This subject will provide students with an introduction to the complexity, challenges and richness of Australian Indigenous life and cultures. Drawing on a wide range of diverse and dynamic guest lecturers, this subject gives students an opportunity to encounter Australian Indigenous knowledges, histories and experiences through interdisciplinary perspectives. Across three thematic blocks - Indigenous Knowledges, Social and Political Contexts and Representation/Self-Representation - this subject engages contemporary cultural and intellectual debate. Social and political contexts will be considered through engagement with specific issues and a focus on Indigenous cultural forms, which may include literature, music, fine arts, museum exhibitions and performance, will allow students to consider self-representation as a means by which to disrupt and expand perceptions of Aboriginality.

Who we are and what we do is all tangled up in our identity. This subject considers how identities are constructed and maintained through mediated processes of self and other. The subject investigates the myriad demands and devices that figure in constructing our senses of self and other (including language, leisure, beliefs and embodied practices). By exploring identity in diverse contexts, across time and place, the subject maps varying conceptions of self and other and how these conceptions are constructed and maintained. A key focus is on how these mediated conceptions of self and other are translated into material practices of inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, violence and criminalisation.

Language plays a central role in the central disciplinary areas in the humanities and social sciences. This subject gives students tools for thinking about language in a range of disciplines, including linguistics, history, sociology, politics, literary studies, anthropology, language studies, psychology and psychoanalytic theory. It shows how language can be analysed as a system, but also how language features centrally in politcal and social contexts: for example, in the processing of the claims of asylum seekers, in developing views of ethnicity, race and nation, and in colonialism; and in the construction of gendered and sexual identity. The role of language in the psyche, and the process of acquisition of languages in children and in adults, are also important topics. Knowing how to think about language, and familiarity with the main thinkers who have discussed language in a range of humanities and social science disciplines, provide an indispensable basis for study in any area of the Arts degree.

Reason, many believe, is what makes us human. Until recently, most scientists and philosophers agreed that the ability to use the mind to analyse and interpret the world is something intrinsic to the nature of our species. Reason has a long and extraordinary history. We will explore a number of inter-related themes: the nature of reason from Ancient Greece to our contemporary world; the ever shifting relationship between reason and faith; reason's place in the development of scientific experimentation and thinking; shifting perspectives about the uses of Reason and, finally, how reason relates to theories of the mind, exploring the tensions between reason, the passions and the will.

Reason will take you on a journey from Plato's cave to the neuro-scientists' lab. We will visit revolutions in science, thinking and politics. We will explore the impact of some of the great philosophers of history, including Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Bentham, Coleridge, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault and many more besides. By the end of this subject you will have a deep understanding of the importance of the idea of reason to human history and philosophy. You might, even, be able to answer the question: 'does reason exist?'

Reason is an Arts Foundation Subject and we will argue that understanding the history and philosophy of reason provides great insights into many aspects of the humanities from political philosophy to understanding history. We will, of course, be paying particular attention to the foundational skills that will help you successfully complete your Arts major: particularly critical thinking and argument development.

Humans grapple with representations of themselves and their contexts. They also like to imagine other possible worlds. We use words, language, images, sounds and movement to construct narratives and stories, large and small, about the trivial and the profound, the past and the future. These representations can help us to understand worlds but they can also create worlds for us. This subject explores how different genres such as speech, writing, translation, film, theatre and art generate representations of social life, imagination and the human condition. A key aim of the subject is to develop a critical appreciation of how language, images and embodied gestures are used to construct empowering and disempowering discourses.

The idea of power is a way to grasp the character of social relations. Investigating power can tell us about who is in control and who may benefit from such arrangements. Power can be a zero-sum game of domination. It can also be about people acting together to enact freedom. This subject examines the diverse and subtle ways power may be exercised. It considers how power operates in different domains such as markets, political systems and other social contexts. It also examines how power may be moderated by such things as regulation and human rights. A key aim is to explore how differing perspectives portray power relations and how issues of power distribution may be characterised and addressed.

Anthropology explores the different ways people live their lives. In this subject, an introduction to foundational knowledge in the discipline, you will be exposed to a variety of social and cultural forms around the world and the methods and theories developed to understand them as diverse expressions of a shared human condition. Topical issues that will be encountered include how different peoples around the world experience and react to pleasure, suffering and death; use ritual, religion and magic to understand and change their worlds; organise their sexual and family lives and their friendship networks; create and maintain their identities; and maintain and resist the relations of power in which they are all enmeshed. Comparative ethnographic examples will illustrate a range of disciplinary concerns in anthropological research ethics and practice, the dynamic interaction between processes of order and change in social life, and its effects on how people experience the different worlds they inhabit.

