In this subject, we embark on a fascinating journey through the history of Western science, exploring changing ideas about the physical world beginning with the birth of natural philosophy in ancient Greece in the sixth century BC until the present day. The subject traces the dominance of Aristotle’s cosmology in the ancient and medieval world, and its subsequent demise during the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We then turn our attention to the emergence of a quantitative and experimental scientific culture that gradually took shape during the Enlightenment, before concluding with a brief look at Albert Einstein’s revolutionary new ideas of light and gravity. We cover topics such as Renaissance humanism, different theories of matter from the middle ages to the nineteenth century; the shift from the earth-centred to the sun-centred universe; Isaac Newton’s influence on the science of the eighteenth century; the search for the unity of forces in nature; and different explanations of the nature of gravity throughout history. This subject offers students a wide-ranging introduction to the history of science and a deeper appreciation of the way in which it has been shaped by social, political and cultural movements.

The fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries were a period of seminal transformation in the politics, beliefs, social structures and global views of those in the western world. Traumatized by the deaths of 25 million people from plague, the period witnessed endemic warfare, as well as rifts in the Catholic Church which culminated in the reformations of the sixteenth century. The period also saw the persecution of thousands of Jews, the intrusion of the Inquisition into people’s daily lives, and accusations of witchcraft. The New World of the Americas and the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope changed how Europeans saw themselves and other peoples, triggering a global era of mercantile and cultural contact. Politics and governance were transformed and the beginnings of nation states were reinforced by courtly rituals and splendor. Trade and resulting wealth created new patrons and saw the funding of unparalleled creative and artistic endeavours. The rise of the printing press facilitated the rapid spread of new ideas and the emergence of new voices from all social levels, women as well as men. Whether characterized as medieval, renaissance or reformation, this was a period of intense transformation, which laid the foundations for our modern world.

This subject forms part of the pathway ‘social and cultural history’ within the History major.

An accessible survey of some of the most important concepts and ideas in political thinking, with particular attention to the major traditions of Western political thought from Machiavelli to 20th century political theory. Emphasis will be on such core concepts as sovereignty, power, liberty, democracy and equality, and how these concepts have framed political debates within the Western tradition. While some of the focus will be on the original form and contestation of these ideas in their historical context, there will be a strong emphasis on how these initial debates led into more recent, 20th century political thinking and problems. Attention will also be paid to how these concepts have been taken up in ideological formations, which include (but are not necessarily limited to) liberalism, Marxism, and conservatism. Tutorial discussion focuses on critically reading primary source texts of famous political essays, which may include: Machiavelli, 'The Prince', Rousseau, 'Origin of Inequality', Marx and Engels, 'The Communist Manifesto', Mill, 'On Liberty', Wollstonecraft, ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women’, and Fanon, 'The Wretched of the Earth'.

This cross-disciplinary subject, taught on site in Florence, provides students with an introduction to Italian and European culture, language, history, art, and politics. It examines Western approaches to the use, production, and study of texts in their visual, oral, as well as written forms. By investigating the history and art of Florence and Italy, this subject encourages students to develop insights into the connections and transmission of ideas across a wide range of media: paintings, architecture, films, and other artefacts. This subject runs for three weeks. Whilst based in Florence, this subject will also include excursions to other Tuscan cities.

This subject will incur additional costs such as travel and accommodation. Students may be eligible to apply for the Melbourne Global Grant. Please ensure that you meet the eligibility criteria before applying. For further information on overseas study please use the following link:

https://students.unimelb.edu.au/your-course/study-overseas/explore-study-programs/semester-and-year-long-programs

An overview of music, culture and society in Western Europe from the 17th to the late 18th centuries. Through an examination of works by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel, J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, and J. Haydn, among others, students will explore the development of musical styles during this period in their cultural, social and political contexts.

In-class discussions, quizzes, and exercises will support students as they explore current scholarship on authenticity and performance practice, music and politics, gender and sexuality, and music and meaning.

Students will engage in an individual project on a work relevant to them, which they will explore from performative, historical and analytical perspectives. The three tutorial assignments will support them through the research process culminating in their essay.

