UWA Extension

The Vikings are probably the best-known group of people from the Early Medieval period, living on in the popular imagination as hairy men in horned helmets who suddenly appeared on European coasts in their dragon ships to wreak death and destruction. But this stereotype ignores the achievements of these bands of Scandinavian adventurers, who settled in much of Europe, expanded trade, established towns, formed colonies and visited North America centuries before Columbus. Over five il... [More]

In national and international debates, Islam is often represented as a monolithic faith, a system of order in conflict with western thought and ideals. Such a view has the effect of providing an equally singular image of Muslim women. This perspective has provided a rhetoric that rationalises saving oppressed women from a misogynistic faith. Challenging this view of Muslim women and Islam, this lecture discusses ways in which Muslim women engage with and respond to contemporary glob... [More]

Globalisation has brought further expansion of possibilities for Muslim women. Based on data collected in Australia and Kenya, this lecture discusses the effect of globalisation and its results on the changing gender relations in Muslim societies. [More]

For centuries, artists have depicted people and their faces. Portraitists are particular experts with faces, having studied them in great detail in order to create representations. But how do we see faces? This is a question that Linda Jeffery – from UWA’s School of Psychology’s Facelab – asks. Faces convey an incredible amount of information about identity, gender, age, ethnic origin, emotions, intentions. We take it for granted that we can more or less effortlessly extract such in... [More]

It approaches the realm of the oxymoronic to describe the most important American singer/songwriter of the past half century as an iconoclastic traditionalist, but that’s probably the most accurate shorthand we can use to try to sum up the man, Bob Dylan, and the essence of the music he has made. These three lectures will trace the music and the influence of the boy from America’s Midwest, who became a companion for life for baby-boomers planet-wide, as he worked in his inimitable w... [More]

Murals – as examples from Northern Ireland and Revolutionary Mexico demonstrate – are a well-established vehicle for communicating symbolic boundaries and political intent. In Iran, the Islamic Republic (established 1980) has utilised murals for Islamist state propaganda. Today, while reference to the original revolutionary themes still exists, new, often stylistically avant-garde visualisations have appeared in the city. The new genre of urban artwork seems to blur the boundaries b... [More]

This course investigates the historical, literary and material record of burial in Anglo-Saxon England and considers how the evidence informs our understanding of the prevailing culture, attitudes, religious belief and practice. A number of questions will emerge, including: How does religion effect burial customs? Are burials valid evidence for religious affiliation? How do immigrant groups utilise indigenous burial customs? Are enemy remains respected after battle? England in the e... [More]

Discover how epic myths became tragic stories in Athens. When we speak of Greek tragedy, we refer specifically to the plays that were presented as part of the festival to the god Dionysus, the City Dionysia. This festival took place in Athens once a year and consisted of several political and civic rituals and ceremonies as well as the performance of tragedies and satyr plays (light-hearted comedies). The ceremonies included the display of tribute brought by Athens' allies and the p... [More]

Were Homer’s Greek kings at Troy just fiction? Were the likes of Agamemnon, Menelaus and Nestor real life Mycenaean rulers? Mycenaeans existed within an extraordinary and enigmatic civilization and they used a script, referred to as Linear B, which for decades defied decipherment. In this course, we will separate Mycenaean fact from Homeric fiction. The course will comprise five 90 minute illustrated sessions as per the Outline below. OUTLINE Part One: The Minoan Background In this ... [More]

The philosophy of beauty and the perception of it will be explored with philosopher Clive Lamond. What is the truth about beauty? What have the wise of the ages said? How can you enhance the perception of beauty? This casual and relaxed session is for all levels of thinkers and ponderers. We all know the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” which implies that it is the observer who determines the degree of beauty in an object. And yet we believe that something is beautiful ... [More]