This subject is an introduction to the developing world and development studies from the perspectives of Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, Sociology and Geography. Beginning with a critical examination of the legacies of colonialism, we will ask to what extent they can be argued to have created the current divide between the developed, global North and the developing or under-developed global South. We will then focus on the relationship between rich and poor countries in an increasingly globalised world, identifying the manifestations of global inequality and ways of addressing it. Students will also examine the roles of international organisations and global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals in mediating relations between global North and South. Key development issues such as poverty, aid, debt, trade, migration, climate change and sustainability will be investigated through the use of case studies from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

How is our sense of who we are shaped by society and culture? In what ways do such understandings of personhood vary cross-culturally? This subject addresses these concerns from an anthropological perspective, applying theories of personhood, identity and relatedness to broader topics such as nationalism, globalisation, migration, travel and tourism and the life course. We will investigate comparative and ethnographic case studies of the person and their relevance to a range of political, ethical, economic and cultural concerns about embryo rights, global meanings of childhood, nationalism as everyday practice and the role of biomedicine, new genetics and digital technologies in shaping understandings of personhood across the world today.

This subject introduces a wide range of anthropological interests in the human body from a comparative ethnographic perspective. It explores topics such as body image and eating disorders, trans/gendered bodies, sporting/dancing bodies, body modifications, consciousness and the body/mind continuum, commodified bodies, disabled bodies and body healing. We will investigate how the human body is individually and culturally constructed and socially experienced through a critical examination of a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature, as well as through the student's own bodily experiences and their exploratory field research.

This subject explores how people come to value things as they do, critically engaging with a range of theoretical and ethnographic literature to ask how value may be created, enhanced and realised in different ways. Students will be introduced to ways that anthropologists analyse and interpret variation in economic engagement, examining the assumptions about human behaviour that inform classical, political and culturalist approaches to economics, and where these different approaches locate understandings of value. Ethnographic examples will be used to explore topics such as: 'gift' and 'commodity' economies; diverse economies; debt; capitalism and finance and the meaning of 'money' and its effects. Students should become familiar with some of the different ways and reasons people engage in economic behaviour as well as developing a critical approach to the study of capitalism and transnational economic connections.

This subject offers a specifically anthropological perspective to understandings of gender and sexuality, providing an empirical, cross-cultural framework with which to evaluate and examine various theoretical perspectives. Topics covered include the influence of an anthropologist's gendered and sexual identity in shaping ethnography, the meaning of heterosexuality in a cross-cultural context, gender and Islam, gender and kinship, gendered experiences of migration, male and female sex tourism, and experiences of masculinity, femininity and third gender categories and identities in the world today. On completion of the subject students should have gained knowledge of gender-based systems of social classification in a global context and through this develop a critical awareness of the representation of women's and men's lives in ethnography.

Ethnicity and nationalism are of special concern to anthropologists, especially in instances where anthropology becomes part of nationalist discourse. This subject considers ethnicity and nationalism through the in-depth analysis of a case study from the developing world, but draws on comparative material from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Pacific. Students will examine different theoretical approaches to ethnicity, nationalism and ethnic nationalism, in particular the relationships between the formation of nation states and processes of 'development', 'transition' and 'underdevelopment'; the roles of actors, from political actors to ordinary people, in the construction of national projects; the relationships between historic and contemporary processes in the construction of national projects; how national projects are constructed, enforced and culturally maintained and the relationships between globalisation, migration, transnationalism and ethnic nationalism in the modern world.

In contemporary societies, few of our activities are anonymous. From paying with credit cards to browsing the internet, an increasing amount of information is stored and processed in the interest of public safety. But who is monitoring these data, and why? Looking at ethnographic and historical analyses of new and old methods of surveillance, this subject explores the “Deep State” and its transformations over time. Throughout the semester, we will examine the networks of economic, political, and military interests that covertly enable different forms of state surveillance. Looking ethnographically at how the experiences of diplomats, spies, and soldiers changed over time, we will understand how states adapt to the digital era—and how common citizens navigate a world without privacy. Students will be required to engage with interactive activities in order to finish this assessment.

