Victoria University of Wellington

This course is a genre-based and thematic exploration of New Zealand literature from the early 1900s to the present, and examines how the key cultural encounters that have shaped national identity are variously represented within poetry, drama, the short story, the novel, and creative nonfiction.

This course explores human relationships with ecological and material environments. It examines diverse cultural perceptions of and approaches to the environment, the relationship between nature and culture, and anthropology’s contribution to contemporary ecological and climate debates. While this course focuses on the New Zealand and Pacific region, it does incorporate a global perspective, using examples from around the world. Textual documents are used to present concepts and evidence, while visual media is used to present examples and topics of examination and discourse. Field trips are used as a practical way to apply the information discussed in this course.

This course introduces the study of health psychology, with a focus on the key theories, research, and approaches that have been used to understand and influence people's health, illness, and wellbeing.

This course integrates the physical, social, economic, and political factors associated with environmental change. First, the course introduces the earth systems associated with environmental change (both natural and human induced). Second, the course explore the social, political and economic implications of contemporary environmental issues and human-environment relations.

This is an introductory course for students interested in exploring the role of the media in shaping society and politics. The course discusses the rise of the mass-media, the control and regulation of media institutions, and the role of the media in shaping public opinion. Students assess the impact of current developments such as independent media, convergence, digitization, globalisation, and the concentration of media ownership.

This course provides an introduction to practical aspects of survey sampling. Topics include proposal writing, costing, non-sampling errors, rudiments of sampling theory, questionnaire design, fieldwork, basic analytic techniques, and report writing. This course is co-taught with STAT 392.

This course examines knowledge, power, and the importance of critical self-reflection as it relates to liberation and democracy. This course draws on a variety of critical approaches and theories to examine key concepts and issues as they relate to the grander dialogues that exist within the discipline of sociology. Course content includes a range of issues, including: power, knowledge, educating for critical consciousness, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, capitalism and neoliberalism.

This course is an introduction to the study of language, and language issues in the community. The course covers general features of language, such as the inevitability of language change and the importance of structure dependence. Students explore popular misconceptions about language, examining why they are erroneous.

This course examines child and adolescent development within an applied developmental psychology framework. It also evaluates key theories and evidence on a range of issues and challenges that influence child and adolescent development.