A History of Photography
Starting on 4 March 2008
Starting with the discoveries of Aristotle we will follow the evolution of photography up to - but not including - the Digital Age. On the technical side, we will see how the Camera Obscura eventually transformed into the Hassleblad which went to the Moon, and how Oh-so-slow Daguerreotypes eventually led to film which could 'stop' a bullet in full flight. And we will look at 'movements' and 'styles', the never-ending fight between those who saw photography as a 'science' and those who wanted it to be an 'art'... And all the way through, we will look at photographs, some well known, others obscure and forgotten.
Click here to download the course and summaries.
Symbolists & Décadents
Revolutionary French Poets of La Belle Époque
More than 50 years ago, as a disillusioned 17 year old Uni student, I walked out of my French class and took up philosophy instead. The only thing I remember from those unhappy weeks was the first two lines of one of the poems we studied in that final class. Those lines go something like this — if you will pardon my French…
Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit
Si bleu, si calm!
Click here to download the lecture [Single download PDF - 1.61 Mb]
A World History of Homosexuality
Starting on 28 October 2008
Is there a biological basis for same-sex desire and how have other cultures, ancient and modern, dealt with it? The course examines the role of male-male sex in historic cultures in Asia, Europe and indigenous and colonial Australia as well as some contemporary issues such as 'gay marriage'.
Click here to download the World History of Homosexuality course and summaries.
Genes, Genealogy
and the Migrations of Man
This course explores some of the ways genetic genealogy can track migrations 'out of Africa', the populating of Europe (particularly Britain) before and after the Ice Age, and help find 'long lost cousins'.
Click here to download the Genes, Genealogy and Migrations of Man course and summaries.
Other important downloads:
Course schedule [PDF - 28Kb]
Laboratories and costs [PDF - 16Kb]
Online reading list [PDF - 24Kb]
Glossary [PDF - 136Kb]
A summary of the sequence of events [PDF - 84Kb]
Carbon 14 and real years [PDF - 12Kb]
Simplified Haplogroup Locale chart [PDF - 280Kb]
YDNA mtDNA Haplogrup Descripion [PDF- 36Kb]
All course materials are in PDF format. You can download the free reader from the Adobe website.