University of Auckland

This course examines how the presentation of information shapes public attitudes and behaviors. It covers how public communication via news, social media and public awareness campaigns influence public understanding, engagement and behavior. Key ideas explored in this course include: discourse; framing; rhetoric; and the interplay of words, images and sounds in multimodal communication.

This course examines how epidemics can run rampant through society and how we can control them. It will include examples from the past and present, as well as outline future threats. A diversity of epidemics will be covered, from the plague, gambling, depression, pandemics, nun-biting and alien abduction.

This course explores the fundamental philosophical problems and puzzles about the nature of the world and human beings. Examples include philosophical questions about the existence of God, the relationship between physical reality and mental life, and the nature of identity and the self. The theory of knowledge studies philosophical problems concerning the sources, limits, and justification of human knowledge and understanding.

This course is an introduction to listening, reading, writing, and translation techniques used in the composition, reading, and understanding of basic Maori. It is designed for students with little or no knowledge of the language and for those with some fluency wishing to understand simple sentence structure and composition. The class focuses on the basic structure of simple sentences in Maori so that students can compose, read, and understand basic Maori. Students also learn a set of terms which enable them to talk about and analyze the structure of Maori and many other languages. Another skill students acquire is the ability to translate Maori sentences and simple texts into English and English sentences into Maori.

This course examines examines the concept of 'youth' and the historical, economic and political contexts in which young people live and are schooled in New Zealand society. The concept of youth is explored as a fundamental aspect of human development, identity and culture. The ways that we learn about what it is to be a young person in New Zealand today, including sport, body image, media, music, technology and social networking will be explored.

This course examines climatology, meteorology, hydro-climatology and oceanography with a focus on the nature and role of key processes. These will be examined in relation to key issues for society such as extreme weather events, drought, floods, air pollution and climate change.