This subject introduces students to the evolution of multiple paradigms of development, considers the strategies used to pursue development in practice, and identifies the key trends and issues of development in the 21 st century. We examine the theories promulgated about the developing world - of modernization and 'catch-up', of structuralism and dependency, of human development, alternative and post-development. Students will be encouraged to understand the diverse trajectories of development by close analysis of specific case studies across the world. We will explore the development path of countries in East and South-East Asia, the BRICs and other developing countries. We also review key issues of relevance to the developing world such as poverty and inequality, health, globalization, industrialization, religion and conflict.

How do sex and gender operate in the world today, and what are their possible futures? Indeed, do these concepts have a future? Can they adequately capture the breadth, range and fluidity of contemporary and global sexed and gendered lives? Key themes explored in this subject include: current theories and experiences of sex and gender in the world today; the increasing instability of the concepts of sex and gender and their transformations; gender fluidity; the persistence of gender inequality; gender as a cultural category versus gender as lived bodily experience; and the uses and abuses of the gender concept. The subject culminates by considering imagined futures of everyday gender practices and of sexualities. These themes will be explored in a global and cross-cultural context.

This subject examines how social and cultural factors influence language, and the role language plays in structuring and representing social categories across cultures. It examines how society and language shape each other: how language represents and enables social interaction, and how social interaction influences the form of language. Specific topics to be covered include socially determined variation in language styles and registers, language varieties reflecting social class, gender and ethnic group. It also examines factors affecting language choice such as, bi- and multi-lingualism, and factors of language contact and change.

This is the Capstone subject for students majoring in Anthropology. Focusing on contemporary issues (such as relatedness, identity, personhood, value, modernity and embodiment) that have been encountered through the course of the Anthropology major, the subject is designed to enable students to reflect on and demonstrate what they have learned about anthropology as a discipline. Its format thus differs from other subjects, being built around a series of seminars that explore actual research projects of staff in the anthropology program and how, in each case, theory and ethnography inform the research process. Students will also work together in small groups to critically analyse and contextualise a particular ethnography, developing research and teamwork skills in doing so. The aims of the subject thus are simultaneously theoretical and practical; it will provide students with experience in recognising how theory shapes the ways questions are both asked and answered, and with the ways that 'doing' anthropology in turn shapes theory.

What is religion? What purpose does it serve? How does it vary across cultures? Can you have religion without god(s)? Why is it growing rapidly in many parts of the world despite predictions of its inevitable decline? Are new forms of faith emerging to replace the old forms? In this subject, we explore the symbolic systems and ritual practices that help us all make sense of our place in the social world, the political order, the environment, and the cosmos. Drawing on classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to religion, we ask new questions about the ancient and novel religious traditions that seem to be flourishing in the uncertain world of the early twenty-first century. The subject involves interactive lectures and small group discussions. Assessments offer students the chance to learn from and with peers; to practice the art of writing concise, engaging, research-based analysis aimed at a broad readership; and to undertake hands-on ethnographic observation of religious practice.

What sorts of inequalities are intensifying in the contemporary world? What dynamics are producing those intensifications? And how have anthropologists historically conceptualized the inequalities with which they gain firsthand experience through long-term fieldwork? Growing numbers of political and economic anthropologists are committed to exploring the ideological and material means by which systems of inequality are created, sustained, misrecognized, and challenged. Drawing principally on Marxist anthropology, post-structuralism and post-colonialism, this subject looks cross-culturally to explore the interrelationships between diverse forms and sources of power, the roles of colonialism and corporate globalization in configuring and sustaining local relations of inequality, and the rise of resistance movements that explicitly challenge exclusions based on class, gender, and ethnicity. Special attention will be paid to the effects of multinational corporations on local power relations and patterns of inequality throughout the world via brand marketing, legal reform, and corporate social responsibility. Case studies will be drawn from Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

This subject draws on ethnographic examples to explore the diverse ways that humans come to know and think about the natural world, understand their place in relation to that world, and interpret their roles and responsibilities in relation to other beings in the world. Engaging with a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature, it questions what people might mean when they talk of Nature, including human nature. Through considering topics such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, patterns of land tenure and management, the power of anthropomorphism and the naturalising of social differences and inequalities, students will develop an understanding of recent approaches to a key issue in anthropology – the relationship between Nature and Culture. How we imagine that relationship is deeply implicated in some of the questions we are all now having to confront. Do we work with Nature, or against it? Did we invent ‘Nature’ (another of those pesky dualities)? And have we now brought about ‘the end of nature’? Are we now living in the Anthropocene, or in a post-human/more-than-human world?

