300-level

MAOR301
Ngati Apopo: Maori Futures
Description
This course explores the local, national and global trends that will materially impact on the future trajectory of Maori self determination and futures making. Students will investigate how Maori navigate such shifts and trends to advance self-determination as change agents.
Occurrences
Semester One 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT, MAOR, POLS, or TREO, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
POLS331, POLS358, CULT319
POLS304
Environmental Politics and Policy
Description
Has green politics come of age? Around the world we are seeing spontaneous community movements challenging four difficult and intersecting issues: dangerous environmental change, growing social inequality, weak democracy and a paradigm of growth that has contributed to resource extraction beyond the capacity of the planet. Against a background of difficult issues including climate change and the impact of colonization, this course examines the roots of environmental thinking and activism and asks- what are the implications of these ideas for how we live as citizens, communities, businesses and nations and how might we plan for just transitions towards a more equitable and sustainable future? The course involves a weekend field trip.
Occurrences
Semester One 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from POLS, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA, or LAWS, GEOG, or the Schedule V of the BCom.
COMS305
Media and Social Change
Description
This course analyses the role of the media in social change and question whether media can, in fact, produce consensus within society, and if those changes are controllable by the artist/writer/producer, the audience, or the state. It does this by exploring theoretical underpinnings of societal shifts through the framework of the media as an important institution in society and in the construction of social reality. The course will invite students to further understand the role of the media in power relations by analysing such notions and processes as ideology, hegemony, representations, and media ethics. This course includes group work and requires active in-class engagement. This is not a distance course. This course has a strongly practical focus that requires active in-class engagement. This course requires students to create and share work with others, in order to learn from and support each other.
Occurrences
Semester One 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from COMS, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
POLS307
Policy Issues in Science, Technology, and Health
Description
This course analyses major political issues and policy challenges in the area of biopolitics - the operation of power through governance of human bodies. Specific issues include the politics of infectious diseases, agtech, human ‘enhancement,’ and the implications of disruptive technologies for medicine, human reproduction, and life extension. Cases will be primarily drawn from North America, Australia, and Aotearoa. This course is part of the public policy subdiscipline in the Political Science degree and is also relevant to a number of other degrees across the university.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from HLTH or POLS, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA, or LAWS, GEOG, or the Schedule V of the BCom.
GEOG309
Research for Resilient Environments and Communities
Description
This course will develop your ability to undertake research that supports resilient environments and communities. Drawing on problem-based and service learning approaches, you will design and complete a research project in collaboration with a community partner. The training, practice and critical evaluation of the research will be carried out in groups, and you will communicate your research findings using spoken, numerical and written skills. The course begins with a short fieldtrip, and then progresses through occasional lectures and regular project group meetings, supported by web-based resources. It concludes with a public conference. The emphasis is on students working together to solve real world problems using skills that are transferable to the workplace.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
30 points of GEOG at 200 level, or ENVR209/GEOG209 and ENVR210
Restrictions
GEOG204, GEOG303
MAOR317
Takahi: Colonisation
Description
Colonisation has had a significant effect on the shaping of contemporary New Zealand society. This course will cover key events in the colonisation throughout New Zealand’s brief colonial history. This course utilises different theories of colonisation to critically examine the continued subjugation of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa and around the world. Special attention will also be paid to breaking down the power relationships that have emerged between coloniser and colonised.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT, HIST, MAOR, or TREO, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
RELS322, HIST366, CULT302
POLS319
International Organisations: The United Nations and Contemporary Challenges
Description
An advanced undergraduate course examining international organisations with a special focus on the contemporary role of the United Nations.
Occurrences
Semester One 2025
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from POLS, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA, or LAWS, GEOG, or the Schedule V of the BCom.

Not Offered Courses in 2025

300-level

MAOR317
Takahi: Colonisation
Description
Colonisation has had a significant effect on the shaping of contemporary New Zealand society. This course will cover key events in the colonisation throughout New Zealand’s brief colonial history. This course utilises different theories of colonisation to critically examine the continued subjugation of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa and around the world. Special attention will also be paid to breaking down the power relationships that have emerged between coloniser and colonised.
Occurrences
MAOR317-25S1 (C)
Semester One 2025 - Not offered
For further information see MAOR317 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT, HIST, MAOR, or TREO, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
RELS322, HIST366, CULT302