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Monash University: University handbooks: Postgraduate handbook: Units indexed by faculty
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Graduate Diploma in Biography and Life Writing

Course code: 3074 + Course abbreviation: GradDipBiog&LifeWrit + Total credit points required: 48 + 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time

Study mode and course location

On-campus (Clayton)

Course description

This course will explore many of the theoretical and practical issues involved in reading and writing biographies and life stories. It will include practical questions about the accessing of resources and the ways to utilise and design interviews. It will address many of the ethical, moral and legal questions involved in writing biography and life stories. It will also offer students an understanding of some of the ways in which psychoanalysis, feminist theory and postcolonial studies have affected the understanding of biography and life writing. Students will explore the history of biography and autobiography; and some of the different ways in which biographies have been constructed and written. The use of life stories in history and sociology will also be discussed.

Entry requirements

Applicants require the completion of a bachelors degree in any approved discipline (for example history, English, psychology) with a credit average. Those without an undergraduate degree but demonstrable professional experience may be admitted to the Faculty Certificate in Biography and Life Writing. Those who achieve credit results in this certificate may apply for entry to the graduate diploma.

Course structure

Students complete 48 points, including one 12-point core unit and three 12-point elective units offered at level four. Not all units are available each year. Unless otherwise indicated, all units are taught at Clayton.

Core unit

  • HYM4270 Research methods in biography and life writing

Elective units

  • HYM4280 Reading and writing biography and life stories
  • HYM4200 History and memory: oral history, life stories and commemoration
  • HYM4560 The past around us (online)
  • HYM4620 Family history and genealogy (online and face-to-face at Caulfield)
  • HYM4820 Local and community history (online and face-to-face at Caulfield)
  • HYM4900 History, biography and autobiography
  • HYM4120 Reading and writing Australian history
  • HYM4950 Hidden transcripts: cultural approaches to the past
  • HYM4960 Gender and history
  • One other approved 12-point unit

Exit point

Students who have completed 24 points towards the Graduate Diploma in Biography and Life Writing may be offered an exit award of a Graduate Certificate in Arts.

Contact details

Course coordinator

Professor Barbara Caine

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