Recommended Study Sequence

A historical survey of the development of modern European society and politics. A central focus will be the relationship of early modern and contemporary understandings of politics, society, nature and the individual.

This unit provides an introduction to Australian Politics. It outlines the central features of the federal political system with attention to both historical background and current debates. In addition to study of the institutional frameworks (the Constitution, parliament, political parties and so on), the unit examines the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that have shaped Australian politics. It explores what it has meant in the past, what it means in the future, for Australians to live together as members of a political community.

This unit introduces students to the history of the 18th and 19th century foundations of modern Australia, and to the social, economic, political and cultural events that shaped Australian social and political institutions. Students will be encouraged to consider the process of historical change within an historiographical framework and will use primary sources to explore some of these debates.

Theoretical aspects of international relations and how they apply to the ‘real world’ of world politics involves understanding of key actors in world politics, from states to international organisations and institutions, to non-state actors, how the international system that regulates international order operates today (and how that system has evolved over recent centuries), and they can produce order and disorder.

The Athens of Pericles is studied from three perspectives: philosophy, art and history. The use of reason and rhetoric is examined through the works of some pre-Socratics, sophists and Socrates. Architectural style and the artistic representation of the human will be studied with particular reference to the Parthenon. This philosophy and art will be placed in the context of the history of the body, the city-state and democratic citizenship.

A historical investigation of the experience of the 19th century European empires from the perspectives of both the colonized and colonizers. It examines the combination of domination and cultural negotiation between colonizers and colonized. It examines both how peoples were managed as imperial subjects and how they responded to this management. It looks both at the effect of imperial rule on the colonized, and of empire upon the colonizers. It draws upon historical literature from a variety of sources and perspectives, and within European and Asian history. The focus is chiefly, though not exclusively, upon the British empire and its subjects peoples.

Understanding local history is an integral part of establishing personal and community identities. Local studies are used as the foundation for many socio-economic studies across various disciplines as well as in school curricula. The University of Western Sydney is part of a region rich in history, little of which has been researched or published. Local history techniques involve understanding a variety of physical and documentary sources. Students learn the history of the Sydney region by assembling data from original historical sources, based at the Archives in Kingswood and Villawood and from on-line data repositories. There are opportunities for site visits to historical and archaeological sites and local museums.

This unit surveys the history of European society, politics and culture in the period between the Reformations and the transformation of revolutions of the late eighteenth century. It focuses upon the religious conflicts of the early modern period and their resolution, both at the level of individuals and states. It studies popular experiences of and responses to social, religious and political change over the period. And it surveys the political, scientific and cultural transformations of this tumultuous time.

This unit looks at the role of south Asia in global processes from historical, cultural and economic perspectives. It traces three broad themes: the significance of early south Asian contacts with other cultures; the impact of colonial interactions with Europeans; and the development of postcolonial identities in the Indian diaspora. In particular, we consider how new hybrid formations emerged as products of cross-cultural exchange. The unit contrasts India’s role as an agent of cultural globalisation from the past with its place as a recipient of economic globalisation in the present. We also look at the ways in which issues of caste, religion, social class, gender and unequal access to resources have remained significant factors in thinking through the experience of India’s relationship with the wider world.

Legislation requires the preservation of natural, built and movable heritage, but agreement about what to keep is rarely achieved. The historian's investigation of the history of places and objects is an important part of the assessment process. Historical research helps to establish priorities and contributes to the preservation work of archives, museums and heritage sites. Class work involves real project work with museums and heritage managers.

This unit provides an introduction to the history of Australian foreign policy relations with Asia. It seeks to acquaint students with Australia's historic and contemporary relations with countries in East and Southeast Asia and to identity the factors that have contributed to their development.

This unit examines the interaction between politics and business in the contemporary East Asian and Southeast Asian contexts. Particular attention will be paid to the business-government relationship in a number of key countries and comparisons drawn. The unit examines the issue of the so-called "Asian Way" with respect to business, governing and achieving economic development. It also looks at the so-called "Asian economic miracle" and the "Asian economic crisis" and considers contemporary reform programs aimed at the business-politics nexus in Asia.