What makes innovation successful? How are innovative products or processes able to capture our imagination and desires? Can technology offer sustainable solutions for a world on the brink of ecological and social catastrophes? What are the social costs of innovation? This subject allows students to explore first-hand the social dynamics that make innovation possible. In partnership with startups, companies, or public sector innovators, students will conduct hands-on research to understand how new technologies, including robots or apps, can help solve social or business challenges. Students who take this subject will be introduced to design-thinking and asked to transform their observations and critiques into advice for building new solutions. Through its participatory approach, this subject allows students to become active contributors in the design process and build their creativity and research skills in the job market.

The subject examines the governance arrangements that have shaped the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since settlement. Prior to, at the time of, and since Federation, Indigenous Australians have been uniquely affected by a range of public policy settings, approaches and frameworks. Part One of the subject introduces students to foundational concepts in public policy making and then critically examines different ‘epochs’ in Australian Indigenous Public Policy: elimination, assimilation, self-determination and intervention. Part Two will explore various policies across these periods that have shaped Indigenous Australians’ experiences of land, family, health, education, employment and justice in different ways. Across both parts, students will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge about historical and contemporary political controversies, including: the Don Dale controversy, the refusal of The Uluru Statement from the Heart, the Closing the Gap framework and others. Students will be expected to use knowledge of particular cases to examine the social, political and institutional challenges that shape the landscape of contemporary Australian Indigenous Public Policy.

The subject examines major approaches and debates within contemporary sociological theory, and the different research directions that emerge from these approaches. Beginning with an overview of the classical foundations of sociological theory, the subject explores contemporary sociological theories which engage with questions of power, social order, and conflict. The subject also examines contemporary sociological approaches to critical issues including globalization, individualization, and identity. As the subject proceeds, we will examine how researchers construct, evaluate and modify theory to respond to transformations in social relations and practices. In this way, it will become evident that sociological theory is in a constant process of interaction with everyday social structures, relations and experiences. Students will complete the subject with knowledge of key approaches and debates in contemporary sociological theory, and with the capacity to use sociological theory to construct social research questions.

This subject will provide students with an introduction to the complexity, challenges and richness of Australian Indigenous life and cultures. Drawing on a wide range of diverse and dynamic guest lecturers, this subject gives students an opportunity to encounter Australian Indigenous knowledges, histories and experiences through interdisciplinary perspectives. Across three thematic blocks - Indigenous Knowledges, Social and Political Contexts and Representation/Self-Representation - this subject engages contemporary cultural and intellectual debate. Social and political contexts will be considered through engagement with specific issues and a focus on Indigenous cultural forms, which may include literature, music, fine arts, museum exhibitions and performance, will allow students to consider self-representation as a means by which to disrupt and expand perceptions of Aboriginality.

Who we are and what we do is all tangled up in our identity. This subject considers how identities are constructed and maintained through mediated processes of self and other. The subject investigates the myriad demands and devices that figure in constructing our senses of self and other (including language, leisure, beliefs and embodied practices). By exploring identity in diverse contexts, across time and place, the subject maps varying conceptions of self and other and how these conceptions are constructed and maintained. A key focus is on how these mediated conceptions of self and other are translated into material practices of inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, violence and criminalisation.

Language plays a central role in the central disciplinary areas in the humanities and social sciences. This subject gives students tools for thinking about language in a range of disciplines, including linguistics, history, sociology, politics, literary studies, anthropology, language studies, psychology and psychoanalytic theory. It shows how language can be analysed as a system, but also how language features centrally in politcal and social contexts: for example, in the processing of the claims of asylum seekers, in developing views of ethnicity, race and nation, and in colonialism; and in the construction of gendered and sexual identity. The role of language in the psyche, and the process of acquisition of languages in children and in adults, are also important topics. Knowing how to think about language, and familiarity with the main thinkers who have discussed language in a range of humanities and social science disciplines, provide an indispensable basis for study in any area of the Arts degree.

Reason, many believe, is what makes us human. Until recently, most scientists and philosophers agreed that the ability to use the mind to analyse and interpret the world is something intrinsic to the nature of our species. Reason has a long and extraordinary history. We will explore a number of inter-related themes: the nature of reason from Ancient Greece to our contemporary world; the ever shifting relationship between reason and faith; reason's place in the development of scientific experimentation and thinking; shifting perspectives about the uses of Reason and, finally, how reason relates to theories of the mind, exploring the tensions between reason, the passions and the will.

