Victoria University of Wellington

This course examines the histories of Maori and Pakeha cultural interactions during the nineteenth century. It explores relationships between identity, power and place, in both international and local forums. It begins in the late eighteenth century and ends in the early twentieth century. Themes include: ways of knowing the past; Maori social systems; early cultural encounters and exchange; intimate relationships; fatal impact ideology; Te Tiriti o Waitangi; Maori commercial activities; the New Zealand Wars and forces of colonization; Pakeha settlement; Maori prophetic movements; Te Arawa and the international tourist trade; modern Maori leadership; the Native school system; New Zealand's overseas empire.

Introduction to Pacific Studies and Culture. This is a survey course on a range of Pacific nations, covering socio-cultural, geographical, economic, and historical issues including indigenous perspectives. This course is a journey through the immense geographic, historical, cultural, political and economic diversity of the Pacific Islands region. A particular focus of this course is on the intellectual and academic heritage of Pacific Studies, so questions of what it means to study the Pacific when the university is our anchor are explored.

Maori have always been scientists and this science enabled them to adapt to, survive and thrive in the landscape of Aotearoa. This course examines how, by looking at matauranga and putaiao Maori (Maori knowledge and science) in both traditional and contemporary contexts. It examines the differences and similarities between Western and Maori ways of knowing. Workshops and field trips on topics such as hangarau (technology) and rongoa (medicine) allow students to engage with matauranga and putaiao in practical ways.

This course examines the major challenges, transformations, and debates in contemporary social policy. Topics include growing social inequality, unemployment, drug legislation, the housing crisis, or the environment. The course focuses on theoretical explanation, examining why social policy is implemented as it is in today’s society. It analyzes policy and discusses how activists, social entrepreneurs, and policy makers can participate in the policy process and advocate for progressive change.

This course examines the major influences on and developments in feminist theory and gender and sexuality studies up to the present day. Topics include gender and sexual difference and diversity; sexual politics and sexuality; the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class; and postmodernism and post-feminism. These topics are explored in a global and cross-cultural context, through close engagement with the writings of key thinkers in the field.

This course provides an introduction to music in world cultures. It examines music within its cultural context and introduces the study of ethnomusicology. The class covers music from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

This course focuses on the study of masculinity to explore systemic inequality, and the close relationship between gender and power. The course treats masculinity as a gender identity in constant transformation. The course considers social dynamics, such as sexual-affective relationships, violence, everyday culture and the sexual division of labour. Through diverse theories and analysis of case studies, the masculinity is understood as both a systematic producer of power relations and as a performance of a gender identity. By studying hegemonic masculinity and ways to subvert it, this course provides tools to understand and analyze the dynamics of power, inequality and change.

This course is an introdcution to the analysis and design of urban places. The course looks at alternative models of urban form and development, ranging from much-admired traditional cities to new paradigms that promise to shape 21st-century settlement patterns. The course examines various factors including urban morphology, human experience, economic performance, the role of the designer, and the politics of decision making.

This course is an introduction to solid state physics. The course is primarily concerned with establishing descriptions of the periodic nature of crystalline materials, and the implications for the propagation of EM waves, atomic vibrations, and electrons in solids.