This unit offers an introduction to the contemporary analysis of sex, gender and relations of power. Sex and gender are not studied in isolation but in connection with other significant aspects of identity and difference - ethnicity, class and sexuality for example. Particular attention is paid to contemporary Australian issues and debates. Key concepts that are studied include 'sex', 'gender', 'sexuality', 'power', 'resistance', 'identity', 'difference', 'subjectivity', and 'inter-subjectivity'.

This unit introduces students to the frameworks, topics, and perspectives of security studies and the debates about it. Since the end of the Cold War, the range and content of problems that are defined as threatening personal, group, state, international and global security has widened considerably. It is clear that the risk of major armed conflict between states, which has absorbed the attention of academics and policymakers for the last two centuries, has been compounded by new threats of economic dislocation, transnational crime, environmental damage, state collapse, terrorism, ethnic tensions, etc. These factors have challenged the security studies agenda. The course, therefore, considers these conceptual and practical issues of security at three levels: those of individual security, for example, human rights protection; state security, especially the risks posed by failed states; and international security (both regional and global), in particular the new security architecture as represented by emerging frameworks of security governance. In this respect, by emphasizing the increased recourse to intervention the module aims to consider how global security patterns have been reshaped since the end of the Cold War.

This unit surveys the history of Indonesia, Australia's nearest and most important Asian neighbour. Commencing with the coming of Islam to Indonesia in the twelfth century it concludes with the overthrow of Soeharto in 1998, but the focus is primarily on the 20th Century. The unit looks briefly at the Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, the colonial period, the nationalist struggle, the Japanese occupation and in more detail the first fifty years of independence. Indonesia's rich heritage of trade, culture, religions, and ethnicities are all dealt with. The units also examines historiographical problems for the study of Indonesian history and seeks to identify historical patterns.

The major social and political philosophy of the West, from the 5th century BC Greece till the 18th century will be examined. The development of ideas of citizenship, subjectivity, freedom, equality and the democratic state will be explored. The influence of Christianity will also be a major theme. Authors will include: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, More, Hobbes, Locke, Vico and Rousseau.

This unit studies various social, political and cultural aspects of Australian history in the twentieth century, from Federation in 1901 to 2001, with a specific focus on the effects of war on Australian society. Australia has been involved in a number of wars in the twentieth century. The unit begins with the Boer War, begun before the Federation of the Australian colonies and continues through the First and Second World Wars to the most unpopular war in which Australia has ever been involved - Vietnam.

This unit gives students knowledge of research methods relevant to humanities disciplines. Modules provide advanced instruction in developing a research topic, evidence-based research and Human Research Ethics processes and policy.

This unit offers a history of the United States of America from 1898 until 1945. It examines the key events and issues from the Spanish-American War to the New Deal and Isolationism which shaped the course of modern America.

The unit examines the history of Australia’s transformation from a collection of small settler colonies to a modern, industrialising nation. The unit focuses on the creation of a national identity through examination of themes such as race, class, urbanisation, politics, sport gender and culture.

This unit includes a general overview of major developments in Australian political and social history since 1920, and also focuses on particular issues such as the 1949 coal strike, the Petrov Affair, the Whitlam dismissal and the Super League 'war'.

How did British colonists and later waves of migrants deal with the ‘first Australians’ – the peoples who lived on the Australian continent before the British arrived in 1788 – and how have the first Australians responded? In twelve lectures and two-hour workshops, we will cover themes and episodes in Australian history since 1788. Students will learn from films, primary sources and autobiographies – as well as from texts by academic historians.

There are repeated calls for greater involvement by citizens in public life or the community. Generally such appeals draw upon an image of ancient Western citizenship derived from the Greek city-state or ancient Rome. Yet the history of citizenship and civic identity in the West is long and varied. This unit surveys the historical literature from a number of different periods of Western history, from the ancient city-states to the Roman Empire, from Medieval merchants to Renaissance scholars, through to early modern debates around sovereignty and religious toleration. It also examines modern debates around the greater complexity of modern societies as against ancient, and the perceived greater focuses upon privacy and personal autonomy in the modern world - all of which are claimed to have diminished the civic impulse. The unit should be of interest to history, politics and education students.

