Australian Studies

This course examines key moments of struggle over what ‘Australia’ means and what it means to be Australian. Topics may include: imperial expansion and the colonial frontier; race relations and British race patriotism, Indigenous resistance and the White Australia policy; battles over land and labor; refugee and border protection; engagement with the Asia-Pacific; economic revolutions; protest movements and state formation. It will explore the ceaseless debate about government, community, history and identity that helps shape a collective and individual consciousness.

This course examines the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people draw on a range of personal, social and cultural resources to compensate for adversities brought about by colonization. It explores agency, successes and joys as well as the ways that people live with the challenges and traumas of history.