This multi-disciplinary paper is designed to help you become a better BA student, no matter what your major subject. It foregrounds the processes and attributes that help make culturally aware, responsible and articulate citizens: interpreting, explaining, gathering and evaluating evidence, and making a strong, evidence-based argument.

The paper is structured around the idea of the journey, and on cultural encounter and change. We will navigate worlds made up of sounds and images, and worlds conjured by language; we will visit fantasy worlds, and explore narratives presenting contemporary versions of the historical past. We will encounter representations of change and cultural difference in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific, and Europe. Our own journey will be mapped by some key concepts: relations between old worlds and new; journeys; place/setting; encounter; change.

In the first seven weeks of the paper we will discuss the clash of old and new worlds in two classic films, and explore some key terms for the study of the Humanities. After the mid-semester break, we will focus on infection and encounters with dangerous 'others', fantasy new worlds, the comedy that can result when old and new worlds collide, and new worlds in music video.

Students attend two lectures and one tutorial a week, learning through a variety of assessment tasks, including a short written exercise, an essay, a weekly online quiz, tutorial participation, and a final online test.