Random La Trobe Podcasts

Anthropologists study human culture and society. They ask “what it is to be human?”. Anthropologists answer this question by analysing diverse societies to find out what all humans have in common. To undertake this study, anthropologists have a ‘kit’ full of conceptual tools. Join the Audible Anthropologist (aka La Trobe University’s Nicholas Herriman) as we describe some of these tools and put them to use.

Categories: Education

Tags: anthropologist, anthropology, fetish, La Trobe, la trobe university, magic, nicholas herriman, nick herriman, rationality, rites, ritual

This subject explores Ancient Roman epic poetry, the literary genre which deals with grand mythical narratives involving heroes, gods, war, and love affairs. Epic was the most prestigious literary form in the ancient world. Roman poets adapted and developed Greek epic, particularly influenced by the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. Roman epics similarly deal with divine and heroic material, but Roman poets also weave contemporary and topical themes into the mythical subject matter. The primary text for this subject is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which tells many comic tales of the gods in love and encounters between heroes and monsters through a series of transformations. Epics which influenced Ovid will also be studied, such as the Greek epics of Homer, the early Roman epics of Naevius and Ennius, and Virgil’s Aeneid, which was the most significant influence on Ovid. We shall also consider Ovid as a major influence upon Western artists and writers, from Shakespeare to David Malouf.

Categories: Education

Tags: Aeneid, ancient history, History, La Trobe, poetry, rhiannon evans, roman epics, Roman history, roman poetry, Rome, university, virgil

In this course, we will use the anthropological approach and methodology to understand witch-hunts and persecution. We start by looking at magic, witchcraft and sorcery and explaining the persistence of related beliefs and practices. As we will see the basic idea of witch persecution is that we have an image of a witch (or sorcerer) and then we pin it on someone. We analyze this image in greater detail. Pinning this image on someone is a process of accusation; we analyze among whom, why and how accusations occur. Finally, we look at some “witch-hunts”—including the Great Witch-hunt, the Salem Trials, and McCarthyism—in greater detail.

Categories: Education

Tags: anthropology, herriman, History, La Trobe, magic, nicholas herriman, persecution, salem, university, voodoo, Witch, witch-hunt

Writing for Strategic Communication is a practical subject that provides an overview of the various forms of professional writing in strategic communication. These include writing for websites and blogs, tweeting, newsletter copy, letters and memos, media releases, feature articles and more. Students develop their own blogs, learn interviewing and note-taking techniques and conduct a face to face interview with a professional communicator. Students are encouraged to explore the concept of ‘great writing’ as a construct for developing their own writing skills.

Categories: Education

Tags: communication, journalism, karen morath, La Trobe, media, media management, Public Relations, publicity, strategic communication, university

From Pride and Prejudice to Twilight, Looking for Alibrandi to The Hunger Games, students in this subject will analyse factors affecting the emergence and development of fiction for young adults as a distinctive literature category over the last twenty years. Students will also focus on recent trends in this field, including the development of a range of critical perspectives for interpreting themes, issues and responses to this literature by adults and adolescents.

Categories: Education

Tags: book, david beagley, hunger games, La Trobe, Literature, Reading, Twilight, university, writing, young adult, young adults

A regular podcast that explores issues in sport, and views of researchers at La Trobe University. Sport Unpacked is hosted by David Lowden.

Categories: Uncategorised

Tags: dave lowden, fitness, Football, La Trobe, la trobe sport, la trobe university, sport, SPorts

The Roman World introduces students to the society, literature and art of ancient Rome, through a study of its major historical and literary figures, such as Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Virgil and Ovid. We shall look at Rome’s place in the ancient Mediterranean world, and its connections with ancient Greece and other cultures, such as Egypt and Gaul. Through almost constant warfare, Rome accumulated an enormous Mediterranean empire, and this subject will investigate how this shaped Roman culture, through such topics as the acquisition of slaves and the ability to import luxury objects. We shall also see how the civil conflicts of the first century BCE affected Rome and Roman identity, leading to Caesar, Pompey and others engaging in propaganda wars, as seen through competitive monumental building, and to some self-questioning in the literature of the period. Towards the end of the semester, we shall look at Rome’s lasting influence, and the way that we continue to represent Rome in book and film.

