http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/psi/
Room W1017, West Wing, Menzies building, Clayton campus
(03) 9905 2443
The School of Political and Social Inquiry is made up of the disciplines of
anthropology, sociology, politics and criminal justice and criminology. It also
includes the National Centre for Australian Studies, the Centre for Women's
Studies and Gender Research, and the Centre for Population and Urban
Research.
The school offers undergraduate and applied graduate courses, and honours
and higher-degree supervision in all three disciplines and in the
interdisciplinary fields. It also offers graduate diplomas and coursework
masters in international relations, applied social research, communications,
publishing and tourism.
The core disciplines traverse social and political theory, governance issues
and also address issues of globalisation, national and international identity
along with the formation of particular cultural groups and networks.
The school, through the National Centre for Australian Studies, also
coordinates the undergraduate communications major on Monash's metropolitan
campuses.
Students completing an undergraduate degree with majors or minors in
anthropology, sociology, politics, communications, criminology and criminal
justice and women's studies acquire analytical and writing skills that enable
them to seek employment in both the public and the private sector. Career
options include positions in the mass media, in market research organisations
and working for political parties or welfare groups.
In the very broadest sense, anthropology is the study of human cultural diversity. Unlike most subjects which deal with specialised aspects of humanity, anthropology remains dedicated to studying the diversity of human expression through space and time.
Anthropologists are concerned with their own society, but only as one among
many. When anthropology seeks to understand economics, politics, religion,
violence, child-rearing or art, it aims eventually at a broad comparative
knowledge which does not assume that the contemporary Western expressions are
the most important, or even the most revealing, in the quest for an
understanding of human cultures and societies. In fact, anthropologists have
been led to examine in detail societies which are very different from their
own, where ideas about beauty, morality, authority and dignity vary markedly
from those with which they are familiar.
Anthropology's comparative approach to understanding humanity is becoming
increasingly important. In recent years, there has been a growth of major
social and political movements throughout the world in which people are
stressing a sense of community, shared identity and assertions of difference on
the basis of factors such as ethnicity, sexuality, gender and status as
indigenous peoples, which cut across national boundaries. At the same time,
many people are expressing concerns for social justice issues, environmental
degradation and so on. Anthropology is a vital discipline because it is the
only one which deals with the importance of cultural difference in these
diverse expressions of humanity.
Those who qualify as anthropologists, after undergraduate and graduate studies,
may be in a position to engage in first-hand research, become advisers or
consultants to industry, government and non-government organisations on a
diverse range of matters, and teach. But our principal aim is to impart to all
our students, regardless of the occupations they hope to pursue, an informed
and culturally-sensitive awareness of their involvement in their own and other
societies and cultures.
Australian studies explores the distinctive nature of Australian society and culture and the nation's relationship with the rest of the world. Incorporating both traditional and new fields of the humanities and social sciences, the discipline investigates how past and current interpretations of Australia influence national identity. Australian studies also gives universal context to national concerns through its interrogation of issues such as cultural dispossession and the evolution of the modern nation state, and in its exploration of the growth industries of the 21st century, tourism and communications.
Communications and media studies focuses on the organisation, processes and effects of traditional and new communications technologies such as print, television, film and electronic media. Students gain an understanding of the practical operation of the media as well as the social and cultural dimensions of communications, and the complex relationships between audiences, producers and policy-makers. Students also examine the nature of communication and the capabilities and applications of communication in a range of societies.
Communications and media studies students learn to critically analyse the
media and learn about the structure of communications industries and the
relations between media, culture and power. Communications theory is an
integral part of the major, coupled with an investigation of the practices,
technologies and processes that make up modern media.
The program prepares students to work across the public and private sectors,
and a wide range of communications industries. The program offers an
international approach to the study of communications, provides practical
experience in the use of new communications technologies, and offers students
an opportunity to undertake a major research consultancy in a selected
communications industry in the final year of the major.
Graduates work in a wide range of fields including corporate communications,
journalism, marketing and public relations. The graduate communications
program, established in 1992, offers a graduate certificate, a graduate diploma
and a masters qualification in communications and media studies.
Comparative cultures is an interdisciplinary course focusing on processes of social development, comparing ways of life found in societies of all kinds: modern and pre-modern, agrarian and industrial, capitalist and socialist, Eastern and Western. The course draws on the comparative and theoretical aspects of the school's disciplines - anthropology, politics and sociology - bringing together units which, while focusing on a comparative understanding of cultures and societies, see a critical appraisal of relevant social, cultural and political theory as central to such a comparative perspective. Comparative cultures units are at the analytical edge of historical and comparative studies, self-conscious about method, constantly attempting to move beyond established `truth'. Given its overtly comparative, theoretical and interdisciplinary perspective, comparative cultures also encourages involvement in units outside the school as students engage with the many debates in this area which cut across not only anthropology, politics and sociology but also literary theory, history, philosophy and psychology.
