Unit details [HAF]
Gender and Society
Enrolment code: HAF101
Offered: Hbt: sem 1,
Unit description:
Explores the workings of gender and power in Australia by examining the gendered
nature of the institutions and experience of education, government, work, violence, law
and other areas of life using a range of disciplinary perspectives. This is done against a
background of the history of developments in feminism and Women’s Studies in Australia
over the last thirty years. Attention is paid to contemporary gender issues in Australia and
their global context.
Staff: Dr B Baird
Unit weight: 12.5%
Teaching pattern: 2x1-hr lectures, 1-hr tutorial weekly (13 wks)
Assess: 2-hr exam (40%), 1,000-word short essay (15%), 1,500-word long essay (35%),
tutorial participation (10%)
Required: A Unit Reader with all tutorial readings will be available to purchase
Recommend: Hughes KP (ed), Contemporary Australian Feminism, ISBN 0582808715
Van Acker E, Different Voices: Gender and Politics in Australia, ISBN 0732953952
Huggins J, Sister Girl: The Writings of Aboriginal Activist and Historian Jackie Huggins, ISBN
0702228400
Lake M, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, IBSN 186508137X
Bulbeck C, Living Feminism: The Impact of the Women’s Movement on Three Generations of
Australian Women, ISBN 0521465966
Boles J, From the Goddess to the Glass Ceiling: A Dictionary of Feminism, ISBN 1568330723
Majors: Women<sqt>s Studies
Courses: [R3A]
Faculty website: <www.arts.utas.edu.au>
The Representation of Gender
Enrolment code: HAF102
Offered: Hbt: sem 2,
Unit description:
________________________________________
University of Tasmania unit details for 2003 academic year
July 11, 2016, 18:45 PM, page –1
Unit details [HAF]
Explores the ways in which gender is represented across a variety of cultural settings, with
an emphasis on popular culture – television, film, advertisements, magazines,
newspapers, etc. The unit considers gendered representations of sport, ethnicity, nation,
sexuality and other phenomena. It introduces a range of approaches that are useful in
understanding popular representations of gender. The unit also examines the varying
approaches that have been used to intervene in cultural representations of gender,
including the demand for positive images of women, the production of feminist art and
films, the re-valuing of ‘women’s genres’, the parody of traditional forms, and the
appropriation of popular culture.
Staff: Dr B Baird
Unit weight: 12.5%
Teaching pattern: 2x1-hr lectures, 1-hr tutorial weekly (13 wks)
Assess: 2-hr exam (40%), 1,000-word short essay (15%), 1,500-word long essay (35%),
tutorial participation (10%)
Required: A Unit Reader with all tutorial readings will be available to purchase
Recommend: van Zoonen L, Feminist Media Studies, ISBN 0803985541
Hall S (ed), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, ISBN
0761954325
Langton M, ‘Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw in on the television...’, ISBN 0642191794
Hamer D & Budge B (eds), The Good, The Bad and The Gorgeous: Popular Culture’s Romance
with Lesbianism, ISBN0044409109
Dyer R, The Matter of Images, ISBN 0415057191
Majors: Women<sqt>s Studies
Courses: [R3A]
Faculty website: <www.arts.utas.edu.au>
Sexualities: Histories, Representation, Politics
Enrolment code: HAF202/302
Offered: Hbt: sem 1
Special note: alternating unit, offered in odd-numbered years
Unit description:
Investigates various ways in which sexuality is both a distinct part of our experience and
our world, and also always in interaction with other aspects of cultural and social life like
gender, class, age, race and nation. The unit emphasises thinking critically about the ways
in which sexuality is represented in a variety of settings, the power relations produced
through discourses of sexuality, and the ways in which sexuality is lived by diverse
people, drawing primarily on the Australian context. The unit draws on approaches from
________________________________________
University of Tasmania unit details for 2003 academic year
July 11, 2016, 18:45 PM, page –2
Unit details [HAF]
the history of sexuality, cultural studies, and feminist, gay and lesbian, and queer
scholarship. It makes extensive use of Australian independent film as a way of presenting
alternative representations of sexuality.
Staff: Dr B Baird
Unit weight: 12.5%
Teaching pattern: 1-hr lecture, 1-hr seminar, weekly; 1-hr tutorial fortnightly (13 wks)
Assess: 1,000-word essay (15%), 2,500-word essay (35%), tutorial participation (10%), 2-hr
exam (40%)
Required: A Unit Reader with all seminar and tutorial readings will be available to
purchase
Recommend: Foucault M, The History of Sexuality, ISBN 0713910941
Abelove H, Barale MA & Halperin D (eds), The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader ISBN
0415905192
Jagose A, Queer Theory ISBN 0814742343
Connell RW & Dowsett GW, Rethinking Sex: Social Theory and Sexuality Research ISBN
0522844871
Katz JN, The Invention of Heterosexuality, ISBN 0525938451
Matthews JJ (ed), Sex in Public, ISBN 1864480491
Marr D, The High Price of Heaven, ISBN 1865082015
Lancaster RN & diLeonardo M, The Gender Sexuality Reader, ISBN 0415910056
Albury R, The Politics of Reproduction, ISBN 1864489065
Majors: Women<sqt>s Studies
Courses: [R3A]
Faculty website: <www.arts.utas.edu.au>
Contemporary Feminist Thought: Themes, Issues
and Conflicts
Enrolment code: HAF215/315
Offered: Hbt: sem 2, dist.ed: sem 2
Special note: compulsory unit for Women’s Studies major
Unit description:
Provides an introduction to themes, issues and conflicts in contemporary feminist thought
in the Western world. Particular attention is paid to the shift from the unifying themes in
earlier feminist theorising to the destabilising influences of recent social theory upon
feminism. The conflicts within feminism to be addressed centre around debates about the
________________________________________
University of Tasmania unit details for 2003 academic year
July 11, 2016, 18:45 PM, page –3
Unit details [HAF]
category of ‘woman’, the politics of difference, the basis of feminist knowledge, the
conception of power, the body, the stability of sexed identity and feminist engagements
with mainstream politics. There is an emphasis on applying feminist theoretical tools to
contemporary debates and events within feminism and in mainstream public life, eg
media coverage of French lesbian player Amelie Mauresmo at the 1999 Australian Tennis
Open; political and media treatment of Aboriginal women leaders; the federal
government’s attempt in 2001–2002 to amend the Sex Discrimination Act, and others.
