55001 Cultural Studies Honours Seminar

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Writing and Contemporary Cultures
Credit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade and marks

Handbook description

This subject examines in depth some recent cultural studies methods and applies them to concepts of place and space as they emerge through students' original research in the field or archive. Creative and critical research and writing is encouraged so that students' relationships with their materials take up the challenge to originality as well as a critical and knowledgeable engagement with the diverse and interdisciplinary field of cultural studies. Studies of place or space offer a wide variety of ways of engaging with any of: 'city', 'country', 'neighbourhood', 'zone', 'camp', 'dwelling', 'network' or 'site', along with different modes of being in, or moving through, such spaces.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject students are expected to have:

reviewed and consolidated their existing knowledge of a range of theoretical approaches in cultural studies.
developed their knowledge of cultural and aesthetic debates, cultural institutions, traditions and perspectives with a view to refining their critical capacities.
developed their capacity to think creatively about future developments in cultural studies.
refined their rhetorical and empirical skills in spoken and written performance, and taken innovative approaches to their material, which may include multimedia forms of presentation.
undertaken original and contemporary projects in their own work.
built a capacity for advanced and proactive research both in the field and in the archives.

Contribution to graduate profile

to prepare students for postgraduate research
to emphasise interdisciplinary approaches
to integrate scholarship with creative approaches to contemporary culture
to undertake a program of advanced coursework.

Teaching and learning strategies

Regular seminars with interactive lectures and presentations.

Advice and suggestions for following up references outside class-sessions.

Structured encouragement of innovative and creative research through experiential learning.

Focus on using primary resources and relevant texts.

Class exercises designed to stimulate collaboration and exchange between students.

Online discussion forums for sharing ideas and developing concepts.

Content

The weekly topic areas and readings will be discussed with a view to developing students' original topics. The focus of this subject will explore different methodologies and fields of study within cultural studies. The focus will be on theories and ideas of place and space, including the following:

The Poetics of Space
Walking in the City
Neighbourhoods
Psychogeography
Heterotopias
The Country and the city
The Cinematic City
Virtual Spaces and Networks
Writing about Place

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Tutorial Presentation - Group Assignment

Objectives	a, b, c, d, f
Value	20%
Due	tba
Task	Students will be asked to lead discussion based on the readings for one topic in the course of the semester. You need to bring to class a series of questions, problematics, strategies, and if possible illustrations obtained through empirical research, which relate to the topic and readings for a particular week. Presentations should be a result of collaborative work in pairs or threes. Questions raised around topics should enable discussion and debate from all class members.
Assessment criteria	Presentations will: demonstrate a capacity for presenting the results of reading and research cogently, comprehensively and interactively; involve a creative and informed approach to issues considered from a variety of perspectives; raise concepts and problematics which relate to ongoing threads in the subject.

Assessment item 2: Short Essay

Objectives	a, b, c,d, e
Value	20%
Due	Week 7 (before non-teaching weeks)
Task	In the first six weeks of the course, a number of approaches to cultural studies are investigated. Have a look at one and devise a small writing exercise (theoretical, fictocritical, creative) - this can also be in visual or other forms with a written exegesis. Submitted work can take the form of a 1000 word piece (or 500 word commentary if audio/visual). It should show some appreciation of the ways in which a writing self calls upon key problems about where and when an 'I' exists to be written about.
Assessment criteria	The piece of writing will: answer a question that relates to the central concerns of the subject; be well written with correct use of punctuation and referencing; apply cultural studies-based methodologies to a particular field; develop innovative perspectives on particular concepts with imaginative illustrations.

Assessment item 3: Essay/Project

Objectives	a, b, c, d, e, f
Value	60%
Due	Week 13
Task	This is the final project of the semester and should display creative thinking and its expression in imaginative and appropriate written forms, quality of presentation (something that someone would like to read, view or hear about that they didn't know about before) and depth of observation. It should also be the result of both empirical and theoretical research. 'Writing' will have been already a concept rehearsed in our workshops and the reflection of the experience will be in evidence here: innovation, solid work in the archive and out in the street and an informed recourse to some of the theoretical writing that you have come in contact with this semester. The result should demonstrate original interpretations of existing approaches within cultural studies, combine empirical, descriptive, theoretical and creative writing strategies, and involve the organization and synthesis of diverse knowledges. 3-4,000 words, minimum 1,500 words commentary if an audio/visual project.
Assessment criteria	A successful essay/project will have the following characteristics: communicate clearly and imaginatively the theoretical dimensions of a student's chosen approach to place or identity; be well written and display the correct use of punctuation and referencing; show a high level of appreciation of the ways in which the topic calls upon key problems and approaches within cultural studies. involve an original, empirical dimension of research.

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

Appadurai, Arjun, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Augé, Marc, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, translated by John Howe, (London: Verso, 1995).

Bachelard, Gaston, The Poetics of Space (1958), Vintage, Boston, Mass., 1994. Barcan, Ruth and Ian Buchanan, eds. Imagining Australian Space : Cultural studies and Spatial Inquiry, Nedlands, W.A: University of Western Australia Press, 1999.

Benjamin, Walter, One-Way Street and Other Writings, London: Verso, 1979.

Betsky, Aaron Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire, William Morrow, NY,1997,

Bull, Michael Sounding Out the City:Personal Stereos and the Managament of Everyday Life, Oxford: Berg 2000

de Certeau, Michel The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley:University of California Press, 1984

Deleuze, Gilles & Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 1987

Donald, James, Imagining the Modern City, (London: Athlone Press, 1999).

Ferber, Sarah, et al. Eds. Beasts of Suburbia: Reinterpreting Cultures in Australian Suburbs, Melbourne University Press, 1994.

Foucault, Michel 'Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias', http://foucault.info/ documents/ heteroTopia/ foucault.heteroTopia.en.html

Latour, Bruno, Reassembling the social : an introduction to actor-network-theory, Oxford : Clarendon, 2005.

Lippard, Lucy R. The lure of the local : senses of place in a multicentered Society, New York : New Press, 1997.

Mitchell, WJT ed. Landscape and Power, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994.

Muecke, Stephen No Road (bitumen all the way), Fremantle, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1997.

Odzer, Cleo Virtual spaces : sex and the cyber citizen,New York : Berkley Books, 1997.

Sadler, Simon, The Situationist City, Cambridge Mass:MIT Press,1998

Shama, Simon, Landscape and Memory, New York : A.A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1995.

Sinclair, Ian, Lights Out for the Territory: Excursions in the Secret History of London, London: Granta Books 1997

Raymond Williams, The Country and the City, London, Chattoe & Windus 1973.