Speculative metaphysics is challenging, but this course will whet your appetite for it, because it explains fundamental metaphysical problems and views in terms of what you can find in your kitchen and what happens in it when you cook and enjoy food. Here are the 8 bites on the menu. - The first module 1 explains that metaphysics is about the ingredients and recipes of the world, i.e., which kinds of entities exist and how they relate to one another. - Modules 2 and 3 invite you to reflect on whether the properties of ingredients -such as their shape and weight- are separate from and if so, how they come together in the ingredients. - Modules 4 to 7 are about cooking: its most important ingredient is time and most cooking consists in causing changes to the ingredients over time. Yet some ingredients persist: although they undergo changes, they remain the same. Moreover, cooking minimally involves putting two or more ingredients together, so that they compose a whole. Hence modules 4 to 7 deal with time, causation, persistence and composition respectively. - Finally, the last module touch on the smells, tastes and other qualitative aspects of our experiences when enjoying food. Bon appétit!

This course explores some of the key themes and capabilities of cultural competence by exploring Aboriginal experiences and narratives of Sydney. Australia was ‘claimed’ for the British Crown in 1770, by Captain James Cook, but the invasion began in earnest when the First Fleet of British arrived in 1788 and established a penal colony in Sydney. As a consequence Sydney is a city rich in diverse pre-colonial, colonial and contemporary sites of significance to Aboriginal peoples. Too often though our perceptions about Aboriginal peoples consign them to an ancient past or perpetuates stereotypical imaginations that Aboriginal peoples live in remote communities (Hinkson, 2010). At the heart of this MOOC is the theme that Sovereignty was never ceded and Sydney always was and always will be Aboriginal Land. Despite this the Aboriginal presence in the city is often invisible to non-Aboriginal eyes. This course aims to bring to light marginalised narratives of Aboriginal presence in this space. To understand hidden and marginalised narratives and experiences it is necessary to develop cultural competence capabilities. Key elements of practicing cultural competence include being able to understand and interrogate context, which in the case of Sydney includes not only learning about the peoples, places and histories of Aboriginal Sydney but to also understand issues about how knowledge is created and how dominant narratives can exclude diverse knowledges and experiences. Course learning outcomes 1. Develop knowledge about cultural competence capabilities. 2. Develop a deeper and multi-layered knowledge and understanding about Aboriginal peoples, cultures and places in Sydney. 3. Develop a greater understanding of how history, cultures and places are represented, contested and interpreted and how that relates to their own context. Acknowledgement of Country We acknowledge that this course was developed on the land of the Gadigal Peoples of the Eora nation. We pay our respect to the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge that the land that the University of Sydney was built on has been a place of learning for many thousands of years.

The Holocaust - what do we know about it and what more can we learn? This course provides a broad and in-depth look at central topics relating to the history of the Holocaust. It examines the events and processes that took place during these earth-shattering years through new and thought-provoking perspectives.

Adobe Illustrator can be a useful tool in creating digital graphics, but it can also be an overwhelming program to learn how to use. In this guided project, learners will walk through a step by step process to gain the basics of using the Pencil tool in Adobe Illustrator. First, learners will prepare to use the pencil tool by learning the general uses and techniques for using the Pencil Tool. Then, learners will walk through the basics of the tool itself and what it can do. Next, learners will begin to edit the segments drawn by the Pencil Tool. Finally, learners will be guided to draw a basic, and then a more advanced design with the Pencil Tool in Adobe Illustrator. Learners will finish this guided project with the skills to draw many hand-drawn designs with the Pencil Tool.

