Week One: Migration Stories: Narrating a Nation

In this module, called Migration Stories: Narrating a Nation, we will look at stories of the Australian nation, asking, Who are we? What is Australia? And are all Australians migrant in one way or another? We will also consider the ways in which we narrate the nation, and the relationship between these narratives and those of migration to the country.

By the end of this module you will be familiar with concepts of ‘myth’, ‘mythology’ and ‘narrative’; you will have learned about the Cultural Studies methodology of semiotic analysis; you will be able to think critically about Australian cultural identity, and your own part in the country’s migration history.

The assessment task is: a critical personal account of you or your family’s migration story (worth 20%). Full details on Canvas site.

Week Two: Ships and Stowaways: What also Travels?

In this module, Ships and Stowaways, we will expand our consideration of migration to consider what also travels, such as: animals, insects, plants, diseases, ideas and technologies. Here, students will have a chance to consider migration as it relates specifically to their own area of disciplinary expertise, be that health, agriculture and/or biological sciences, or the humanities.

By the end of this section you will be familiar with Arjun Appadurai’s notion of ‘scapes’ as a means of understanding and explaining movements in a time of intensified globalisation. You will understand geography as socially and culturally constructed; and you will have developed flexible approaches to difficult ethical questions around the impacts of introduced species and notions of cultural heritage.

The assessment task is: a 300-word critical reflection, using Appadurai’s notion of ‘scapes’, on your own interaction with globalisation (worth 25% of overall mark). Full details on Canvas site.

Week Three: Face-to-Face Intensive

Held on campus, this 4-hr intensive will give students the chance to share their thoughts on course questions with a tutor and other students, to ask questions, to work in groups and to discuss and workshop their final assessment.

Following directly from Module Two: What Also Travels, the intensive will also allow students to apply course concepts to their specific area disciplinary expertise or industry interest, working through case studies developed in groups; and will also give students an opportunity to collectively attempt a critical media analysis, as further preparation for the final assessment.

An online version, broken into 2 x 2hr sessions, will be available for students studying remotely or otherwise unable to attend the face-to-face intensive.

Week Four: Borders and Moats: Responding to the Unfamiliar

In this final week, we will deepen our conceptual work, and further develop our analytical tools, taking up the notion of ‘borders’ and thinking about how they operate in Australia’s cultural, political and physical landscape. We will consider how ideas of purity and danger shape our cultural systems, and our responses to the unfamiliar.

By the end of this section you will have worked through some complex ethical dilemmas, such as: how to determine when borders are necessary or justified, and when might their instatement be inhumane? What exactly are Australian values, and how should we ‘protect’ or ‘police’ them? You will be familiar with the Foucauldian concept of ‘discourse’, and will have learned the meaning of ‘moral panics’ and ‘border policing’.

This section includes two short lectures alongside the required readings.

Following this final module, you will be required to submit your final assessment task: a 700-word critical media analysis (worth 35% of your overall mark). Full details on Canvas site.

CLASS TIMES, 2023

March Intensive period, 2023

This unit runs over a 4-week period, starting Monday February 13, with a one-time face-to-face intensive at the end of the third week of the unit (Saturday 4 March, 1pm-5pm). There will be an introductory live online lecture early in the first week of the unit. The details of this lecture will be emailed before the unit begins. This lecture will also be recorded for those who cannot attend live.

October Intensive period, 2023

This unit runs over a 4-week period, starting Monday 18 September, with a one-time face-to-face intensive at the end of the third week of the unit. There will be an introductory live online lecture early in the first week of the unit. The details of this lecture will be emailed before the unit begins. This lecture will also be recorded for those who cannot attend live.

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