In this unit, students are required to actively engage with their peers in order to develop a shared understanding of the key ideas, concepts and debates that we discuss throughout this unit.

Requirements: From week two to week ten, students are required to participate in the learning activities within the designated time frame. They must participate in two ways:

1. First, students must post a 150-300 word response to the weekly activity.
2. Second, students must also collaborate and encourage peer learning by commenting on at least one other student post in the weekly forum. 

The forum will be opened when the activity is posted each week on Tuesday and then closed the following Monday. 

Weekly posts and comments: As you complete your weekly posts and comments, please remember that these posts should generate discussion. We do not expect you to present a 'correct' or 'perfectly formed' answer; often you will find there isn't a singular 'right' answer. Instead, we're looking for you to draw on what you've learnt in the lecture, book and readings to respond to the activity or question. We'd like you to add your thoughts on the key concepts, ask questions about the readings and share ideas about the topic to the discussion so that we can collaborate and help one another to understand the concepts. If you have any questions about what we're looking for, please consult the marking criteria below and then contact Jillian.

Assessment Criteria (full rubric in ilearn): 

1. Completion of weekly post and comment within the designated time frame 
2. Post demonstrates engagement with the relevant lectures, book and required readings 
3. Post demonstrates engagement with the relevant key concepts, debates and discussions 
4. Comment demonstrates active engagement with peers in the learning activities 

Preparation: Please see the Engagement and Collaboration guide on ilearn to prepare for this assessment task. This guide includes a detailed outline and rationale for this assessment task and sample posts and comments.  

Special Consideration: If you cannot complete a weekly activity or discussion due to unavoidable and serious disruption, please request Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au. For more information about the Special Consideration process please click here.

Late Assessment Penalty: Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, no late submissions will be accepted as this is a timed assessment. You may chose to post your response and comments, but they may not contribute to your overall mark for this assessment.

Feedback: While a final grade for this assessment will be determined at the end of the semester, informal feedback will be offered via regular announcements and discussion posts. If you would like further feedback on how you're going with this task, please contact Jillian via her MQ email address. 

For this assessment, students are required to select two of their own responses to the weekly activities undertaken in the discussion forms so far. They are required to complete a 400-500 word scholarly reflection task for each post.

In these scholarly reflections, students are required to (a) outline the context of their post on the discussion forum, (b) demonstrate how it enhances their understanding of the key concepts or methods explored in the unit, and (c) discuss how their thoughts have developed since writing their post. Students must use appropriate academic communication methods. Both reflections must be referenced, structured and written in accordance with academic standards. 

Students can find a template for this assessment task in the Assessments and Guides Section on the ilearn page. Each post they include should be 150-300 words in length (about a paragraph). This means you may either use a full post, or an extract. The posts are not included in the word count.

This assessment task will be marked according to the following assessment criteria (see full rubric in ilearn):

1. Well-selected sample of two of the student’s weekly responses to the activities
2. Demonstrates a clear grasp of relevant key theoretical concepts and their context
3. Demonstrates the ability to identify the significance and implications of relevant key concepts
4. Demonstrates a critical engagement with relevant unit readings, cultural studies scholarship and debates
5. Stages a thoughtful reflection on the process of learning and engaging with cultural studies scholarship
6. Effective use of writing skills to present academic research, including consistent and accurate use of in-text referencing. 

Preparation: In order to prepare to undertake this assessment, students are expected to engage in the designated assessment discussion forum. Here, they can find a template for this assessment, ask questions, share their approach and watch a clip containing a detailed outline of the task and samples. 

Submission: Students will submit this task via the Turnitin link on the unit iLearn Site.

Special Consideration: If you're unable to complete this task by the due date due to an unavoidable and serious disruption, please email your unit convenor and request Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au. For more information about the Special Consideration process please click here.

Late Penalty: Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

Feedback: Individual feedback will be given via gradebook.

For this assessment, students will continue developing the knowledge and skills that they will need in order to complete the final essay. They will build on their understandings of the key concepts in order to perform their own 1,000 word visual analysis of kitsch and graffiti. Students are required to respond to the following prompt:

• Michel de Certeau argues that tactics are "victories of the 'weak' over the "strong"' (1988, p. xix). Using de Certeau's (1988) definition of tactics, highlight the ways in which one example of graffiti and one example of kitsch might be considered tactical in character. 

In their answers, students must draw on de Certeau's work (1988) and at least two other readings to analyse one example of kitsch and one example of graffiti. They should aim to build a strong argument that exposes the ways in which their examples are (or are not) 'tactical in character.' The images they have chosen should be cited and pasted at the beginning of their analysis.

