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Unit of study_
USSC1604: American Icons: Pop Culture, Star Power
2026 unit information
This unit explores the cultural history of and intersections between sexuality, race, and American pop culture, from Elvis to RuPaul. Influenced by Black, working-class, and queer cultures, and with sexuality woven into its forms and practices, pop culture has challenged and transformed existing norms of family, sex, and gender. Through topics like Black women in music, queer subcultures, and the rise of pop icons, we will examine how pop culture, far from superficial, has served as a space for rebellion, freedom, community, and profit.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
DVC (Research)
| Study level | Undergraduate |
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| Academic unit | United States Studies Centre |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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USSC2604 |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. understand sexuality, gender and race in the cultural history of American rock and rock's impact on social norms
- LO2. critically analyse popular cultural forms in scholarly ways
- LO3. express conceptually difficult ideas and independent critical thinking in oral and written forms
- LO4. pose research questions and access and synthesise diverse sources to build and defend a reasoned position in response to those questions.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Intensive June - July 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
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Semester 2 2026
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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