Reason will take you on a journey from Plato's cave to the neuro-scientists' lab. We will visit revolutions in science, thinking and politics. We will explore the impact of some of the great philosophers of history, including Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Bentham, Coleridge, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault and many more besides. By the end of this subject you will have a deep understanding of the importance of the idea of reason to human history and philosophy. You might, even, be able to answer the question: 'does reason exist?'

Reason is an Arts Foundation Subject and we will argue that understanding the history and philosophy of reason provides great insights into many aspects of the humanities from political philosophy to understanding history. We will, of course, be paying particular attention to the foundational skills that will help you successfully complete your Arts major: particularly critical thinking and argument development.

Humans grapple with representations of themselves and their contexts. They also like to imagine other possible worlds. We use words, language, images, sounds and movement to construct narratives and stories, large and small, about the trivial and the profound, the past and the future. These representations can help us to understand worlds but they can also create worlds for us. This subject explores how different genres such as speech, writing, translation, film, theatre and art generate representations of social life, imagination and the human condition. A key aim of the subject is to develop a critical appreciation of how language, images and embodied gestures are used to construct empowering and disempowering discourses.

The idea of power is a way to grasp the character of social relations. Investigating power can tell us about who is in control and who may benefit from such arrangements. Power can be a zero-sum game of domination. It can also be about people acting together to enact freedom. This subject examines the diverse and subtle ways power may be exercised. It considers how power operates in different domains such as markets, political systems and other social contexts. It also examines how power may be moderated by such things as regulation and human rights. A key aim is to explore how differing perspectives portray power relations and how issues of power distribution may be characterised and addressed.

Anthropology explores the different ways people live their lives. In this subject, an introduction to foundational knowledge in the discipline, you will be exposed to a variety of social and cultural forms around the world and the methods and theories developed to understand them as diverse expressions of a shared human condition. Topical issues that will be encountered include how different peoples around the world experience and react to pleasure, suffering and death; use ritual, religion and magic to understand and change their worlds; organise their sexual and family lives and their friendship networks; create and maintain their identities; and maintain and resist the relations of power in which they are all enmeshed. Comparative ethnographic examples will illustrate a range of disciplinary concerns in anthropological research ethics and practice, the dynamic interaction between processes of order and change in social life, and its effects on how people experience the different worlds they inhabit.

This subject introduces a wide range of anthropological interests in the human body from a comparative ethnographic perspective. It explores topics such as body image and eating disorders, trans/gendered bodies, sporting/dancing bodies, body modifications, consciousness and the body/mind continuum, commodified bodies, disabled bodies and body healing. We will investigate how the human body is individually and culturally constructed and socially experienced through a critical examination of a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature, as well as through the student's own bodily experiences and their exploratory field research.

This subject explores how people come to value things as they do, critically engaging with a range of theoretical and ethnographic literature to ask how value may be created, enhanced and realised in different ways. Students will be introduced to ways that anthropologists analyse and interpret variation in economic engagement, examining the assumptions about human behaviour that inform classical, political and culturalist approaches to economics, and where these different approaches locate understandings of value. Ethnographic examples will be used to explore topics such as: 'gift' and 'commodity' economies; diverse economies; debt; capitalism and finance and the meaning of 'money' and its effects. Students should become familiar with some of the different ways and reasons people engage in economic behaviour as well as developing a critical approach to the study of capitalism and transnational economic connections.

This subject offers a specifically anthropological perspective to understandings of gender and sexuality, providing an empirical, cross-cultural framework with which to evaluate and examine various theoretical perspectives. Topics covered include the influence of an anthropologist's gendered and sexual identity in shaping ethnography, the meaning of heterosexuality in a cross-cultural context, gender and Islam, gender and kinship, gendered experiences of migration, male and female sex tourism, and experiences of masculinity, femininity and third gender categories and identities in the world today. On completion of the subject students should have gained knowledge of gender-based systems of social classification in a global context and through this develop a critical awareness of the representation of women's and men's lives in ethnography.

