Study Tour: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change in Asia and the Pacific

Please note ASIA2022 has been replaced by ASIA3037. Please visit ASIA3037 Program & Courses site for course details. This intensive course will involve 4 weeks of in-country traveling and study at the University of Tokyo and the Mt Fuji region of Japan followed by equivalent time at the ANU and south coast to tablelands region. The course asks the fundamental questions, "How do we explain the remarkably abrupt changes that sometimes occur in nature and society?" and "What can knowledge of the past tell us about our future?". Much of what we know of the deeper past comes from natural archives of changing cultural landscapes and environment. In Australia and the Asia-Pacific region there is a rich body of evidence for past changes in culture, climate, landscape and biodiversity that is only just beginning to be explored. The evidence for critical transitions that have occurred in nature and society will be discussed and students will see first-hand examples of how environmental change has influenced past and present societies and cultures. The course combines in-class learning, museum visits and fieldtrips to Mt Fuji and the coastal and inland regions around the ANU campus. The course will provide students with a deeper understanding of the practical skills to engage in current issues that span the sciences and humanities.