Australia

This course introduces the fundamentals of regression modeling, providing essential knowledge for students pursuing advanced study in statistics or careers as professional statisticians. Topics include parameter estimation in linear models, hypothesis testing for model comparison, model selection techniques for predictive purposes, detection of assumption violations, and identification of influential observations.

This course examines the central role and distinctive value of ethnographic fieldwork in the practice of anthropology and generation of new knowledge, as well as how socio-economic, cultural, historical and political contexts shape the practice of ethnographic fieldwork in different settings. It covers the role and contribution anthropologists make to public, private and non-governmental sectors. 

This course covers the concepts, operation, and terminology of foreign exchange markets; international investment decision-making; sources of and approaches to managing foreign exchange exposure; political risk; and international funding mechanisms and financial decision-making in multinational business organizations.

This course examines the control of normal body function. The specialized organ systems to be studied include the nervous, cardiovascular, muscular, respiratory, kidney and digestive systems. 

This course examines Australia's deadliest animals, providing an appreciation of these animals and the skills to investigate organisms perceived as risks to humans. By investigating snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks, octopuses, jellyfish, insects, and ticks, students will assess and evaluate the evidence addressing key questions: Just how dangerous are Australian animals? How much of their deadly reputation is myth? Why, and how, do people get killed by these extraordinary animals? How well do we estimate the risks they pose? How does understanding of the science of how these animals operate help us manage the dangers they pose? 

This course is an introduction to critical thinking and the analysis of argument. It examines arguments drawn from diverse sources including journalism, advertising, science, medicine, history, economics, and politics. It also will grapple with scepticism, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and fallacies.

This course examines the rise of human rights discourse and its relationship to other discourses on suffering and social justice. It focuses on the experience of victims of human rights abuse and the politics of meaning. Students will engage in critiques of law as a reductionist discourse on the social by exploring the relationships between human rights and cultural differences such as gender, ethnicity, religion and indigenous cultures. The embodied self, social interdependency and the architecture of social institutions are the backdrop through which the course explores the tensions between universal and relativist understandings of human rights and their realization. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of human rights, the global human rights machinery, and the ethics of humanitarian intervention, and will consider how sociologists have studied and written about human rights.

This course examines Australian politics with an emphasis on what makes Australia unique and how its democratic institutions have developed over time. It concentrates on formal political institutions, including the constitution, parliament, the executive, the bureaucracy, federalism and the High Court. It also examines the role of political parties, the Australian electoral system, voters and voting behavior, lobby groups, social movements and the media. It considers the benefits and limitations of the Australian political system in the face of major policy challenges such as climate change, asylum seekers, gun control, marriage equality and economic crisis.

This course examines the ethical, environmental and social problems associated with consumerism, and examines in detail some of the creative, ingenious and determined responses to these problems.

This course examines how the world's oldest liberal democracy has become such a vital and fraught force in the contemporary world. It focuses particularly on the peculiar 20th-century US histories of class, race, religion and global engagement.