Minor Study Areas (Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities) | 2020

The Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities offers the following Social Sciences minors to students in any degree where their course rules allow:

• Conservation Studies
• Criminology
• Environmental Crisis and Response
• Food and Society
• Future Cities
• Human Geography
• Introduction to Public Health
• Psychology
• Social Marketing
• Social Policy
• Spatial Methods
• Sustainable Communities
• Work Health and Safety

Conservation Studies

The Conservation Studies minor provides students with tangible knowledge and skills pertaining to conservation challenges in terrestrial and marine zones. The minor is tailored to develop students’ understanding of environmental heritage, environmental crime, environmental management and ethical perspectives on human-environmental relationships. Specific units also explore the role of international law, governance frameworks and non-state actors in conservation and resource management.

A minor in Conservation Studies requires the successful completion of 24 credits points of subjects chosen from the table below.

Criminology

The Criminology minor provides students with a suite of skills to identify interpret and evaluate issues around crime, deviancy and justice from a social sciences perspective. Specific units are tailored to develop students' conceptual understanding of criminology and apply these to a range of topics of contemporary social concern.

 A minor in Criminology requires at least 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Environmental Crisis and Response

The Environmental Crisis and Response minor provides students with insights into major global and local environmental challenges. The focus is both on understanding the causes and consequences of these challenges, as well as key response strategies across a variety of scales. Specific units are tailored to develop students’ understanding of environmental crises, disasters and crimes, including climate change, bushfires and pollution. Units also explore the role of various state and non-state actors in causing and responding to these challenges.

A minor in Environmental Crisis and Response requires the successful completion of 24 credits points of subjects in accordance with the table below.

Food and Society

Sustainable and healthy food and nutrition practices are increasingly important for safeguarding global population health.  The Food and Society minor addresses issues related to social, cultural, environmental, economic and political factors influencing the food system and food habits of populations.  The minor includes studies of food and nutrition across the life course, relationships between food and disease, food systems and sustainability, food sovereignty and power, as well as the role food plays in social inclusion and the welfare state.  Students will be equipped with the skills and attributes to apply innovative approaches to food education, promotion and advocacy to complement their other studies.

A  minor in Food and Society requires the successful completion of at least 24 credit points of subjects in accordance with the table below.

Future Cities

The Future Cities minor is a programme of learning targeting careers where the capacity to contribute to the development of urban policy and planning is a requirement. Subject clusters will imbue students with an expert level of foreknowledge on the liveability of major human settlements. Students will undertake inquires on population growth and citizenship, heritage and the built environment, food and systems of sustenance, and methods for scientific appraisal of multiple urban futures. A thread throughout the minor is the social scientific perspective on cosmopolitan cultures and the geographies of major human hubs in terms of their relationships with the regions around them.

A minor in Future Cities requires the successful completion of 24 credits points of subjects in accordance with the table below.

Human Geography

The Human Geography minor provides students with an understanding of how cultural, economic, political and social forces are shaping our present and future lives. Human Geography with it unique focus on place pays attention to understanding the growing inequalities between different individuals and social groups and the uneven implications of present patterns of resource consumption on present and future lives. A Human Geography minor equips graduates to explain and analyse the importance of understanding place in various professional roles in addressing questions of social inequalities and/or environmental justice. 

 A minor in Human Geography requires at least 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Introduction to Public Health

A minor in Public Health requires at least 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Psychology

A minor in Psychology requires at least 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Social Marketing

The Social Marketing minor presents students with a contemporary understanding of a strategic approach to social marketing to deliver positive social change and deliver social value. The minor considers contemporary discussion around what social marketing is and the key debates in the field. It considers the use of theory and research in social marketing programs; examines the broad toolkit of strategies that can be used in strategic social marketing; and considers the relevance of critical social marketing. 

A minor in Social Marketing requires the successful completion of at least 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Social Policy

Social policy is the study of the welfare state and welfare theory. It is concerned with actions by government, civil society, the private sector, families and communities to tackle social problems and work towards a more just and equal society.

 A minor in Social Policy requires the successful completion of at least 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below. 

Spatial Methods

The Spatial Methods minor positions graduates as professionals in a suite of geospatial techniques for a range of careers involving the collection of data on space and place. Subjects bridge physical and human geography and involve scrutiny of tools that are actionable in the natural and built environment. Subjects are both quantitative and qualitative in composition and combine the capacity for reportage on spatial issues with a critical awareness of empiricism through pragmatic tasks.

A minor in Spatial Methods requires the successful completion of 24 credits points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Sustainable Communities

The Sustainable Communities minor is a specialisation in a suite of pragmatic tools with a focus on the built environment and surrounding ecosystems. The skillset of the minor pre-empts a global transition to modes of living that are conducive to diverse biomes and a predictable climate, rather than detrimental to the stability and longevity of humanly tolerable earth systems. The minor complements expertise in sustainable development, public health, urban planning and socially responsible business and marketing. Electing to undertake the minor will provoke student inquiry about and reflection on how humans within built environments live alongside non­humans in equitable and just ways.

A minor in Sustainable Communities requires the successful completion of 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.

Work Health and Safety

The Work Health and Safety minor provides students with a broad based understanding of the principles and practices of work health and safety for prevention of injury and disease in workplaces. The minor provides an understanding of WHS legislation, rights and responsibilities of the key stakeholders, and concepts and strategies in the management of work health and safety. This includes development of basic skills in WHS risk management including identification of common workplace hazards, risk assessment procedures and risk control strategies.

 A minor in Work Health and Safety requires 24 credit points of subjects chosen in accordance with the table below.