| Credit |
6 points |
| Availability |
Semester 2 (see Timetable) |
| Old unit code |
180.205 |
| Outcomes |
Students are able to (1) critically evaluate the way identity is (re)articulated via computer-mediated communication; (2) understand key positions within gender, cultural and communication studies scholarship related to cyberspace and identity; (3) analyse gender and difference in online environments, as they relate to power relations and the politics of gendered communication; (4) articulate the impact of online communication in relation to a number of issues of embodiment; (5) gain practical skills in computer-mediated communication, through activities in the workshops and the tutorial weblogs; (6) discriminately undertake critical research skills through online and conventional print sources; (7) express research findings and ideas logically, coherently and convincingly in both oral and written forms, the latter in both print and digital formats; and (8) develop a critical, annotated webliography. |
| Content |
What happens to bodies, identities and the 'self' in cyberspace? This unit is an excursion into the communicative environments of the digital age to examine their impact on identity, with particular emphasis on gender, sexualities, race and class. Engaging students in study of contemporary theory and practice relating to identity and difference, the unit considers a number of central issues—the relationships between the social and cultural meanings of gender relations online and offline; the performativity of gender, sexualities and difference in cyberspace communities; constructing the self in the digital world and the politics of online representation; regulation of the spheres of domestic space and cyberspace; youth, gender and cybercultures; and the implications of 'life on the screen' for understandings of the sexed and gendered 'techno-body' of the twenty-first century.
The unit is interdisciplinary, drawing on scholarship from gender, cultural and Internet studies. It is organised into four modules which combine lectures and tutorials with workshops designed to deepen engagement with theories of identity and practices such as blogging (although the unit assumes no prior online experience). |
| Assessment |
This comprises tutorial participation and weblog, a research essay and critical exercise.
Supplementary assessment is not available in this unit except in the case of a bachelor's pass degree student who has obtained a mark of 45 to 49 and is currently enrolled in this unit, and it is the only remaining unit that the student must pass in order to complete their course. |
| Unit Co-ordinator(s) |
Professor Alison Bartlett |
| Location |
UWA (Crawley) |
| Mode |
on-campus |
| Unit Rules |
Contact hours—lectures/workshops: 3 hrs per week
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| Unit web page |
http://www.chloe.uwa.edu.au/undergraduate
[Some unit web pages are still under construction and will be available in 2010.]
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- The availability of units in Semester 1, 2, etc. was correct at the time of going to press but may be subject to change.
- Assistance with study skills, including English language skills, is available free of charge from Student Services for all enrolled students (see http://www.studentservices.uwa.edu.au/ss/learning). Student Services location: Second Floor, South Wing, Guild Village; telephone: 6488 2423.
- Books and other materials wherever listed may be subject to change. Book lists relating to 'Preliminary Reading', 'Recommended Reading' and 'Textbooks' are, in most cases, available at the University Co-operative Bookshop (from early January) and appropriate administrative offices for students to consult. For first-year units the Bookshop will endeavour to make available photocopies of book lists for individual units. Books marked with an asterisk (*) are available in paperback.
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