University of Melbourne

This course examines the turbulent and exciting history of the Roman Republic from its humble beginnings around 500 BCE to the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March 44 BCE. The first part of this course celebrating this formative period in world history discusses early Rome; the social, political and religious institutions of the Republic as they gradually emerged from 509 to 264 BCE; and the Roman conquest of Italy and its significance. The second part concerns the high point of the Roman Republic, approximately the period from 264 to 133 BCE, including discussions of the Punic Wars and the conquest of the Mediterranean, and its tremendous consequences for the Republic. The third and final part deals with the Republic’s troubled last century and surveys the ill-fated Gracchan reforms; the first full-fledged breakdown of the Republican system and the Sullan reaction; the social, economic and cultural life of this period; the rise of the great dynasts; and Caesar’s temerarious attempt to establish a New Order.

This course examines the field of environmental sociology. In particular, it examines how societies build a sense of human/nature divide into their concepts of collective identity and how the struggle to responsibly utilize natural resources is a vexing social problem. It focuses on environmental social movements globally, analyzing how this growing site of social conflict interacts with other inequalities. It also explores the social transformations being enacted globally to build sustainability, improve human/animal coexistence, address environmental racism, and to think about climate change risk beyond the nation-state.

This course examines music-making in the European art music tradition during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in its social, cultural and historical contexts. By examining musical works, historical documents, and modern scholarship, students explore both the development of new musical styles as well as the reimagination of older styles. It examines how post-WWI institutions, discourses and technologies have reshaped the lives of musicians and listeners, with a particular focus on the overlapping political-economic contexts of capitalism, liberalism and globalization.  

Students will develop the knowledge, competencies and skills necessary for music performance. Areas to be covered include advanced study of instrumental or vocal technique, and specialization in all related aspects of music performance. Formative feedback in individual and group settings will be provided across the semester. The course involves participation in individual lessons, instrument/voice classes, performance class and/or assigned ensemble activities. 

This course examines the application of economics to the analysis of policy issues facing governments in Australia and overseas. It begins with a general introduction on the application of principles of microeconomics for guiding the formulation of policy options and their interpretation. It then explores in detail specific topics drawn from health economics, microeconomic reform, income distribution, poverty or other relevant policy areas. For each specific topic the subject presents and evaluates results in the literature and analyses future policy options and their effects.

This course examines concepts of trauma and memory as historically and culturally contingent, asking what counts as trauma, for whom and under what circumstances. The course will open by tracing history of the concept of trauma in psychoanalysis and medicine, followed by critical perspectives from feminist, queer, transgender, critical race, and body studies perspectives. It also looks at different sites, forms and representations of trauma in literature, films, art, oral narratives, memoirs, photographs, and social movements.