Classics of Modern Philosophy introduces students to a selected number of 'great' (highly influential) philosophical texts of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Addressing fundamental issues such as human freedom, the nature of truth and knowledge, technological progress, problems of modern life, this unit guides students through key statements with supporting explanation of the philosophers, their projects and careers, and relevant social contexts.

This unit will look at the historical heritage of Japan that is central to contemporary Japanese identity and culture.

This unit is concerned with the theory and practice of democracy in modern and contemporary history of Asia. It explores a range of issues relating to liberalism, human rights, political reform and democratization. It seeks to explain the differences in the ways in which democracy has been conceived, understood and practiced in different cultures and societies. It also examines the East-West debate on "Asian values" and the suitability of Western-style democracy to Asia. Finally, it discusses the prospects for democracy in Asia.

The unit provides an historical overview of the different types of ethical beliefs and practices that have been used is specific social settings from the classical world to the modern West. It looks at different types of spiritual and secular ethical behaviours, and the doctrines associated with each. It focuses upon the types of ethical argument and judgment-making specific to particular professions, occupations and social statuses over time. It concludes by surveying the different types of ethics taught to professionals today in the West, and on the differences between each, as well as the specific requirements of each. It will be of interest both to students with an interest in the history of ideas, and to students who want to learn more about ethics and moral decision-making.

Are you what you eat? This unit explores the relationship between food, globalisation and human experience in an historical and cross-cultural context. Food is central to the formation of cultural identity, the emergence of social taboo and the expression of religious belief. While food has become associated with national identity, foodstuffs have also become symbols of cross-cultural interaction through the imperial experience or the effect of migration. The relationship between food, culture and identity is an important one, but the current world food price crises; the persistence of famine in the developing world; and the emergence of ‘fast food’ as a marker of globalisation remind us of the critical relationship between nutrition and political economies.

The experiences of globalization are explored from a variety of levels across time and space, from the individual to the local, the national to the international. The focus in this course will be on issues of politics, both domestic and international, but we will keep in mind that globalization is a phenomenon that is explored and assessed by a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, politics, law, economics, anthropology, gender studies, human geography, economics, regional and area studies, science and technology, health and epidemiology.

This Asian history unit is concerned with the transformation of China in a social, political and intellectual context since the middle of the nineteenth century. The unit focuses on China's modern transformation in the first half of the twentieth century and its contemporary relevance. The scope is broad, encompassing changes from the last decades of the Qing Dynasty to the Republican era and the rise to power of the Communists in 1949. The approach is issue-oriented, thematic and, where appropriate, chronological.

This unit aims to provide third year humanities students with first-hand knowledge of workplaces or research processes related to their chosen filed of study (major), such as art galleries, museums, libraries, local and state government, tourism and administration or in academic contexts. The units will introduce students to various fields in which the skills developed over two years of study in humanities can be applied. It will augment their study and provide much needed work experience. The internship placement and/or project will be chosen by the student in consultation with the staff member responsible for the major area and the placement will be overseen and the academic work assessed by the member of staff responsible for the major area of study relevant to the internship.

The unit critically reflects on the practices and debates in the writing of Australian history. It examines the approaches of major Australian historians including Manning Clark, Geoffrey Blainey and Humphrey McQueen, as well as themes such as empiricism versus postmodernism, the 'new social history' and Marxism and Australian historiography.

Popular representations of world politics shape our collective understanding of political history and international relations. This unit examines the ways in which film can communicate political messages to its audience, as well as the far more difficult issue of the effects that those messages might have on viewers. Although the discipline of International Relations (IR) has overwhelmingly ignored popular culture, it is the argument of this unit that popular culture actually provides us with a wealth of significant representations of world politics.

This unit presents a social and cultural history of Japan from the mid nineteenth century to the present. The principle organising theme is the question of modernity: what are the different ways that Japan has expressed its modern identity? How has this been shaped by Japan's position in relation to both the West and its Asian neighbours? What is the relationship among the state, its citizens, and history in negotiating identity? How has war affected Japanese modernity and what we know of modern Japan?

