Monash University: University Handbooks: Undergraduate handbook 2005: Units indexed by faculty
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Undergraduate handbook 2005 - Arts

Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies

Discipline

Australian Indigenous studies

Email

cais@arts.monash.edu.au

Home page

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/cais/

Inquiries

Room 219B, level 2, Monash University Museum of Art (building 55), Clayton campus

Telephone

+ 61 3 9905 4200 (Clayton)
The Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies (CAIS) offers units that aim to encourage students to understand the past and contemporary experiences of Australian Indigenous peoples. Students will acquire a general knowledge of many different aspects of Australian Indigenous cultures and of how these cultures have undergone change and adaptation. Such understanding will require students to construct critical arguments and analyse topics studied in their historical and contemporary contexts. Units in Australian Indigenous studies aim to assist students to develop a good knowledge base about key issues in Indigenous societies.
Units offered by Australian Indigenous studies take an interdisciplinary approach to the contemporary experiences of Australian Aborigines by including the study of kinship and political systems in urban and remote societies, and the contrasts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous societies. Introductory units examine Indigenous lifestyles and kinship systems, pre and post-invasion, and the concept of continuity, which provides a focus on understanding the importance of land. Study of the post-invasion period examines the effects of colonisation on Indigenous societies and economies, past and present governmental policies, and their effects on organisations and communities.
Teaching in the centre includes lectures and small tutorial and seminar groups, which encourage debate and inquiry. Presentations, written summaries and essays incorporate reflective, analytical and oral skills specific to Indigenous studies as well as to the arts degree. A number of Arts faculty units offered in anthropology, Australian studies, geography, history, politics, linguistics, environmental science, sociology, visual culture and women's and gender studies complement units offered in Indigenous studies.
The academic staff are Professor Lynette Russell (director of Monash Aboriginal Programs), Dr Liz Reed, Mr Barry Judd, Dr Stephen Pritchard, Dr Jane Lydon and Mr Sam Wickman. A major aim of the centre is to provide excellent and culturally appropriate undergraduate, honours and postgraduate courses.

Relevant courses

For details of the following courses, see `Outline of undergraduate studies' earlier in this section.

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