Schools and centres - Faculty of Arts

School of English, Communications and Performance Studies

The School of ECPS offers a wide range of undergraduate units in communications and media studies, drama and theatre studies, English (including creative writing), film and television studies, performance studies, professional writing and visual culture. The School operates on the Berwick, Caulfield and Clayton campuses and has links with the Gippsland, Malaysia and South Africa campuses. The majority of units offered by the school are available to students in any undergraduate course provided that they meet unit and course requirements (see the relevant section of this handbook or check with your home faculty).

Staff are committed to internationally-recognised research and to the highest quality learning outcomes for all students at every level. With us students can take units and programs which are practical or theoretical, directly useful or deliberately outside everyday experience.

Contact details

Inquiries (Clayton): Room W707, West Wing, Menzies building; Telephone +61 3 9905 2140; Email ECPS.Enquiries@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ecps/.

School of Geography and Environmental Science

Geography and Environmental Science offers an exciting array of units as part of several different undergraduate degree courses.

The teaching areas of the School are very diverse, reflecting our diverse research strengths . Students can study topics ranging from climatology to resource management, and from aboriginal archaeology to sustainable cities. A large number of our units involve field trips, taking students on short excursions in the Melbourne area or on longer trips to outback Australia, South Africa, or Italy.

Contact details

Inquiries (Clayton): Room S217, South Wing, Menzies building; Telephone +61 3 9905 2910; Email geography@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/ges/.

School of Historical Studies

The School of Historical Studies offers units in the areas of history, archaeology and ancient history, religion and theology and Jewish civilisation studies and across fields such as medieval and renaissance studies, gender studies, military history, cultural and social history, Aboriginal history, European history and Australian and Asian studies. The school also offers a first-year sequence and later-year units in the cross-disciplinary international studies program. As well as providing knowledge of specific disciplines and fields, units taught in the School of Historical Studies offer students the opportunity of developing skills of research and analysis and enhancing their abilities in written and oral communication. In particular, tutorials and class projects are designed to give students practical experience of the balance of teamwork, flexibility and independent learning critical to a successful professional career.

Contact details

Inquiries (Clayton): Room W604, West Wing, Menzies building; Telephone +61 3 9905 2172; Email HSEnq@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/hgs.

School of Humanities, Communication and Social Sciences

Located at the Gippsland campus, the School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences offers a range of undergraduate courses, enabling students to choose a program which suits their specific interests, needs and career goals. The academic programs offered range from the broad, generalist Bachelor of Arts to the more specifically vocational programs such as the Bachelor of Social and Community Welfare and Bachelor of Arts (Journalism). The school also conducts an extensive off-campus learning program.

The school offers the following disciplines: Australian Indigenous studies, Australian studies, criminal justice, community studies, communications, journalism, history-politics, sociology and social research, social and community welfare, psychological studies, public relations, and writing.

The School also offers a Bachelor of Sports Promotion and Events Management which is a joint initiative with the Faculty of Business and Economics.

The school also has the following research units: the Centre for Gippsland Studies, the Gippsland Research and Information Service (GRIS), the Research Unit on Work and Communication Futures, and the Bionics and Cognitive Science Centre, and has established close links with the Centre for Rural Communities.

Contact details

Inquiries (Gippsland): Room 283, building 2W; Telephone +61 3 9902 6339; Email humcass.info@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/humcass

School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

The School offers studies in a range of Asian and European languages, English as an international language, linguistics and comparative literature and cultural studies. All languages can be commenced either at introductory level or at a more advanced level (refer to the relevant language discipline entry in this section of the handbook). Units in all languages contain components of study relating to the relevant cultures or societies and separate area or cultural studies units taught in English are also available in some disciplines. Students studying a language are strongly encouraged to also take a major or minor in Asian studies, European studies, linguistics, or comparative literature and cultural studies. Monash has extensive links with overseas institutions, and offers a range of exchange and study abroad opportunities, including intensive summer programs in some languages. Grants may be available from Monash Abroad and other sources to support such study.

Research in the areas covered by the school is supported by the Centre for European Studies, the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, the Centre for South-East Asian Studies, the Japanese Studies Centre, the Language and Society Centre, and the Monash Asia Institute.

Contact details

Inquiries (Clayton): Room S423, fourth floor, South Wing, Menzies building; Telephone +61 3 9905 2281 or +61 3 9905 2223; Email lcl.enquiries@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/lcl/.

School of Music

The School of Music Conservatorium offers sequences in the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts, and Bachelor of Performing Arts degrees. It also offers a number of double degrees: the Bachelor of Music/Arts, the Bachelor of Music/Commerce, the Bachelor of Music/Education, the Bachelor of Music/Law, and the Bachelor of Music/Performing Arts. The School also offers the Masters degree in musicology, performance and composition and the PhD in musicology and composition. There is also a Graduate Diploma of Arts in Music. The School can offer supervision of research and practical work in most areas of music.

A major focus of the teaching offered in the School is to teach students how to relate to the music industry and the community; and it offers them a wide choice of careers after completion of their course (e.g. in composition, music technology, performance, instrumental or vocal teaching, classroom teaching, music archival work, music criticism and journalism, tertiary teaching and research careers).

Contact details

Inquiries (Clayton): Room 101 Performing Arts Centre, building 68; Telephone +61 3 9905 3231; Email music@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/music/.

School of Philosophy and Bioethics

The School of Philosophy and Bioethics pursues a deeper understanding of what people are doing when they reason and make moral choices. The major research strengths of the school lie in logic and metaphysics, applied ethics and moral philosophy.

The school runs programs in two disciplines: philosophy and bioethics, each of which articulates conceptions of the nature of the world we live in and offers conceptions of life within a tolerant, liberal society. Research and teaching are conducted with reference to traditional theoretical frameworks as well as to the study of contemporary issues, at times challenging some of the traditional notions and leading to theory development and modification. Fields of study within the school include the history of ideas, world religions, and contemporary issues such as ethics in a changing world.

Foundational ethical frameworks are brought to bear on specific issues in political theory, in professional ethics, and especially in dealing with the moral concerns that arise out of the application of new scientific advances to human subjects.

General inquiries

(Clayton): Room W907, West Wing, Menzies building; Telephone +61 3 9905 3209; Email philosophy@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/plb/.

School of Political and Social Inquiry

The School of Political and Social Inquiry is made up of the disciplines of anthropology, behavioural studies, criminology, politics and sociology. It also includes 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 supervision for higher degrees by research in all disciplines of the school and in a variety of interdisciplinary fields (taught in conjunction with other schools within the Faculty of Arts). It also offers graduate certificates, graduate/postgraduate diplomas and coursework masters in criminology, international relations, counter-terrorism studies, applied social research, and Islamic studies.

The core disciplines traverse social and political theory, governance issues and also address issues of globalisation, national and international identity, causes of crime and the administration of justice along with the formation of particular cultural groups and networks.

Students completing an undergraduate degree with majors or minors in anthropology, behavioural studies, criminology, politics, sociology and gender 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, government service in criminology and allied organisations, in market research organisations and working for political parties or welfare groups.

Contact details

Email psi@arts.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/psi/; inquiries (Clayton): room W1017, West Wing, Menzies building; +61 3 9905 2443; inquiries (Caulfield): room H5.31, building H; Telephone +61 3 9903 2378.