Why were c. 50,000 people executed for witchcraft in late medieval and early modern Europe? In this subject we will test different historical models for explaining the shocking rise and ultimate decline of witchcraft as a crime with dramatic social repercussions. Along the way we will encounter accused female and male witches of all ages and all social levels, as well as inquisitors, judges, torturers, accusers and victims. Throughout the subject, we will explore the ways that historians might recover the fears and beliefs of individuals and communities in the past. We will assess the social, political, religious, legal, environmental and cultural underpinnings of witchcraft panics in locations including Germany, France, England, Scotland, Spain and Italy. We will encounter European anxieties about non-European diabolical magic, and the notorious New England Salem witch trials of 1692 in North America. Sources for this subject will include trial records, letters and treatises, visual images, and objects imbued with magical powers. Weekly seminars will be based around primary sources as well as scholarship by leading historians of the witch-hunts and of Europe during the period c. 1350–c. 1700, and will also include a witch trial scenario activity.

This course will cover the major authors in the rationalist and empiricist traditions of the early modern period in Europe: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. These thinkers were the first to articulate problems in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and moral philosophy that continue to shape the nature of philosophical inquiry today. For example, is free will compatible with the world described by modern science? Spinoza thought no; Kant thought yes. What of the reality of the external world? Here we will confront Berkeley’s argument for radical idealism – the notion that the world we perceive is a manifestation of our minds – and see that the case is not easy to dismiss. Causation is the most mundane thing in the world, but can you actually prove that one event causes another? You will think twice after we reckon with Hume.

The course will provide students with a solid grounding in the canonical texts of modern philosophy and introduce them to the issues raised by studying philosophy in its historical context. Beyond devoting attention to their arguments, the course will consider the self-understanding of these foundational figures in their efforts to accommodate the Scientific Revolution and to articulate a philosophical alternative to the religious concept of ‘truth’ that had dominated European thought throughout the medieval period. In short, we will address how and in what ways the contested relationship to science and religion is what makes modern philosophy ‘modern’ from its foundations.

This subject provides an introduction to the art of medieval Europe, from the Roman Empire (c. 300) to the late Middle Ages (c. 1400), surveying the major artistic developments across the period wth particular emphasis on Italy. It focuses on the function of imagery in specific historical and physical contexts, and considers the lives and motives of patrons, audiences as well as artists. Lectures introduce broad themes and topics, including: early medieval attitudes toward the classical past; European perceptions of Byzantium and Islam; political imagery in medieval courts; the cult of relics; the rise of devotional imagery; the emergence of the 'artist'; and the origins of the independent easel painting (the canonical vehicle of modern art). Tutorials focus on key art works from a range of media (including wall paintings, panel paintings, mosaic, sculpture, ivories, metalwork, tapestry, illuminated manuscripts, and stained glass), and include site visits to University of Melbourne collections and to the National Gallery of Victoria.

The subject explores the art and culture of Renaissance Europe between 1300 and 1600, with a particular focus on Italy, France, and Spain. This is one of the most pivotal periods in the history of art, when many of our contemporary ideas about art and artists were coming into being. Topics to be covered include the life and practice of individual artists, including such figures as Leonardo, Titian, and Holbein; the rise of art theory,; collecting and the birth of the museum; and the role of power and desire in the making and reception of art. Readings include both Renaissance texts and contemporary art history and theory. Tutorials will examine issues related to a given week’s lecture, or focus on related and object-based teaching in University and Melbourne collections.

This subject discusses central topics in human understandings about their environment in the Western world, particularly over the last 500 years. As Europeans began to venture out of their continent in the 15th century, they discovered new environments that challenged their received wisdom about themselves and their relationship to nature. Modern Science with the inherent idea of a mastery over nature is an outcome of this process. We will trace how in this history different interpretations of 'nature' have shaped science and have been shaped by science in return, including topics such as taxonomy, gardening, theories of life, and the rise of environmentalism. This subject should be of interest to students who would like to learn more about the origins of the environmental sciences, the dominance of scientific understandings of nature, and our ongoing attempts to live within a changing environment.

This subject examines the growth of Islamic civilisation in the period between the revelation of the Quran and the Spanish Christian reconquest of Granada in 1492. The study focuses on the Arabic speaking areas of western Asia, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, and its aim is to understand the conditions in which religiously founded dynastic states appeared, the relationships between religion, power, culture and economy, and the role of ethnicity and language in the creation of political and cultural communities. On completion of the subject students should be familiar with the theories about the causes of the rise and fall of the Islamic states and understand the role of religion in integrating and disintegrating multi-ethnic states.