Comparative cultures begins its specialisation at second year. Students
normally use two first-year units in anthropology (see separate entry),
politics (see separate entry) and/or sociology (see separate entry) as the
basis for a minor or major in comparative cultures, but other units from
cognate areas may be allowed.
Second-year units deal with the rise of capitalist societies, the study of
culture, the current complexities of international politics, understanding
prejudice and discrimination in its many guises, and the impact of scientific
rationality on our view of the world and our place in it.
In the third year, students can choose from a wide range of options dealing
with topics such as ethnicity, nationalism, globalisation and identity, media,
gender and sexuality; the cultural construction of disabilities; Marxist,
critical, structuralist and post-structuralist theories of society, culture and
politics.
An honours program is also available for students wishing to specialise further
and who may want to proceed to postgraduate research.
Crime is an issue which all citizens and governments confront on a daily basis. The causes of crime and how it should be dealt with are the subject of intense debate. The major in criminal justice and criminology provides students with the skills to understand the complexities of crime, to learn about the various stages of the criminal justice system, to critically analyse its working and tension and to explore alternative strategies. Criminal justice and criminology students can combine an interest in areas such as police, courts, corrections, law and order, justice, causes of crime, crime prevention and victims of crime in order to broaden their career options in this area.
The politics program offers courses on the Caulfield and Clayton campuses, specialising in four broad areas: Australian politics, international relations and global politics, culture and identity politics, and social and political theory. Students may specialise in one or more of these areas, but are encouraged to choose their units so as to explore the different approaches to political studies.
Politics is a very broad discipline, which tends to overlap continually with
all the other major humanities and social science disciplines. It is,
therefore, an excellent discipline for learning about the interrelationships
that exist in the human world, and for acquiring a diverse range of
interpretive, analytic and synthetic (especially conceptual) skills. The
discipline is not just concerned with the study of government, policy or
political institutions; it also studies resource allocation, decision making,
social behaviour and political action, the management or resolution of
conflict, power struggles, the struggle for political freedom, ideologies and
political movements, the nature of the state and relations between states. It
is especially concerned with the nature of power and authority, with `practical
understanding', with the relations between theory and practice and with the
series of arguments which are created by the continual struggle by human beings
to maintain their social existence and to devise more desirable and more
satisfactory forms of human community.
Politics at Monash aims to offer students up-to-date coverage and explanation
of many aspects of the contemporary world, developed and underdeveloped,
coupled with a solid intellectual grounding in the key debates, texts and
traditions of inquiry that one finds in the humanities and social sciences.
The focus of sociological teaching and research is the study of industrial and post-industrial societies in a global context. It involves the investigation of diverse human groups, communities, institutions and organisations, and the networks of meaning and association that link individuals and groups to the broader social structures of such societies. The wide range of units available is designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore broad theoretical and methodological issues. Sociology employs both classical and contemporary perspectives and uses a diverse range of interpretive, analytical and research skills in order to develop a critical understanding of the social institutions and processes of industrial and post-industrial societies.
Introductory sociology introduces students to a variety of perspectives and substantive areas of sociology, eg socialisation, deviance, the family, sexuality and gender, popular culture, class and social inequality. In later years, sociological theories and methods are examined in greater detail. A wide range of options are also available, such as sexuality and gender, mass media, men and masculinity, sociology of religion, the family, youth, working life, ethnicity, population and migration, popular music, prisons, women and gender, social psychology and children and society. Many of these substantive units give students an understanding of the diverse aspects of Australian culture in its global context.
Women's studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry which is broadly concerned with questions of gender, sexuality and culture. Beyond general considerations of the changing status of women and where dominant ideas and assumptions about gender and sexual difference come from, women's studies units cover specific issues such as: how gender issues are represented in film, literature, advertising and the media; shifting cultural and historical modes of femininity and masculinity; how different cultures shape gender identities and sexualities; how questions of sex or gender relate to questions of class and race; the relationship between gender and crime; feminist research methodology; cross-cultural feminism; and the role of women and gender in important political, economic, sociological and philosophical debates. In this way, women's studies attempts to correct the absence of material on women and gender relations that for a long time characterised more traditional areas of study. Women's studies units are offered on Clayton and Caulfield campuses and selected units may be taken as electives within other majors in the school.
For details of the following courses, see `Outline of studies' earlier in this section:
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