Undergraduate - UnitATS1327 - Understanding Asia: society, culture and politics in the 21st century

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Japanese Studies
Offered	Not offered in 2014
Coordinator(s)	Professor Carolyn Stevens

Notes

Previously coded JPS1090

Synopsis

This unit provides a introduction to current affairs in Asia for students who take Asian language units or those planning to proceed to further Asian studies units. The unit tackles a variety of topics relevant to China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea, including such topics as language and literacy, work and education, crime and punishment, spirituality and secularity, humans and the natural environment, minority and other political issues, gender and sexuality , international relations, popular culture and soft power and other topics of current relevance to the region.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have:

Been introduced to some of the important current issues confronting Asian societies in the 21st century.
Been introduced to debates about political power and ideals, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, spirituality and secularism, social tensions and divisions in a variety of national contexts.
Become familiar with some of the concepts used in the Humanities to describe and analyse current affairs and issues.
Developed intelligent reading habits and learned to exploit library and internet sources efficiently and intelligently for specific purposes.
Become acquainted with the way scholars use 'evidence' to construct an 'argument'.
Been introduced to the technical elements of scholarly writing, such as the use of footnotes or endnotes.