In many cultures the study of celestial phenomena has taken a central role in the attempts to understand the world they lived in. The apparent regularity of sun, moon and stars enabled observers to formulate rules for the behaviour of celestial bodies and infer various conclusions from these rules, ranging from cosmological models to astrological predictions. The subject will study how astronomical knowledge has developed throughout the world. It combines simple astronomical observations and study of historical instruments with classes discussing the development of astronomy in different cultures ranging from East Asia via the Middle East and Europe to Central America and Australia.

Central questions will be: How were the same phenomena interpreted in different cultures? How were astronomical observations done? What political and religious functions did astronomy have? How was astronomical knowledge transmitted between different cultures? Why did early modern Europe become the place that developed the idea of modern science and how did other civilisations react to the astronomical developments in Europe? The subject will thus give an overview of the origins of our modern world view while offering reflections on cross-cultural studies of science.

This subject investigates the adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama from page to stage and beyond. It will introduce Shakespeare in historical and contemporary eras, in western and non-western sites of criticism and performance, including avant-garde and postmodern contexts for Shakespeare and Shakespearean adaptation in film and television. The subject will examine Shakespeare’s canon and key literary perspectives, including discussion of Shakespeare’s plays in relation to issues of cultural politics and power.

This subject will introduce students to the mediums, genres, and vocabulary of pre-modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean visual culture. Weekly lectures and tutorials will focus on either a specific medium (ink painting, calligraphy, ceramics, timber frame architecture, urban landscape, gardens) or a theme (tombs, Buddhism, Confucianism, genre painting, narrative painting) and through case studies, the political, social, and cultural factors that inform and shape works of art will be considered. The objects and sites under consideration will sometimes raise historical questions about the impact of one tradition upon the others, allowing us to see East Asia as a culturally connected macroregion; in other cases, the lectures will bring together works that require us to think critically about how we analyze and interpret the history of artistic production. Ultimately, this subject will provide students a foundation and framework to consider the history of East Asian art, as well as the tools by which to consider the dimensions and character of the common narratives applied to this history.

This subject will investigate a very old phenomenon: maritime raiding, or 'piracy'. The subject will concentrate on the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries when sea raiding activity interacted across the world system, but particularly in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic/West Indies. Students will address issues of how different definitions of piracy and corsairing have arisen in international law, the social economic and political motivations underlying sea-raiding and the relationship between pirates and other individual sea-raiders and the state, and efforts at control, both by the victims and by state action. It will also examine the personal social and sexual strategies that pirates adopted. We will also examine the ways in which pirates have been presented in fiction and film and the uses to which popular culture has put the phenomenon of piracy.

This intensive four-week study abroad subject is taught on location in Venice. The Renaissance in Italy is regarded by many as the locus of the first consumer society in the western world. Venice was at the centre of the new commercial revolution and the trade and production of the luxury goods that were its staple. With a series of lectures, tutorials and detailed site visits, this subject examines Venice's position as a trading empire, and the goods traded, produced and consumed from luxurious textiles, printed books, art works, dyes and spices, to slaves and prostitutes. Venetian authorities were actively involved in regulating consumption with the passage of extensive sumptuary laws, the development of copyright, the application of duties and taxes, and a complex system of surveillance. Students will complete this subject with a deeper understanding of Venetian culture and society and its contribution to the globalised luxury trades; one of the key markers of the west and of modernity.

In this subject students will read a selection of novels in French (from the Middle Ages to nowadays) in order to understand the evolution of the French novel. They will have to analyse the narrative structures and demonstrate critical awareness of the social, political and ideological context of each novel. The subject will be taught in French.

This intensive three week online subject will focus on one of the most creative times of French history, albeit one of the most turbulent, the Renaissance. With a series of lectures and detailed virtual site visits, this subject will examine some of the most striking examples of French Renaissance architecture, including the famed “Chateaux de la Loire” built during the late 16th century, and learn about arts and history. This course will use an interdisciplinary approach (linguistic, history, art history, botany, gastronomy etc.).

This intensive four-week study abroad subject will be taught in Venice between the end of November and December and focuses on the social and cultural spaces of Venice (real, imaginary, or interpreted): how these spaces were used, represented, and understood in early modern Venice.