Students must also use academic referencing and attach a reference list at the end of their essay. For more information on referencing please follow the link to Macquarie University Library’s Referencing Guide here: http://libguides.mq.edu.au/Referencing.

Each visual analysis will be marked according to the following marking criteria (please see assessment rubric in ilearn):

1. Demonstrates a clear and effective grasp of relevant key concepts
2. Develops an argument that is supported by both theoretical concepts and forensic analysis of well chosen examples 
3. Effectively uses writing skills to present academic research, including consistent and accurate use of in-text referencing.

Preparation: Students will be expected to write their essays based on the guidance they receive in the lectures and online weekly discussion. This assessment will be explained and samples will be shown in the weekly forums and/or assessment clip. 

Submission: The visual analysis will be submitted via the turnitin link in ilearn. 

Special Consideration: If you have experienced an unavoidable and serious disruption and are unable to complete this task by the due date, please request Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au. For more information about the Special Consideration process please click here.

Late Submission: Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests. 

Feedback: Students will receive individual feedback in gradebook. They may also receive group feedback via weekly discussions.

For this assessment, students are required to write a 2,000 word essay in response to one of the questions listed below. Drawing on the concepts offered in the relevant readings, students must perform a forensic visual analysis of at least one example in order to demonstrate their argument. Please note that students must not write on the same example that they used in their visual analysis. 

Questions: 

• Popular culture, Stuart Hall argues, is structured by the "double movement of containment and resistance." Discuss Hall's characterisation of popular culture in relation to an example of your choice such as the cultural practice such as graffiti or the production/consumption of kitsch.
• Graffiti, as a subcultural practice, contests established legal notions of public space and private/corporate property. Discuss this statement in relation to the relevant readings and a specific example of your choice.
• The subcultural practice of graffiti challenges established notions of the ‘aesthetics of authority’ (Ferrell 1996, p. 176). Discuss in relation to a specific example of your choice.
• Discuss how graffiti is a “contentious form of political participation.” Evidence your arguments with reference to the relevant readings and a culturally-situated example of political graffiti.
• Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's work, discuss how both kitsch and art are in fact all about questions of distinction and the consecration of the social order. Discuss in relation to a specific example of either art or graffiti. 
• Drawing on an example, discuss the importance of technologies of reproduction in relation to kitsch. In your answer, you need to discuss Benjamin and Olalquiaga's work on the aura and the democratisation of the image.
• Aboriginalist kitsch is enabled by white supremacism: it is an "assertion of rights of ownership in the intellectual and cultural sphere to match power in the political and economic sphere," B. Hodge and V. Mishra. Discuss in relation to a specific example.
• "We are enveloped by the gigantic, surrounded by it, enclosed within its shadow. Whereas we know the miniature as a spatial whole or as temporal parts, we know the gigantic only partially. We move through the landscape; it does not move through us," Susan Stewart. Discuss gigantism and the miniature in the context of examples in the Australian landscape.
• Queer kitsch brings into focus a concept of the self as "performative, improvisational, discontinuous, and processually constituted by repetitive and stylised acts," Moe Myer. Discuss in relation to the readings and an example of queer kitsch.
• "Representational excess, heterogeneity, and gratuitousness of reference, in constituting a major raison d'etre of camp's fun and exclusiveness, both signal and contribute to an overall resistance to definition," Fabio Cleto. Discuss in relation to the readings and an example of queer kitsch. 
• Construct your own essay question, with reference to the topics and readings of the unit, in consultation with your tutor.

Essays will be marked according to the following criteria (please see assessment rubric in ilearn): 

1. Demonstrates a clear and effective grasp of the key concepts raised in the relevant readings
2. Identifies relevant example/s and provides contextualised and forensic analysis
3. Develops a well-supported and well-researched argument 
4. Effectively re-evaluates practices of everyday life that are often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral 
5. Critiques relevant hierarchies of value 
6. Effectively uses writing skills to present academic research, including consistent and accurate use of in-text referencing.

Preparation: The final essay will be discussed, and examples will be shown, in weekly discussions that occur throughout the second half of semester. In order to prepare to undertake this assessment, students are also expected to engage in the designated assessment discussion forum. Here, they can ask questions, share their approach and watch a clip containing a detailed outline of the task and samples. 

Submission: The final essay will be submitted via the link to turnitin on the unit ilearn site.

Feedback: Students will receive individual feedback in gradebook.

Special Consideration: If you have experienced an unavoidable and serious disruption and are unable to complete this task by the due date, please request Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au. For more information about the Special Consideration process please click here.

Late Submission: Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.