SOCA2020
10 units
2000 level
Course handbook
Description
This course examines ways to think about the relationships between society, space and power through analysing landscapes in our local region and in different parts of the world. The course will include some shared content and virtual exchange with students undertaking a similar course at the University of Texas, Austin. Both Austin and Newcastle have shared pasts of indigenous dispossession, resource extraction, and post-industrial reconfiguration. At different points in the course, students will conduct a field visit, produce an ethnographic piece of writing exploring that landscape, and compare with colleagues working in similar spaces but on different continents. This course will provide students with an introduction to ethnographic writing and practice, and introduce them to ways to understand and think (differently) about the landscapes and environments around them. Students will share their research projects between cohorts in both universities, an innovation that will encourage comparison of both regions and the identification of shared and divergent elements.
Availability
Not currently offered.
This Course was last offered in Semester 1 - 2022.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the course students will be able to:
1. Practice the ethnographic study of landscape using field visits, images, and written texts;
2. Outline the ways that diverse landscapes work together to produce the regions where we live and study;
3. Design independent research inquiry into landscapes;
4. Collaborate with diverse (and remote) groups in developing a comparative research agenda for the study of landscapes in distinct regions;
5. Identify the politics of place-making in two geographically distant regions with shared pasts of indigenous dispossession, resource extraction, and post-industrial reconfiguration.
Content
- Landscape, Ethnography, Power
- Urban Landscapes
- Energy Landscapes
- Pandemic Landscapes
Assumed knowledge
SOCA1010
Assessment items
Portfolio: Written/Visual Assignment
Project: Written/Visual Assignment
Participation: Participation in Field Activities
Course outline
Course outline not yet available.
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.