Australian Cultural Landscapes

This subject is not offered in 2008.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

In this subject we will follow a set of pathways into the landscapes of the past. Case studies (such as slum and the suburb, city and bush, wilderness, the pastoral frontier, the Âgolden mileÂ) provide the framework for developing a comprehensive and broadly inclusive historical understanding of urban and regional Australia. This subject offers students the opportunity to undertake detailed local studies of particular landscapes, or to look more broadly at what Australian literature, art, mass media, and material culture can tell us about imagined landscapes. The power of place has underpinned the development of collective identities, but has also generated division and suffering, throughout Australian history. The subject explores the complex and competing historical influences that have shaped the landscapes that diverse groups have claimed as their own. It highlights the contested visions and the uneven social outcomes in urban and rural Australia. Topics will include: indigenous voices, the green movement rural nostalgia and grassroots activism, social strains in the suburban fringes and inner suburbs of the big cities. The subject includes fieldwork components.

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This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• Â demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources;

• Â show critical thinking and analysis through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument;

• Â demonstrate understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument.