Outline

Overview

This unit examines the global movement of people, animals and things to Australia. Australia's landscapes, peoples, animals, food cultures and diseases have been shaped by migratory flows. This unit equips students working in diverse fields to understand the challenges and uncertainties of a rapidly changing, diverse and complex world.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Gender and Cultural Studies
Credit points	2
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Claudia Sirdah, claudia.sirdah@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Participation	Participation Participation online	20%	-	n/a
Outcomes assessed:
Online task	Multiple choice questionnaire Multiple choice questionnaire completed on Canvas.	15%	-	n/a
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Short essay Short essay	40%	-	800wd
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Reflection Reflection	25%	-	300wd
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

This unit uses standards-based assessment for award of assessment marks. Your assessments will be evaluated solely on the basis of your individual performance.

General advice on grade descriptors are available on the University of Sydney Current Students website: https://sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades.html

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 04	Migration Stories	Online class (6 hr)
Week 05	Ships and storaways	Online class (6 hr)
Week 06	Discussion board exercise	Online class (5 hr)
Week 07	Borders and moats	Online class (6 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 2 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 40-50 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Refer to canvas modules for assigned and reccomended readings.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. demonstrate a critical understanding of the central role that migration plays in the Australian national imagination and in myths of nationhood
LO2. demonstrate critical understanding of migration as a complex process of continual flows, not just of people, but also of objects, technologies, natural products and ideas
LO3. demonstrate critical understanding of the complexity of Indigenous relations to the idea of migration
LO4. demonstrate critical understanding of the political, cultural and psychological import of the idea of the border
LO5. engage at an elementary level with the work of Arjun Appadurai and Mary Douglas
LO6. critically analyse a contemporary media or textual representation of migration for what it reveals about social and cultural anxieties.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

No changes have been made since this unit was last offered

Additional information

Week One: Migration Stories: Narrating a Nation

In this module, called Migration Stories: Narrating a Nation, we will look at stories of the Australian nation, asking Who are we? What is Australia? And are all Australians migrant in one way or another? We will also consider the ways in which we narrate the nation, and the relationship between these narratives and those of migration to the country.

By the end of this module you will be familiar with concepts of ‘myth’, ‘mythology’ and ‘narrative’; you will have learned about the Cultural Studies methodology of semiotic analysis; you will be able to think critically about Australian cultural identity, and your own part in the country’s migration history.

The assessment task is: a multiple choice quiz.

If you are taking this unit at 0cp (OLEO2108), you will take a 0cp quiz in which you will need to achieve at least 80% in order to have successful completion noted on your transcript. However, you will be able to take the quiz over multiple attempts. If you choose to move on into the 2cp version (OLET2109), you will need to take the 2cp quiz in order to join in with the other 2cp students. If or when you are taking this unit at 2cp (OLET2109), you will take the 2cp quiz as the first of your assessable tasks. You are only allowed one attempt at this quiz and your score will make up 15% of your final mark.

Week Two: Ships and Stowaways: What also Travels?

In this module, Ships and Stowaways, we will expand our consideration of migration to consider what also travels, such as: animals, insects, plants, diseases, ideas and technologies. Here, students will have a chance to consider migration as it relates specifically to their own area of disciplinary expertise, be that health, agriculture and/or biological sciences, or the humanities.

By the end of this section you will be familiar with Arjun Appadurai’s notion of ‘scapes’ as a means of understanding and explaining movements in a time of intensified globalisation. You will understand geography as socially and culturally constructed; and you will have developed flexible approaches to difficult ethical questions around the impacts of introduced species and notions of cultural heritage.

The assessment task is: a 300-word critical reflection, using Appadurai’s notion of ‘scapes’, on your own interaction with globalisation (worth 25% of overall mark).

Week Three: Face-to-Face Intensive

Held on campus, this 5-hr intensive will give students the chance to share their thoughts on course questions with a tutor and other students, to ask questions, to work in groups and to discuss and workshop their final assessment.

Following directly from Module Two: What Also Travels, the intensive will also allow students to apply course concepts to their specific area disciplinary expertise or industry interest, working through case studies developed in groups; and will also give students an opportunity to collectively attempt a critical media analysis, as further preparation for the final assessment.

Week Four: Borders and Moats: Responding to the Unfamiliar

In this final week, we will deepen our conceptual work, and further develop our analytical tools, taking up the notion of ‘borders’ and thinking about how they operate in Australia’s cultural, political and physical landscape. We will consider how ideas of purity and danger shape our cultural systems, and our responses to the unfamiliar.

By the end of this section you will have worked through some complex ethical dilemmas, such as: how to determine when borders are necessary or justified, and when might their instatement be inhumane? What exactly are Australian values, and how should we ‘protect’ or ‘police’ them? You will be familiar with the Foucauldian concept of ‘discourse’, and will have learned the meaning of ‘moral panics’ and ‘border policing’.

This section includes two short lectures alongside the required readings.

Following this final module, you will be required to submit your final assessment task: an 800-word critical media analysis (worth 40% of your overall mark).

SEMINARS

Semester 1 2020

This course runs over a 4-week period, from week 4-7, with a one-time face-to-face intensive in week 6. Semester 1 classes are as follows:

Friday 27 March 9AM-2PM Education Annexe Sem Rm 311

Friday 3rd April: 9AM-2PM Quadrangle Building Latin 2

Saturday 4th April: 9AM-2PM ABS Seminar Room 1100

Sunday 5th April: 9AM-2PM ABS Seminar Room 1100

All students should already be enrolled in one of these classes.

Semester 2 2020

This course runs over a 4-week period, from week 4-7, with a one-time face-to-face intensive in week 6. Semester 2 classes TBA.

Additional costs

N/A.

Site visit guidelines

N/A.

Work, health and safety

N/A.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Additional costs

Site visit guidelines

Work, health and safety

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

OLET2109: Global Ethics: Migration and Nation

Semester 2, 2020 [Online] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Additional costs

Site visit guidelines

Work, health and safety

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect