FASS3999 Chap.2 Case Studies and Disciplinary Contribution
Case Studies and Disciplinary Contribution
Every group project in the unit starts from a case study: one big topic that people in many sectors care about, paired with three or four external organisations that volunteer to share how they approach it. This chapter explains how the model works and how teams are formed.
Tutors build groups of five to six students with mixed disciplinary backgrounds, and each group ranks two or three case studies, knowing that allocation also spreads topics across each tutorial. The partners will not agree with each other, and that disagreement is the raw material for analysis. The chapter then tackles a common worry: how to connect a major that seems distant from the topic.
It adapts the unit's own advice, which asks students to list the problems their discipline already studies and map them onto a case study's key questions, so every member has a defensible entry point.
What this chapter covers
- 01
One big topic, several partner organisations and your own project
- 02
Partners as cases to study rather than clients to serve
- 03
Team formation for disciplinary diversity
- 04
Ranking preferences when a second choice is possible
- 05
The two-column method for linking a discipline to a case
- 06
Using the Week 2 tutorial to test every case
- 07
Sharing final work with partners as an option, not a duty
Worked example · free
Giving every team member an entry point
- +1Philosophy: what principles could justify or limit a state's right to restrict movement?
- +1Media studies: how do two outlets frame people seeking asylum during an election period?
- +1Indonesian studies: how did long-standing contact between Macassan traders and Yolngu communities unsettle the idea that movement is exceptional?
- +1Government: how do visa conditions shape access to housing and services for international students?
- +1Archaeology: what does long-run evidence of mobility suggest about claims that people are naturally settled?
Key terms
- Big Topic
- The broad issue at the centre of a case study, worked on by many people across different sectors.
- Case Lead
- The academic expert who introduces a case study, curates its resources and runs the seminar that debriefs the partner panel.
- Partner Panel
- A session in which a case study's external organisations present their work and perspectives to the students allocated to that case.
- Disciplinary Entry Point
- A specific question, method or concept through which a student's major connects to a case topic.
Case Studies and Disciplinary Contribution FAQ
How many case studies run in Semester 2 2026?
Five topics are offered: creative arts, technology and the public good; gender and social change; migration and belonging; housing affordability in Sydney; and creative solutions to the problems of incarceration.
Will my group definitely get its first choice?
Not necessarily. Allocation considers several factors, including a spread of topics within each tutorial, so groups are told they may receive a second or third preference. Ranking options carefully protects the group.
What if my major has no obvious link to any case?
List the problems your discipline already studies, then look for overlaps with a case's key questions. The teaching team has invited students who struggle with this to raise it, and returns to the topic later in semester.
Do we have to share our final project with the partners?
No. An avenue exists for groups who want partners to see their work, but sharing is optional. The project is your group's own approach to the topic rather than commissioned work.
Assessment move
Read all five case briefs before the Week 2 tutorial and, for each one, write a single question you could investigate with your own discipline's tools. Note which cases felt hard to connect with and why; those notes are early material for your reflection.
When your team forms, run the two-column exercise together: one column for the problems each discipline studies, one for the case's key questions, with lines only where someone can name a method or source. Rank two or three cases on coverage, so that no member is left without a role. After allocation, read your case lead's resource list and each partner's website before the panel.
Draft a short profile of every partner in your own words, separating what it does from what it says it wants to achieve. Bring a list of two questions per partner to the panel. Finally, read one case brief you were not allocated. Comparing how a different topic is framed often makes the assumptions in your own topic easier to see, and gives you a contrast for the Partner Analysis.
