University of New South Wales

This course examines cutting edge concepts in genetics, genomics and evolution: genome structure (the components and organization of genomes), genomics (genome sequencing and annotation), genome variation and the forces that shape it (mutation, recombination and genetic drift) and applications of genomics (conservation genomics, host-pathogen interactions, genome engineering, and systems biology). Multiple aspects of genome biology will be studied and integrated to understand how genomes function and evolve. Core concepts and methods in genomics, molecular evolution and gene regulation will be supported by an integrated set of workshops, science communication tasks and bioinformatics analysis. Modern research methods will be applied to the analyses of differential gene expression in RNA sequencing datasets.

This course examines the following questions: What is intelligence, and can machines really possess it? Could it be that—as many have argued—we ourselves are no more than intelligent machines (designed by evolution rather than engineers)? How do technologies such as artificial neural networks and machine learning change our understanding of the mind? Others are ethical, social, and political. What are the risks associated with these technologies, and how can we minimise them? What are their benefits, and how can we ensure that they are equitably shared? Conversely, assuming that true A.I. is possible, what are our own moral obligations towards our non-human but intelligent creations?

This course examines plants and plant communities through a focus on medium to large scale planting design and green infrastructure that supports healthy urban environments. It covers planting design strategies and structures as integral components of urban and suburban landscape systems, as well as planting design strategies that have been implemented or proposed in the Sydney Region. 

This course provides a comprehensive overview of emotions research, how this produces feelings of stress and how these concepts relate to some of the most common mental disorders - depression and anxiety disorders. Students will learn about psychology as a science and how psychological research is performed (including animal and human studies). Throughout the course we will examine how the findings from this research informs the clinical description of disorders and the treatment of anxiety, stress and low mood.

Where does power lie in politics? Whose explanations about how the world works are valued and why? This course examines the answers to these questions. It also examines the formation of the modern state system and interrogate the conceptualisation of the state that informs much contemporary theory and practice in politics at the national and international level. A substantial part of this course is devoted to the introduction of the main theoretical traditions that animate the study of politics and international relations. 

This course examines the making of the modern world to 1900. It covers the following questions: How did the modern world happen? How did a few small countries in Europe (and later the United States) come to dominate so much of the world’s wealth and power by 1900? How did they displace the great empires of the Middle East, South Asia and China?

This course provides an introduction to ecology, sustainability and environmental science, introducing a range of biological topics and how scientists approach these topics to solve problems. 

The understanding we have of our nature as reasoning beings is a fascinating topic which has captivated thinkers for thousands of years. In this course we will chart its history and focus on the developments in the recent past.

Each of us has a self and an identity by virtue of being human. But do other living beings have a self? Do other living beings have society in the same way humans do? In this course, students will consider some traditional assumptions of selfhood (e.g., the capacity for reason, speech, and memory) from different sociological perspectives.

This course examines how cultural, social, political and economic dynamics shape landscapes, these being rural, urban, in transitions or ‘natural. You will garner a theoretical expertise for interpreting and making sense of different places, and how there are shaped by multiple dynamics across scales (from the local to the global).