Locating Australia (AUST102)
Semester 2 / 2012

Texts

Australia Is Not an Island John Mateer , 2006 single work essay (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 65 no. 1 2006; (p. 89-93)
y separately published work icon Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective Ann Curthoys (editor), Marilyn Lake (editor), Canberra : ANU E Press , 2005 Z1475759 2005 anthology criticism (taught in 1 units)

'This volume brings together historians of imperialism and race, travel and modernity, Islam and India, the Pacific and the Atlantic to show how a ‘transnational’ approach to history offers fresh insights into the past. Transnational history is a form of scholarship that has been revolutionising our understanding of history in the last decade. With a focus on interconnectedness across national borders of ideas, events, technologies and individual lives, it moves beyond the national frames of analysis that so often blinker and restrict our understanding of the past. Many of the essays also show how expertise in ‘Australian history’ can contribute to and benefit from new transnational approaches to history. Through an examination of such diverse subjects as film, modernity, immigration, politics and romance, Connected Worlds weaves an historical matrix which transports the reader beyond the local into a realm which re-defines the meaning of humanity in all its complexity. Contributors include Tony Ballantyne, Desley Deacon, John Fitzgerald, Patrick Wolfe and Angela Woollacott.' (Publication summary)

Description

Where is Australia? Is it in Asia? Or is it an extension of Europe as part of the former British Empire? Is it a satellite of the USA? Or is it a part of the Pacific? What about the Tasman World? Or the Southern Ocean and Antarctica? This subject locates Australia and Australian history in a regional and global context. It asks: how does thinking 'transnationally' contribute to our understanding of a nation's development? AUST102 takes students beyond national borders to critically explore the ways in which a vast network of economic, political and cultural relationships have helped create Australia.

Assessment

Short answer assessment (20%), Library assignment 1-1200 words(30%), Research essay 2000 words(40%), Class participation (10%)

Other Details

Offered in: 2009
Current Campus: Wollongong
Levels: Undergraduate
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