NYU - New York University
10/28/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/28/2024 10:54
Cool Course Dispatch: 'The Australian Experience'
Students sample the food during a required visit to one of Sydney's Asian food markets.
As part of a cultural analysis of Australia, Professor Lauren Nilsson pushes her students to think critically about national identity, racism, migration and multiculturalism, Aboriginal Australians, and the lasting effects of colonialism.
But she also wants them to know the difference between a bloke and Larrikin.
Nilsson teaches "The Australian Experience" at NYU Sydney, a popular class that serves as an introduction to the semester's home away from home. A combination of lectures and field work, the course goes deep into Australia's history and culture, often employing a pop culture lens.
"It's like cultural translation, and I'm a cultural intermediary and I really enjoy that," says Nilsson. "It's looking at the contemporary Australia that they are actually going to be living in for the three months-not the postcard tourism version, but something more complicated."
About 20 students from New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai are enrolled, and they represent schools and majors across the university. Sydney's semester starts at the end of July, so Nilsson is already half-way through the syllabus.
The course's main topics tend to overlap with issues in American culture, and Nilsson welcomes the comparisons that result.
Students are required to complete a walking tour and visit one of the city's Asian food markets.
"We have a big debate around our national day, called Australia Day, but also called Invasion Day. It's the day the British arrived and started to colonize, so from an Indigenous perspective isn't not a celebration. And the students always say 'Oh, it's like Columbus Day,' " she says.
Studying these issues within the context of Australia provides a useful buffer, Nilsson reports.
"Because it's not America, it's not their actual lived experience, and they are able to critically engage with these ideas with a little emotional distance. They don't have skin in the game. They explore these issues a little more theoretically," she says.
One of the colorful Asian food markets in the city.
Students are required to visit one of Sydney's Asian food markets and to complete the Parade Oxford Street History Walk in Darlington, a self-guided tour that includes stops at queer bookstores and other significant places that were part of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras March in 1978.
"Sydney is known as the San Francisco of the Southern Hemisphere, and the first Mardi Gras is comparable to the Stonewall protest in the US," Nilsson says.
Students read about St. Vincent's Hospital, one of the stops on the Darlinghurst walking tour.
The required site visits allow students to test their observational skills.
The Bookshop at Darlinghurst is one of the oldest gay and lesbian specialty shops in Sydney.
The police station is one of the stops on the Darlinghurst walking tour.
While the course sharpens students' critical thinking and analytical skills, it also reveals a more authentic version of Australia.
"Many students have this image of Australia as blond hair and tanned bodies and Steve Irwin," she says, referring to the late conservationist and TV star known globally as the Crocodile Hunter. "They know about the pyramids and ancient Greece because those cultures were documented by Europeans. We have First Nations artifacts that are older than the pyramids, but because Australia was colonized by the Europeans only a century ago, it hasn't beencanonized by the West, so they don't know much about it."
Despite her rigorous approach, Nilsson wants her students to enjoy their experience in Australia and acquire an insider's feel for the country.
"I love it when students come up to me after a weekend and they're like, 'I met this guy and he was such a Larrikin,' which is a term used to describe a man who is endearing," she says. "I hope they learn how to understand daily life and the dynamics of Australian culture."