The subject will also explore how these private and public spaces were used in the early modern production of communication, information, and culture.

Field trips to several sites and museums will provide students with the basic skills needed to work on fifteenth-century primary sources. On completion of this subject, students should have acquired an understanding of the use of languages and places in early modern Venice. Students will also be able to gain a basic knowledge of production and reception of culture and communication in early modern Venice and Europe.

In this subject, taught either as a winter overseas intensive or on campus in semester 2, students will study key aspects of Italian culture, through the analysis of literary texts and other materials. Students will also have the opportunity to study the development of Italian society. By the end of the subject, students will have been introduced to a number of themes and texts in order to gain some understanding of the process of cultural analysis. They should also have acquired the ability to examine critically various aspects of Italian history and culture. Please note the winter overseas intensive is not available in 2021.

This introductory subject examines Chinese society and culture by looking at the relationship between cultural systems and imperial power. It addresses the long-term development of social and intellectual structures in China in relation to empire as a political order and a system of territorial domination. Students should gain a foundation for further study of Chinese society and culture and specific skills in the writing of essays.

Taking the so-called ‘late Middle Ages’ (approximately 1300–1520) as its focus, this subject confronts a set of seemingly simple questions: what is an image, who makes images, and how do they circulate in the world? It examines the roles images played during this period from a variety of perspectives, including mystical devotion, market conditions, the emergence of print technology, (im)materiality, artisanal craft traditions, and political frameworks in which conflicting attitudes toward image-making were developed. More broadly,students in this upper-level subject will investigate different art historical approaches to this period and scrutinize the way art history as a discipline orders images, objects, and art temporally.

This subject develops two main threads. It introduces students to one of the main genres of medieval literature, the romance, with a special focus on the representation of love, sex, and desire in the Middle Ages, and especially the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory and the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It also examines the phenomenon of ‘romancing’ medieval culture in the various traditions and genres of modern medievalism; especially in medievalist fiction and film (both historical and fantasy). Some of the medieval texts will be read in Middle English; others in modern translation. No prior experience in medieval literature is assumed.

Every act of violence has a history. In order to more fully understand how and why violence recurs, how it has changed over time, and how it has been a driving force in history, we need to develop a more sophisticated and complex understanding of its historical origins. This subject will explore the manner in which violence has been used by individuals, communities and the state over time, as well as the way in which that use has been perceived and portrayed in the modern world, from the sixteenth century to the present. It will be organised around four key themes: war, bodies, othering and contact zones. The power and practice of violence will be explored through the origins, causes, and experience of violence through changing technologies, media representations, acts and legal frameworks, and lived experience of violence at an individual and community level. From Hiroshima to the Holocaust, from Aztec rituals to witchcraft trials: how is violence embedded in and representative of societies through time, and how do we understand this comparatively as historians? We will analyse the legacies and aftermaths of violence, exploring how it is remembered and how it is forgotten. A violent act is never erased; it continues to resonate and has an impact on contemporary society in ways that we do not always fully comprehend.

This subject seeks to engage and excite students in an interactive series of ‘lectorials' which examine the social, political, and cultural history of the many central and northern Italian cities which participated in the culture known as the Renaissance. With special case studies of Florence and Venice, major themes explored are: politics and urbanisation; art, architecture and patronage; religion and popular beliefs; the family and gender roles; luxury and consumption; humanism and education. Throughout students will be encouraged to reflect on the meaning and usefulness of the term ‘Renaissance’ as an historical construct. Students should complete this subject with a well-rounded picture of the Renaissance as a social and cultural context, which has left a profound impact upon the culture of the west in the succeeding centuries, including our own.

The subject follows the intellectual history of early modern Europe in a global political and economic context. It looks at the way European encounters with other parts of the world and the subsequent colonial enterprise produced changes to the intellectual formation of Europe. It will also study how new conceptions of knowledge - about nature, about humans, and about God - were interwoven with social and political developments. In particularly, it will discuss how the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century and the emergence of a world view based on reason related to earlier ideas of natural magic. Topics will include Renaissance humanism and practical science, the Protestant reformations, demonology and witchcraft, the Columbian exchange and colonial trade, slavery, new natural philosophy and the mathematisation of nature, the emergence of the experimental method, science and early modern state formation, Newtonianism and the radical enlightenment, enlightenment science and colonial empires.

