Race and Gender: Philosophical Issues (PHIL30052)

Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

Availability
Semester 1
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In this subject students explore race and gender and their interconnection. Is race a biological category, a socially constructed category, or a pernicious fiction? Currently humans are divided into hierarchies along race and gender lines, but what would a just future look like: one in which race and gender have become history, or one in which your race or gender no longer marks you out for unequal treatment? Historically and currently, all settler-colonial countries racialize their First Nation peoples. Anti-racist movements, such as Black Lives Matter, aim to undo this structural racism, but would doing that be enough to fully address the justice claims of First Nation peoples? 

As well as exploring these fundamental questions about the social categories of race and gender, the subject also uses tools from philosophy of language and epistemology to explore application areas, including when if ever it is morally permissible to vandalize monuments, whether pornography subordinates and silences women, what hate speech is and what our response to it should be, and what white ignorance is and how to combat it.

Intended learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to: 

  • Evaluate the major recent advances in our philosophical understanding of social categories such as gender and race
  • Employ techniques from critical social theory to the evaluation of social practices
  • Increase in ability to analyse and critique arguments
  • Think and write rigorously, imaginatively and coherently on issues relating to race and gender
  • Apply philosophical theorizing about race and gender to questions of social policy
  • Work individually and in groups to generate and evaluate arguments.

Generic skills

Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:

  • Think critically
  • Analyse and evaluate concepts, theories, and arguments
  • Develop and present arguments for or against a position
  • Consider multiple viewpoints and arguments for those viewpoints
  • Articulate ideas, concepts, and interpretations with clarity and coherence
  • Engage in critical reflection, synthesis, and evaluation of research-based and scholarly literature.

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Eligibility and requirements

Prerequisites

None

Corequisites

None

Non-allowed subjects

None

Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)

The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.

Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Assessment

DescriptionTimingPercentage

A written assignment

  • 2000 words
Week 6 or Week 750%

Take-home exam

  • 2000 words (equivalent)
During the examination period50%
Hurdle requirement: 1. Attendance hurdle requirement: This subject has a minimum requirement of 80% attendance at tutorials, seminars, or workshops. There is an expectation that students attend lectures. Throughout the teaching periodN/A
Hurdle requirement: 2. Late Penalty and Assessment hurdle requirement: Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at five per cent (5%) of the possible marks available for the assessment task per day or part thereof. All pieces of assessment must be submitted to pass the subject. Each submitted assessment must be complete, constitute a genuine attempt to address the requirements of the task and will not be accepted after 20 University business days from the original assessment due date without written approval. Throughout the semesterN/A

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Dates & times

  • Semester 1
    Principal coordinatorKaren Jones
    Mode of deliveryOn Campus (Parkville)
    Contact hours35 hours: 1 x 2-hour lectorial every week for 12 weeks, and 1 x 1-hour tutorial every week for 11 weeks (Week 2-12).
    Total time commitment170 hours
    Teaching period 3 March 2025 to 1 June 2025
    Last self-enrol date14 March 2025
    Census date31 March 2025
    Last date to withdraw without fail 9 May 2025
    Assessment period ends27 June 2025

    Semester 1 contact information

    jonek@unimelb.edu.au

     

Time commitment details

170 hours

What do these dates mean

Visit this webpage to find out about these key dates, including how they impact on:

  • Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
  • And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
       -  Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
     

    Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the ‘last day to withdraw without fail’) count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.

Additional delivery details

Students enrolling in this subject should have completed at least one prior philosophy subject.

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Further information

Last updated: 9 April 2025