3077 - Master of Public History

This course offers a vocational program for historians and related professionals. Graduates may go on to work in the fields of commissioned history, heritage conservation and management, oral history, community history, museums and related areas. The program has excellent links with the heritage industry and professional historians working in these fields. The public history program draws on teaching strengths across the faculty, and students have a number of opportunities to build professional networks through assessment tasks.

Students successfully completing this course will have:

• a sound knowledge of diverse aspects of the academic discipline
• an understanding of the world view of the field of study
• a critical appreciation of the secondary literature in the field of study
• a familiarity with many of the key texts and cultural products pertaining to the field of study
• advanced reading and communication skills, both written and verbal
• advanced analytical skills
• a grasp of research methodology and ethics, and an ability to undertake a small, independent research project in one of the disciplines represented in the program.

Students complete a minimum of four compulsory units plus electives. Students must complete 48 points at level four and 24 points of core level five units. Note that not all units are available each year.

Compulsory level 4 units

Compulsory level four units

Students must choose at least two from these compulsory units in consultation with the course coordinator:*

• HYM4095 History and heritage
• HYM4510 History and the museum
• HYM4560 The past around us
• HYM4620 Family history and genealogy
• HYM4820 Local and community history

* Units are taught face-to-face at Caulfield or online, except for HYM4560 which is only taught online.

Level four electives

Electives are taught on-campus at Clayton.

Students choose two elective units in consultation with the course coordinator:

• HYM4115 Private and public voices in Renaissance correspondence
• HYM4120 Reading and writing Australian history
• HYM4180 Images of the natural world: Issues in environmental history
• HYM4200 History and memory: Oral history, life stories and commemoration
• HYM4280 Reading and writing biography and life stories
• HYM4320 Citizens: Histories of Australian citizenship
• HYM4660 Recording oral history: Theory and practice
• HYM4900 History, biography and autobiography
• HYM4950 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past
• JWM4030 Jewish history and Jewish memory: Writing and reading the Jewish past
• RLM4100 Religion and ceremony in Australian society
• RLM4110 Ecology, gender and the sacred
• RLM4140 Confronting death through ceremony and symbol: a cross-cultural analysis
• other units offered in the faculty, with the approval of the course coordinator

Compulsory level five units

• HYM5170 Public history placement
• HYM5100 Public history research project

Students who have completed studies in this course to the value of:

• 24 points may apply to exit with a related graduate certificate
• 48 points may apply to exit with a related graduate diploma.

Students will also exit the masters with the appropriate award if they do not maintain the required academic level.

Master of Public History

* Where more than one award is listed, or in the case of double degrees, where more than one award is listed for one or both components of the double degree, the actual award/s conferred may depend on units/majors/streams/specialisations studied, the level of academic merit achieved (eg in the case of 'with honours' programs), or other factors relevant to the individual student's program of study.