In the West, it is assumed that the authorities of the state and of the church are separate. The state looks afters the public or political affairs, while religion takes care of one’s private beliefs and moral values. In practice, however, such a separation has always been precarious. From American politics to the conflicts in the Middle East, the two have remained intermeshed. The unit will trace the idea of the separation of state and church back to its genesis and track its development in modern thought. The aim is to demonstrate the variegated relation between politics and theology by closely examining a wide array of texts in a variety of disciplinary fields, including literature.

This unit studies the history of the post-war Japanese political experience. In particular, examining the interaction between domestic political developments, and security and foreign policy matters.

This unit offers a general overview of race in politics as it exists in Europe, Asia, the Americans and Australasia. It will focus on theories of race, racist policies and practices and the political economy of race.

This unit is concerned with developments in China since the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. It will focus on the post-1976 period, which saw the adoption and implementation of an "open-door" policy and the launch of the "Four Modernisations". Due attention, however, will also be paid to the history and politics of the 1950s and 1960s as backgrounds. The unit will be issue-oriented, exploring a whole range of social and political issues that will have a bearing on China's future as a potential world power in the twenty-first century.

This unit investigates the far-reaching political and social changes underway in Indonesia, Australia's closest and most important Asian neighbour. It studies in depth the turbulent period since the 1998 overthrow of Soeharto, paying particular attention to the dramatic struggle for political reform against efforts to preserve much of the status quo. The unit examines the far-reaching constitutional reforms implemented since 2000 and the accompanying new political structure that is emerging. Indonesia's status as an emerging democracy is a particular focus of the unit against the backdrop of challenges such as economic crisis, Islamist terror, separatist pressures, and endemic corruption.

Since the end of the Cold War, the European Union (EU) has become not only one of the central actors in world affairs, but its novel forms of governance and dynamics of integration have marked its uniqueness in the history of international life. This unit provides introduces students to the diverse international roles of the EU as well as the nature of its external relations. It also considers the recent assertions that the EU’s foreign policy is “in crisis.” The unit will evaluate from different perspectives the institutions involved in the international diplomacy of the EU and its development of foreign policy.

Why do humans kill? What is the nature of war? This course is a selection of different established theories offering explanations of human violence and social conflict. Both theories of individual violence and aggression, and collective conflict are studied to give students a perspective on the forces behind these phenomena. Theories from politics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociobiology, sociology, and cultural studies are introduced to exemplify the classic positions and lines of reasoning. These are used to question and explain current forms of violence and conflict, and to give students better understanding of the issues behind attempts to forestall, manage or end conflict.

This unit aims to explore contemporary understandings of power and its various manifestations in the modern world. Numerous themes are considered including informal and formal mechanisms of power, the uses and abuses of power, resistance, plus various examples of "powered" sites. The unit examines the relation between power, violence and the state. The unit concentrates on a few, influential theorists of power. Particular attention is paid to how power has an impact on the production of culture.

This unit examines problems and issues in international politics. In particular the unit critically assesses the major theoretical paradigms associated with attempts to explain international behaviour of key individuals, nations and the international system. Major issues and key problems in world affairs since the end of World War Two (such as justice and equality, human rights and terrorism) are examined.

This unit studies various social, political and cultural aspects of Australian history in the twentieth century, from Federation in 1901 to 2001, with a specific focus on the effects of war on Australian society. Australia has been involved in a number of wars in the twentieth century. The unit begins with the Boer War, begun before the Federation of the Australian colonies and continues through the First and Second World Wars to the most unpopular war in which Australia has ever been involved - Vietnam.

This unit will look at the historical heritage of Japan that is central to contemporary Japanese identity and culture.

This unit will examine a series of topical theoretical issues such as claims concerning the end of sovereignty, the emergence of a borderless world, the triumph of liberalism following the end of the Cold War and the so-called 'War on Terrorism' since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Finally it will examine the rise in prominence of so-called 'low politics' issues such as human rights, gender and the environment.