This course takes the everyday reader into the long history of poetry as sexual medium: prophylactic, pick-up, confession, caress. Some of Melbourne’s best writers, readers and critics of poetry will explore this history through a focus on specific periods and writers, from the courtly love poem to feminist politics in language.

If you love reading, want to know more about poetry in English and beyond, study literature or just feel a bit sexy, join us for this series of talks and discussions on how language has been used as an extension of the body.

Australians are world leaders in recreational drug use, but we seem chronically incapable of an honest appraisal of the issues this raises. The ‘war on drugs’ paradigm dominates the mainstream while drug-taking subcultures flourish at the margins: something has to give. Through an examination of the history, politics, law, science and culture of drugs and drug use in Australia, this course will stimulate open discussion of this controversial subject.