Staff: Dr B Baird
Unit weight: 12.5%
Teaching pattern: int:1-hr lecture, 1-hr tutorial weekly, 1-hr seminar fortnightly (13 wks);
dist.ed: instructional package
M.excl: HSA214/314
Assess: 2,500-word essay (35%), 1,000-word tutorial paper (15%), tutorial participation
(10%), 2-hr exam (40%)
Required: A Unit Reader with all tutorial readings will be available to purchase
Recommend: Mohanty CT, Russo A & Torres L (eds), Third World Women and the Politics of
Feminism, ISBN 253338735
Thornton M (ed), Public and Private: Feminist Legal Debates, ISBN 0195536622
Grosz E, Volatile Bodies, ISBN 1863734155
Caine B & Pringle R (eds), Transitions: New Australian Feminisms, ISBN 1863737766
Nicholson LJ (ed), Feminism/Postmodernism, ISBN 041590058X
Huggins J, Sister Girl: The Writings of Aboriginal Activist and Historian Jackie Huggins, ISBN
0702228400
Majors: Women<sqt>s Studies
Courses: [R3A]
Faculty website: <www.arts.utas.edu.au>
Women’s Studies 4 (Honours)
Full time/Part time
Enrolment code: HAF400/401
Offered: Hbt: (fy) ie sem 1 & 2,
Special note: full-time students enrol in HAF400 (100%), part-time students in HAF401 (50%);
individual units have notional weight, but for HECS purposes must be weighted at 0%; students
should also note that all unit electives are subject to availability of teaching staff. The core unit is
described below.
________________________________________
University of Tasmania unit details for 2003 academic year
July 11, 2016, 18:45 PM, page –4
Unit details [HAF]
Unit description:
The Women’s Studies honours program is interdisciplinary. Because of the need to
coordinate individual courses, students wishing to undertake the honours program must
consult with the Coordinator of Women’s Studies at the end of 3rd year or the beginning
of 4th year. Students who meet the Faculty requirement for entry to Honours and who
have a major in Women’s Studies are eligible for admission to Honours, subject to the
approval of the Coordinator of Women’s Studies. Students who do not have a major in
Women’s Studies may seek special admission through the Coordinator of Women’s
Studies.
The course consists of three components.
1. Women’s Studies: Contexts, Conflicts, Crisis?
A two hour weekly seminar in semester 1, guided by the Women’s Studies Coordinator. It
has a notional weight of 20%. Assessment is by written work of 7,000 words.
This component expands the themes and issues in feminist thought raised in the unit
HAF215/315 Contemporary Feminist Thought. The unit applies these discussions specifically
to the context of Women’s Studies in the academy and to students’ proposed areas of
specialist research. It focuses on three recent books that have contributed to debates in
feminist theory, chosen in consultation with students, as a way of raising a range of issues
and demonstrating different theoretical, methodological and structural approaches and
different styles of writing. The component looks at challenges to traditional approaches to
research, particularly, but not only, feminist research, which have been made by more
recent theoretical and methodological developments. It draws on work to illustrate
indigenous, post-modern, post-structuralist, anti-capitalist feminisms and/or queer
theory.
2. A dissertation of 10,000–12,000 words on a topic approved by the Coordinator of
Women’s Studies. Supervision is provided by academic staff from participating Schools in
the Women’s Studies. The dissertation should normally be supervised within the Faculty
of Arts.
3. Further units taught by Women’s Studies specialists in participating Schools of the
Women’s Studies program totalling no more than 40% (notional weight) of the course.
Other units taught in the Honours programs of other schools may also be suitable. These
units are subject to approval by the Coordinator of Women’s Studies and by the Schools
concerned. Students should consult the listings of honours units in participating schools
for information about suitable options.
Staff: Dr B Baird (Coordinator)
Unit weight: 100%/50%
Prereq: Faculty requirement for entry to Honours, a major in Women’s Studies and
approval of the Coordinator of Women’s Studies.
Required: contact the Coordinator for details
Courses: [R4A]
Faculty website: <www.arts.utas.edu.au>
________________________________________
University of Tasmania unit details for 2003 academic year
July 11, 2016, 18:45 PM, page –5