• Offered by School of History
  • ANU College ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
  • Classification Transitional
  • Course subject History
  • Areas of interest History
  • Academic career PGRD
  • Mode of delivery Online or In Person
  • Co-taught Course

This course investigates how Western societies have comprehended humanity's physical diversity and why these understandings have changed over time. We will examine the historical processes which gradually encouraged this diversity to be read both as evidence of permanent, innate, 'racial' difference and justification for socio-political inequality, or 'racist' discrimination. The course considers the concept of 'race' within the contexts of the development of scientific knowledge regarding the natural world and the intellectual history of what it was to be human. Students will explore how these ideas shaped colonisation and chattel slavery; nationalism and empire; segregation and sexuality; and eugenics and genocide.

Learning Outcomes


  1. explain the origin and development of racial thinking in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia;
  2. critically evaluate scholarship on the history of race and racism, the human body, and the social/life sciences;
  3. locate and analyse primary sources to generate insights into the past;
  4. complete an individual research project; and
  5. articulate their critical understanding of the past and relate it to both the wider historiography and present-day concerns.

Indicative Assessment

  1. Presentation, 10 mins (10) [LO 1,2,5]
  2. Book review exercise, 1000 words (20) [LO 1,2,5]
  3. Research proposal, 1000 words (10) [LO 1,3]
  4. Research essay, 4000 words (This task takes the place of a final exam it will be due in the first week of the scheduled examination period) (60) [LO 1,4]



130 hours of total student learning time made up from:
a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorials and/or online activities; and

Inherent Requirements

Not applicable

Requisite and Incompatibility

You are not able to enrol in this course if you have previously completed HIST2133.

Prescribed Texts

[Not applicable – course amendment]




Student Contribution Band:
Unit value:
6 units


6.00 0.12500

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

There are no current offerings for this course.
