Module Identifier IP38920  
Module Title AUSTRALIA, ABORIGINES AND ASIA : A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS?  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Timothy J Dunne  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Lecture   11 Hours (11 x 1 hour)  
  Seminars / Tutorials   8 Hours (8 x 1 hour)  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Essay of 3000 words   50%  
  Semester Assessment   An assessed group presentation   25%  
  Semester Assessment   Essay of 1500 words   25%  
  Supplementary Exam   Students may, subject to Faculty approval, have the opportunity to resit this module, normally during the supplementary examination period. For further clarification please contact the Teaching Programme Administrator in the Department of International Politics.    

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module, students will be able to:

- Critically assess the competing explanations for the conquest of Australia
- Describe and analyze migration flows and settlement patterns
- Evaluate central concepts such as national identity, sovereignty, and regionalism
- Compare different explanations of Australia's foreign policy priorities
- Analyze the relationship between theory and practice in specific contexts

10 ECTS credits

Brief description

This module provides a regional focus to many key conceptual and practical questions concerning three overlapping civilizations: Australia, Asia, and Aboriginal Australia.

Aims

This module aims to treat Australia and the Asia Pacific Region as a focal point for considering many key questions to do with security, political economy, and race / indigenous peoples. Central to the thinking behind the module is the idea that regions and states are human constructs: they are, what they are, because they were made this way. One of the core aims is to look critically at the social structures we take for granted, to do with identity, sovereignty, and security.

Content

The course begins by looking at the conquest of Australia. Why was Australia thought to be an appropriate place for the establishment of a penal colony? What assumptions about race, religion, and political space were being made by the colonists and later, by the settlers? The second part of the course considers the external dynamics of Australia in the Asia-Pacific region. It asks whether Australia's geography will ultimately become more important than its history. The other dimension here is the Asian view of Australia: does its neighbours want Australia to play a leading role in the creation of an Asia Pacific economic and security community?

Transferable skills

This module provides students with an opportunity to develop, practice and test a wide range of transferable skills which will help them to conceptualize and evaluate the relationship between identity, sovereignty and regionalism. Directed reading, in advance of weekly seminars, will enable students to practice and enhance their reading, comprehension and thinking skills. Part of the value of the module is encouraging students to develop inter-disciplinary skills as they engage with literatures on indigenous peoples, foreign policy analysis, and Asian studies. Lectures aid the development of comprehension skills, including note-taking: seminars help to enhance communicative skills as well as the ability to listen and participate actively in focused discussion. The module also involves one case study which is designed to show the relevance of theory to a particular context. Such an approach to learning requires that students immerse themselves in a particular role. The list of transferable skills culminates with varied forms of assessment: the writing of a short essay indicating analytical skills, a group presentation (drawing on cooperative and communicative skills) and a long essay signifying independent research.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Mudrooroo. (1995) Us Mob: History, Culture, Struggle: An Introduction to Indigenous Peoples. London: HarperCollins
Richard White. (1981) Inventing Australia. St Leonards, NSW
Gareth Evans and Bruce Grant. (1995) Australia's Foreign Relations. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press