Example courses

• Gender and Sexuality Studies: Key Thinkers and Perspectives

  This course will examine the major influences on and developments in feminist theory and gender and sexuality studies up to the present day. Among the topics considered are: gender and sexual difference and diversity, sexual politics and sexuality, the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and class, and postmodernism and post-feminism. These topics are explored in a global and cross-cultural context, through close engagement with the writings of key thinkers in the field.

• Reflecting on Violence

  This course familiarises students with social theories of violence and security in various contexts, paying particular attention to the gendered dynamics of violence. We consider topics such as state violence, torture, terrorism, sexual violence, violence toward children and intimate partner violence. We debate the ethical and methodological issues involved in researching violence and social policies aimed at reducing violence.

• Social Movements and the State

  Social movements and collective action drive social and political change, and reduce inequalities in society. This course will consider both historic and contemporary social movements and resistance. Various theoretical approaches to the study of collective action, and the contexts in which it takes place, will also be examined. The focus will be on such key questions as: Under what circumstances do social movements emerge? How do activists choose political tactics and strategies? And, how do movements affect social and political change? This course may also be able to be taken towards a minor in SPOL.

• Sociology of Health and Illness

  The course introduces students to sociological approaches to health, illness, medicine and health care. A diversity of topics will be covered including health inequalities, health policy, health professions, the organisation of health care delivery, ethnicity and health, gender and health, mental health and the social construction of medical knowledge.

• Sociology: Foundations and Concepts

  This course provides an introduction to the foundations of sociological thought and their application and relevance to contemporary society. It explores key sociological concepts and debates, such as inequality, social movements, ideology, colonisation and decolonisation, everyday life, and identity.

• Special Topic: Haunted Sociologies

  Avery Gordon describes a haunting as ‘instances when home becomes unfamiliar, when your bearings on the world lose direction’. This course examines the haunted nature of classical sociology. First by interrogating colonial knowledge systems underpinning traditional approaches to sociology, and second by exploring the possibilities encountered through sociological approaches framed by Indigenous knowledges and explanations of society.