Ethnicity and nationalism are of special concern to anthropologists, especially in instances where anthropology becomes part of nationalist discourse. This subject considers ethnicity and nationalism through the in-depth analysis of a case study from the developing world, but draws on comparative material from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Pacific. Students will examine different theoretical approaches to ethnicity, nationalism and ethnic nationalism, in particular the relationships between the formation of nation states and processes of 'development', 'transition' and 'underdevelopment'; the roles of actors, from political actors to ordinary people, in the construction of national projects; the relationships between historic and contemporary processes in the construction of national projects; how national projects are constructed, enforced and culturally maintained and the relationships between globalisation, migration, transnationalism and ethnic nationalism in the modern world.

How is our sense of who we are shaped by society and culture? In what ways do such understandings of personhood vary cross-culturally? This subject addresses these concerns from an anthropological perspective, applying theories of personhood, identity and relatedness to broader topics such as nationalism, globalisation, migration, travel and tourism and the life course. We will investigate comparative and ethnographic case studies of the person and their relevance to a range of political, ethical, economic and cultural concerns about embryo rights, global meanings of childhood, nationalism as everyday practice and the role of biomedicine, new genetics and digital technologies in shaping understandings of personhood across the world today.

In contemporary societies, few of our activities are anonymous. From paying with credit cards to browsing the internet, an increasing amount of information is stored and processed in the interest of public safety. But who is monitoring these data, and why? Looking at ethnographic and historical analyses of new and old methods of surveillance, this subject explores the “Deep State” and its transformations over time. Throughout the semester, we will examine the networks of economic, political, and military interests that covertly enable different forms of state surveillance. Looking ethnographically at how the experiences of diplomats, spies, and soldiers changed over time, we will understand how states adapt to the digital era—and how common citizens navigate a world without privacy. Students will be required to engage with interactive activities in order to finish this assessment.

What is religion? What purpose does it serve? How does it vary across cultures? Can you have religion without god(s)? Why is it growing rapidly in many parts of the world despite predictions of its inevitable decline? Are new forms of faith emerging to replace the old forms? In this subject, we explore the symbolic systems and ritual practices that help us all make sense of our place in the social world, the political order, the environment, and the cosmos. Drawing on classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to religion, we ask new questions about the ancient and novel religious traditions that seem to be flourishing in the uncertain world of the early twenty-first century. The subject involves interactive lectures and small group discussions. Assessments offer students the chance to learn from and with peers; to practice the art of writing concise, engaging, research-based analysis aimed at a broad readership; and to undertake hands-on ethnographic observation of religious practice.

What sorts of inequalities are intensifying in the contemporary world? What dynamics are producing those intensifications? And how have anthropologists historically conceptualized the inequalities with which they gain firsthand experience through long-term fieldwork? Growing numbers of political and economic anthropologists are committed to exploring the ideological and material means by which systems of inequality are created, sustained, misrecognized, and challenged. Drawing principally on Marxist anthropology, post-structuralism and post-colonialism, this subject looks cross-culturally to explore the interrelationships between diverse forms and sources of power, the roles of colonialism and corporate globalization in configuring and sustaining local relations of inequality, and the rise of resistance movements that explicitly challenge exclusions based on class, gender, and ethnicity. Special attention will be paid to the effects of multinational corporations on local power relations and patterns of inequality throughout the world via brand marketing, legal reform, and corporate social responsibility. Case studies will be drawn from Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

This subject draws on ethnographic examples to explore the diverse ways that humans come to know and think about the natural world, understand their place in relation to that world, and interpret their roles and responsibilities in relation to other beings in the world. Engaging with a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature, it questions what people might mean when they talk of Nature, including human nature. Through considering topics such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, patterns of land tenure and management, the power of anthropomorphism and the naturalising of social differences and inequalities, students will develop an understanding of recent approaches to a key issue in anthropology – the relationship between Nature and Culture. How we imagine that relationship is deeply implicated in some of the questions we are all now having to confront. Do we work with Nature, or against it? Did we invent ‘Nature’ (another of those pesky dualities)? And have we now brought about ‘the end of nature’? Are we now living in the Anthropocene, or in a post-human/more-than-human world?

What makes innovation successful? How are innovative products or processes able to capture our imagination and desires? Can technology offer sustainable solutions for a world on the brink of ecological and social catastrophes? What are the social costs of innovation? This subject allows students to explore first-hand the social dynamics that make innovation possible. In partnership with startups, companies, or public sector innovators, students will conduct hands-on research to understand how new technologies, including robots or apps, can help solve social or business challenges. Students who take this subject will be introduced to design-thinking and asked to transform their observations and critiques into advice for building new solutions. Through its participatory approach, this subject allows students to become active contributors in the design process and build their creativity and research skills in the job market.