his3aeh aust environmental history
AUSTRALIAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY: GONDWANA TO GLOBAL WARMING
HIS3AEH
Not currently offered
Credit points: 15
Subject outline
'Gondwana', the ancient super continent, evolved over forty millenia into several continents including Australia. Just two centuries after European settlement, the human impact on the land, massive species extinction, and climate change, pose serious threats to the continent's fragile ecology. Students will consider Australia's geological origins; Indigenous land use; the competing ideas of land and land use among early settlers; and how various forms of land use shaped, and changed the environment. We will explore in turn how the Australian environment shaped humans. Students will study Australia as part of a global environment, by understanding how settlement was an artefact of colonialism and Empire, and the impact of environmental thinking on Australia and its participation in the global environmental movement. Students will research environmental history locally and/or globally, to understand Australia's changing environment in the context of calls for a sustainable future.
SchoolSchool of Humanities & Social Sciences
Credit points15
Subject Co-ordinatorKerry Nixon
Available to Study Abroad StudentsYes
Subject year levelYear Level 3 - UG
Exchange StudentsYes
Subject particulars
Subject rules
Prerequisites 30 credit points of second-year History and/or Art History
Co-requisitesN/A
Incompatible subjects HIS2AEH
Equivalent subjectsN/A
Special conditionsN/A
Learning resources
Readings
| Resource Type | Title | Resource Requirement | Author and Year | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Readings | How a continent created a nation, | Preliminary | Robin, L. | UNSW PRESS 2007 |
Graduate capabilities & intended learning outcomes
01. Focusing on time and context, analyse continuity and change
- Activities:
- Reflective essay
- Related graduate capabilities and elements:
- Writing(Writing)
- Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking)
- Inquiry/ Research(Inquiry/ Research)
02. In a team & individually, reflect on strengths and weaknesses of other historians' accounts when constructing their own historical accounts.
- Activities:
- Weekly team discussion groups; 2200 word individual SELF-CHOSEN and SELF -DIRECTED RESEARCH essay [abstracts and annotated bibliography MANDATORY]
- Related graduate capabilities and elements:
- Inquiry/ Research(Inquiry/ Research)
- Creative Problem-solving(Creative Problem-solving)
- Writing(Writing)
- Teamwork(Teamwork)
- Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking)
03. In a team and individually, assimilate historians' lines of arguments and use of sources in relation to a particular historical problem, placing all in their contexts.
- Activities:
- Weekly team discussions. 2200 word individual SELF-CHOSEN and SELF -DIRECTED RESEARCH essay [abstracts and annotated bibliography MANDATORY]; reflective essay
- Related graduate capabilities and elements:
- Inquiry/ Research(Inquiry/ Research)
- Creative Problem-solving(Creative Problem-solving)
- Teamwork(Teamwork)
- Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking)
- Writing(Writing)
04. In a team and individually, reflect explicitly on the use of primary sources: the student's own, and other historians'.
- Activities:
- Weekly team discussions, synopses, online postings.Research essay
- Related graduate capabilities and elements:
- Writing(Writing)
- Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking)
- Creative Problem-solving(Creative Problem-solving)
- Teamwork(Teamwork)
- Inquiry/ Research(Inquiry/ Research)
05. In a team investigate a historical topic and frame a response in any one of a variety of history genres.
- Activities:
- Weekly team discussion tasks, online postings
- Related graduate capabilities and elements:
- Writing(Writing)
- Inquiry/ Research(Inquiry/ Research)
- Creative Problem-solving(Creative Problem-solving)
- Teamwork(Teamwork)
- Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking)
06. Write properly referenced essays using primary & secondary sources to frame a line of argument about a past.
- Activities:
- 2200 word individual SELF-CHOSEN and SELF -DIRECTED RESEARCH essay [abstracts and annotated bibliography MANDATORY]; Reflective essay
- Related graduate capabilities and elements:
- Creative Problem-solving(Creative Problem-solving)
- Inquiry/ Research(Inquiry/ Research)
- Writing(Writing)
- Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking)
Subject options
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