This course is available for in-person and remote (online) learning.
This course engages students in the practice of fieldwork: place-based and relational engagements with sites of environmental significance in the Canberra region. The aim of this course is to build students’ sense of connection with the environment and with each other, alongside the development of practical skills like building community, fostering dialogue, listening deeply, and observing ethnographically. These skills and capacities are essential for future environmental leaders and policymakers as they face the cascading crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and global disruption. The fieldwork will include in-person visits to places and environmental projects of significance in the Canberra region, alongside carefully curated dialogues with practitioners, community leaders, First Nations custodians, landholders, environmental managers, and others. This course asks students to engage with the richness of places, fostering inquiry about situated histories and possible futures. Through field engagements, students will learn to apply key concepts from critical environmental studies - like repair, care, resilience, decolonisation, justice, transition, sovereignty, adaptation and transformation. Students will learn how to translate these concepts into meaningful action, thus building a sense of empowerment in the context of planetary crisis.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Articulate and evaluate their own positionality in relation to people, place, and Country.
- Conduct dialogues for deliberation, ethical decision making, and policy development.
- Analyse planetary and other crises, in order to create hopeful, collective responses.
- Develop and apply practices of care, connection, and relationality in a range of socio-environmental contexts.
- Reflect critically on the purpose of environmental policy and explore methods for innovative practice.
Work Integrated Learning
Fieldwork
The WIL component of this course is an extended field experience allowing the application of concepts and skills in a real world setting.
Other Information
Students may be required to submit an expression of interest to enrol in this course. Not available online - students must be located in Canberra to enrol.
Indicative Assessment
- Positionality statement (600 words) (10) [LO 1,3,4,5]
- Reflective journal (1,800 words) (30) [LO 1]
- Presentation (10 minutes) + Q&A (5 minutes) (25) [LO 3,4,5]
- Fieldwork dialogue (2,000 words) (35) [LO 2,4,5]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
36 hours of organised class time, embedded within the field trips, plus private study time.
Requisite and Incompatibility
You will need to contact the Crawford School of Public Policy to request a permission code to enrol in this course.
Prescribed Texts
None.
Preliminary Reading
Macy, J. and Johnstone, C. (2022) Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power. New World Library, Oakland CA.
Crawford, G et al (2017) Understanding global development research: Fieldwork issues, Experiences and Reflections. Sage Publications Ltd.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.