Everywhere, every day, everybody uses language. There is no human society, no matter how small or how isolated, which does not employ a language that is rich and diverse. This course introduces you to linguistics, featuring interviews with well-known linguists and with speakers of many different languages. Join us to explore the miracles of human language! The Miracles of Human Language introduces you to the many-faceted study of languages, which has amazed humans since the beginning of history. Together with speakers of many other languages around the world, as well as with famous linguists such as Noam Chomsky and Adele Goldberg, you will learn to understand and analyse how your native tongue is at the same time similar and different from many other languages. You will learn the basic concepts of linguistics, get to know some of the key features of big and small languages and get insight into what linguists do. This course gives an introduction into the study of languages, the field of linguistics. With the support of the basic linguistic terminology that is offered in the course, you will soon be able to comment both on variety between languages, as well as on a single language’s internal structure. Anyone who wishes to understand how languages work, and how they can give us insight into the human mind is very welcome to join. The course is useful if you want to get a fairly quick introduction into linguistics, for instance because you are considering studying it further, or because you are interested in a neighbouring discipline such as psychology, computer science or anthropology. Furthermore, the course will help you develop analytical skills. If you are curious to understand how language works and how it gives insight into the human mind, this course is definitely for you!

Jewish Diaspora in China is a unique experience for world Jewry, as China is the only country in Far East that has had Jews living in its society for over 1,000 years. Documentary evidence shows that Jews started to live in China no later than the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The famous Kaifeng Jewish community, which was established in Kaifeng, the Chinese capital of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), is but a best-known example. However, the largest Jewish Diaspora in China appeared in modern times. In over 100 years, from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, about 40,000 Jews came to China and lived in newly-established major port cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Harbin. Jewish communities composed of these Jews became an essential part of the economic and social life of those modern Chinese cities. What brought such a large number of Jews to China? Where did these people come from? How did they arrive? Were they all in China at the same time, and were there any differences among them? What happened to them after they arrived? Where are they now? The story of Jews in modern China is certainly a fascinating and up-lifting one. This course will examine these questions and more.

Anti-Racism II is an intermediate course between Anti-Racism I and Anti-Racism III, focusing on the topic of race, racism, and strategies regarding how to be an anti-racist. Anti-Racism II is for anyone who has previously taken Anti-Racism I, or who has basic knowledge of the racial issues plaguing the United States, and globally. Anti-Racism I focused upon how to have open dialogue and conversations about race and racism. Anti-Racism II takes on the vital role assisting students in guiding their own conversations regarding race, and additionally gender and sexuality. Anti-Racism II will expand your knowledge and critically engage your inquiry, centering upon short interviews with leading scholars and activists in the field. Coupled with supplementary video and reading material, these interviews will further demonstrate the power of open dialogue and self-narration, directing you towards being an anti-racist ally. The centrality of the course interviews will culminate in a final project where students will construct and carry out their own personalized interview. The final project will test dialogic skills while asserting the importance of intimate conversations about race, gender, and sexuality. This is challenging work in troubling times that may conjure uneasy feelings and emotions. Anti-Racism II can work as a bridge coming face to face with your personal individual relationship with social demands plaguing us nationally and globally. The remedy is to allow yourself uncomfortableness in order to get to the solutions. We are all in this together. Peace & Love Shawn Course logo image credit: Emmanuel Gido, 08/31/2020. Available on Unsplash at https://unsplash.com/photos/SAjZSZUA690

Art can be a powerful catalyst for building skills and understanding a range of subjects. Intended for primary and secondary teachers of all disciplines, Art & Activity builds upon the inquiry-based approaches of Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies for Your Classroom, while delving into activity-based strategies that will make your students empowered participants.

This is a survey of modern history from a global perspective. Part One begins with the political and economic revolutions of the late 1700s and tracks the transformation of the world during the 1800s. Part One concludes as these bewildering changes seem to be running beyond the capacity of older institutions to handle them. Throughout the course we try to grasp what is happening and ask: Why? And the answers often turn on very human choices.

In this course, creative nonfiction writers will explore traditional storytelling methods, especially those which overlap between fiction and memoir. By looking at examples from a wide range of genres, including film, song, painting—even the theme music for Jaws!—we’ll practice exercising the creative muscle that sees ourselves as characters and the experiences we’ve had as tales. We’ll focus on critical elements, like how to begin a story, what makes for worthy content, the essential use of detail, the strengths and limits of dialogue, the power of the white space. The ultimate goal is for us to become aware of an “audience” when we write, so that the documentation of our lives will begin to resemble a “performance” crafted onto paper rather than a private entry in a journal.