Note: This subject is jointly taught by the History and History and Philosophy of Science disciplines and is an elective in both majors.

This class focuses on artistic encounters between European cultures and other world cultures between about 1300 and 1650. The goal is to place the art and culture of Europe into an expanded geopolitical sphere, and to explore particularly important and representative moments within the larger exchange of people, objects, ideas, and materials in the early-modern period. Readings will be drawn from both period sources and contemporary art history; and tutorials will focus whenever possible on objects in University and Melbourne collections.

In this subject students will read a selection of novels in French (from the Middle Ages to nowadays) in order to understand the evolution of the French novel. They will have to analyse the narrative structures and demonstrate critical awareness of the social, political and ideological context of each novel. The subject will be taught in French.

This subject examines the visual culture of Europe in the period 1660–1815, from the reign of Louis XIV of France to the end of the Napoleonic wars. We will consider several significant centres of power in France, England, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire to study how powerful political, religious, social and cultural factors shaped changes in the production, patronage and reception of images, objects and buildings. We will also consider how European contact with cultures around the globe led to a fascination with the foreign other that indelibly shaped European visual culture at this time. Close study of artworks in local collections – including paintings, prints, furniture, ceramics, glass, metalwork and textiles – will explore how these objects were deployed in the construction of social identity in the courts and cities of eighteenth-century Europe.

This subject concentrates on selected cantos of Dante's Inferno. Students will develop techniques which will enable them to analyse the poetic language of the Inferno. Guided readings in secondary material will give students an understanding of some of the key medieval concepts of the Inferno. The subject is designed so that students will be in a position to appreciate and analyse one of the most impressive poems in western literature. By the end of the subject, students should have acquired some understanding of the basic theological, philosophical and literary concepts of the Inferno and have developed critical strategies for interpreting its poetry.

This intensive four-week study abroad subject will be taught in Venice between the end of November and December and focuses on the social and cultural spaces of Venice (real, imaginary, or interpreted): how these spaces were used, represented, and understood in early modern Venice. The subject will also explore how these private and public spaces were used in the early modern production of communication, information, and culture. Field trips to several sites and museums will provide students with the basic skills needed to work on fifteenth-century primary sources. On completion of this subject, students should have acquired an understanding of the use of languages and places in early modern Venice. Students will also be able to gain a basic knowledge of production and reception of culture and communication in early modern Venice and Europe.

This intensive four-week study abroad subject is taught on location in Venice. The Renaissance in Italy is regarded by many as the locus of the first consumer society in the western world. Venice was at the centre of the new commercial revolution and the trade and production of the luxury goods that were its staple. With a series of lectures, tutorials and detailed site visits, this subject examines Venice's position as a trading empire, and the goods traded, produced and consumed from luxurious textiles, printed books, art works, dyes and spices, to slaves and prostitutes. Venetian authorities were actively involved in regulating consumption with the passage of extensive sumptuary laws, the development of copyright, the application of duties and taxes, and a complex system of surveillance. Students will complete this subject with a deeper understanding of Venetian culture and society and its contribution to the globalised luxury trades; one of the key markers of the west and of modernity.

This intensive three week online subject will focus on one of the most creative times of French history, albeit one of the most turbulent, the Renaissance. With a series of lectures and detailed virtual site visits, this subject will examine some of the most striking examples of French Renaissance architecture, including the famed “Chateaux de la Loire” built during the late 16th century, and learn about arts and history. This course will use an interdisciplinary approach (linguistic, history, art history, botany, gastronomy etc.).

This course will explore the creation, use, and theories of “virtual spaces”— constructed environments and multimedia artworks that combine architecture, gardens, painting, and sculpture to transport viewers into different spatial and temporal universes—in Japanese visual culture. Through weekly case studies of temples, shrines, gardens, castles, mausoleums, brothels, theatres, museums, and world’s fairs, as well as authentic experiential learning and work integrated learning (WIP), students will gain an understanding of key monuments in Japanese art from the 6th to 20th centuries as well as the manner by which these monuments functioned as greater than the sum of their parts. The techniques and means by which visual arts were employed to overwhelm the senses, transport viewers into supernatural worlds, consolidate political power, placate the dead, and define Japan as a nation and culture itself will be considered.