy for enacting social change.
GCST3636 Sex, Violence and Transgression

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Gender Studies or Cultural Studies Prohibitions: GCST2604 Assessment: 1x 1000 Close Reading of Media Example (25%), 1x 1000 Close Reading of Formal Text (25%), 1x 2500 Case Study (40%), Participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Violence is one of the most prevalent themes in popular culture and public discourse today. It shapes our lives in all sorts of ways, both real and imagined. This unit examines the different ways we construct knowledge of violence and how representations of violence may be both compelling and confronting. It focuses on the interconnections between categories of sex and violence within culture.
GCST3637 Cultural Politics of Difference

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week and 1x2hr workshops/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Gender Studies or Cultural Studies Assessment: 1x1000wd Methodological Reflection (25%), 1x2500wd Creative Cultural Collaborations (40%), 1x1000wd Critical Reflection (25%), 1x Participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit follows a decolonial feminist ethics of learning through: (1) Complaining, (2) Caring and (3) Creating. We begin by exploring methodologies of complaint and critique through Indigenous, decolonial, postcolonial, critical race, and queer feminist scholarships. Second, we slow down to ask after and reflect on issues we care about in our diverse communities. Finally, we turn to modes of creating academic-activism, which could range from poetry to policy writing, cookbooks to comics, theatre to technology. From our classroom, we work in solidarity to bring to the attention of communities we belong to new proposals that will help us respond to challenges and injustices in the world.

Interdisciplinary project unit of study

Where this major is being completed as a first major towards a degree, students should ensure that the Interdisciplinary Impact unit of study is undertaken.
Where this major is being completed as a second major from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences towards a degree, the Industry and Community Project unit of study is the appropriate unit to select.
GCST3999 Interdisciplinary Impact

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive December,Intensive July,Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: Completion of at least 90 credit points Prohibitions: Interdisciplinary Impact in another major Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.
GCST3998 Industry and Community Project

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive February,Intensive July,Semester 1,Semester 2 Corequisites: Interdisciplinary Impact in any major. Mode of delivery: Block mode Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit is designed for third year students to undertake a project that allows them to work with one of the University's industry and community partners. Students will work in teams on a real-world problem provided by the partner. This experience will allow students to apply their academic skills and disciplinary knowledge to a real-world issue in an authentic and meaningful way.