Categories: Education

Tags: ancient history, ceasar, chris mackie, christopher mackie, History, Italy, La Trobe, Pompeii, rhannian evans, Roman, Rome, university

European integration has been hailed as ‘the most ambitious and most successful example of peaceful international cooperation in world history’. In this subject students are introduced to this process and its result, the European Union, through different disciplinary lenses. For example, the common European currency, and the project of a Europe without boundaries are addressed not just in terms of history, economics and law but also in relation to their sociological implications for European identity and for member-states’ sovereignty. We will study EU’s global ambitions from an International Relations perspective and contemplate its future in the light of present crises.

Categories: Education

Tags: EU, Europe, European Union, global politics, La Trobe, Politics, Stefan Auer, university

In this subject students study two key regions of Australia’s colonial past – the cradle of white settlement in early New South Wales and/or Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, Australia’s last frontier – to explore colonial relations and also the recent past. Student-centred enquiry-based research into colonial primary documents in teams and individually through research essays will enable students to develop their skills of research and conceptual analysis.

Categories: Education

Tags: Aboriginal, aboriginie, australia, australian history, History, La Trobe, la trobe university, Richard Broome, university

What exactly is algebra? How can we find examples of it in everyday life? Dr Marcel Jackson has the answers.

Categories: Education

Tags: Algebra, La Trobe, marcel jackson, mathematics, Maths, university

In Broadcast Journalism you will explore the reporter’s role in factual production across broadcast and electronic media. Topics covered will include research for audio visual media, writing for radio, television and the internet, interviewing techniques, script editing, and the principles of presenting for radio and television, and a practice-based assessment option. To realise this, students will be expected to undertake story design and conception, research, script editing, review and analysis. This subject aims to give students an appreciation of the multi-skilling required by convergence of television, radio, press and internet in the current media environment, and to develop skills in these areas.

Categories: Education

Tags: broadcast, broadcast journalism, journalism, La Trobe, lawrie zion, media, mst3bej, Press, Society, university

In this subject students are introduced to the diversity of the ancient Greek achievement, which has exercised a fundamental and continuing influence upon later European literature and culture. The subject commences with a detailed treatment of Homer’s Iliad and the myth of the Trojan war. This is one of the dominant myths in the Greek tradition and is narrated in some detail in epic poetry, in drama, and in art and architecture. We explore how myths are ‘read’ in their historical context, especially in the contexts of the Persian and Peloponnesian wars of the 5th Century BC. A variety of sources are treated to enable students to build up a picture of Greek society as a whole.

Categories: Education

Tags: ancient history, art, Athens, chris mackie, christopher mackie, gillian sheperd, greece, Greek History, History, Homer, La Trobe, myth, sparta, university, war

This subject deals with the cultural history of the ancient Greek world through both textual sources and the material evidence of art and archaeology. The period covered runs from the Iron Age world of Archaic Greece through to the late Classical period (roughly from the 8th century to the 4th century BCE). We will concentrate mainly on Athens and mainland Greece, but we will also focus on the Greek expansion into other parts of the Mediterranean world (Sicily and South Italy) in the process of colonisation. Historical texts will be combined with literary sources and archaeology to explore the physical nature of ancient Greek cities and social issues such as the position of women, ethnicity, sexuality and slavery in the ancient Greek world.

Categories: Education

Tags: ancient Greece, ancient history, christopher mackie, gillian shepherd, greece, Greek History, History, La Trobe, Mediterranean, university

In this subject, students study current theories of literature, with a focus on genres relating to children’s literature as a form of social practice. Topics covered include critical analysis, traditional story forms, modernist and postmodern picture books, emerging formats, fantasy and realistic fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Categories: Education

Tags: Authors, book, childrens books, david beagley, Genres, La Trobe, Literature, publishing, university, writing

In this subject, students investigate the development of literature for children from the traditional literatures of myth and legend, folk and fairy tales, through early publishing, to the emergence of genres of adventure, fantasy and realism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Categories: Education

Tags: Authors, book, childrens books, david beagley, edu2hcl, History, La Trobe, Literature, publishing, university, writing