3937 - Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Research)

This course provides a transition between the bachelors degree and research masters or PhD, enabling students both to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary and to demonstrate their suitability for higher research in their chosen discipline. For more detail see the individual discipline entries in the 'Requirements' section below.

Disciplines Offered

• Anthropology and sociology
• Applied Japanese linguistics
• Applied linguistics
• Archaeology and ancient history
• Asian studies
• Bioethics
• Communication
• Critical theory
• English
• Environmental science
• Film and television studies
• Geography
• German
• History
• Japanese
• Music
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Religion and theology
• Visual culture
• Women studies

Anthropology and sociology

Offered by the School of Political and Social Inquiry

Students complete 48 points including:

• ASM4000 Research project

plus three additional units chosen from the following and selected in accordance with the student's research project:

• ASM4100 Violences
• ASM4230 Culture and conflict in Indonesia
• ASM4290 Into the field: the theory and practice of ethnography
• ASM4380 Women, psychiatry and madness
• ASM4430 The third world
• ASM4440 Asia and the West
• ASM4800 Special ASM unit
• RLM4100 Religion in Australian society
• SYM4005 Qualitative research strategies
• SYM4015 Secondary analysis of official statistics
• SYM4025 Survey research
• SYM4045 Analysing quantitative data
• SYM4055 Data analysis software for social research
• SYM4065 Issues in public policy
• WSM4020 Feminist research

Course coordinator

Dr Jo Lindsay, Dr John Bradley

Applied Japanese linguistics

Offered by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Students complete 48 points, including two core units and two electives:

Core units

• AST4680 Research project A
• JAL4610 Research methodology for applied linguistics

Electives

• Two units as approved by the course coordinator, usually applied Japanese linguistics or linguistics units

Course coordinator

Assoc Prof Helen Marriott

Applied linguistics

Offered by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Students complete four 12-point units from the units listed below.

Core units

The following core units are compulsory unless exempted by the course coordinator:

• ALM4110 General linguistics
• ALM4130 Language in society
• ALM4150 Research design in applied linguistics
• ALM4190/ALM5410 Research project*

* The research project must normally be completed on campus.

Electives

If any compulsory units are exempted from the course coordinator students can chose from the following elective units:

• ALM4460/ALM5460 Special topic in applied linguistics
• ALM5210 Language and learning
• ALM5230 Bilingualism
• ALM5250 Second language acquisition
• ALM5270 Literacy
• ALM5290 Child language acquisition
• ALM5350 English in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
• ALM5370 Discourse analysis
• ALM5390 Language and gender

Alternative electives may be approved on an individual basis.

Course coordinator

Dr Julie Bradshaw

Archaeology and ancient history

Offered by the School of Historical Studies

Students complete 48 points including a research unit, two core units and one 12-point elective chosen from the list below. Not all electives are available each year. Unless otherwise indicated in the unit outline, all units are taught at Clayton.

Research unit

• AAM4001 Research project in archaeology and ancient history (12 points)

Core units

Students complete a minimum of two core units chosen from the following;

• AAM4060 Predynastic and early dynastic Egypt
• AAM4740 Reading the ancient past
• AAM4100 Research methods in classical antiquity

Electives

• HYM4095 History and heritage
• HYM4200 History and memory: oral history, life stories and commemoration
• HYM4510 History and the museum
• HYM4950 Hidden transcripts: cultural approaches to the past
• HYM4960 The body, gender and history

Course coordinator

Dr Colin A Hope

Asian studies

Offered by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Students complete 48 points of level four units, including three 12-point core units, and one of the following options:

(a.) a language sequence totalling 12 points

(b.) 12 points of electives selected from those offered at level four in the schedule of units available from the postgraduate coordinator in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics.

Students undertaking a 12-point coursework unit plus a six-point language unit in the same semester will be considered full-time. To complete the program in one year, this option requires that two 12-point units and the other six-point language unit be taken in the other semester. Students are advised to discuss this issue with the course coordinator when enrolling.

The selection of units and a research topic must be approved by the course coordinator. Normally each student's program will emphasise:

(i.) one disciplinary aspect of Asia or Australian-Asian relations, and

(ii.) one region (for example East, South or Southeast Asia or a country which is related to their language studies).

An Asian language sequence is compulsory for students without any Asian language background. Applications for exemption without credit from language studies will be considered in special circumstances and whenever previous Asian language studies have been completed within a university degree or the student is a native speaker of an Asian language. Students exempted will choose an additional 12 points of level-four electives to obtain the required number of credit points for their degree.

Core units

• AST4000 Contemporary issues in Asia
• AST4110 Research project in Asian studies
• AST4220 Investigating Asia

Course coordinator

Dr Ross Mouer

Bioethics

Offered by the School of Philosophy and Bioethics

Students complete 48 points, comprised the following 12-point units:

• CHB4101 Ethics
• CHB4102 Questions of life and death
• CHB4203 Ethical issues in patient care
• CHB4215 Bioethics supervised research paper

Course coordinator

Dr Robert Sparrow

Communication

Offered by the School of Arts and Sciences, Malaysia

Students complete 48 points, including three core units and one additional level four unit chosen from the following electives and selected in accordance with the student's research project. Alternative units may be taken with the approval of the school graduate coordinator.

Core units

• ASM4000 Research project
• COM4010 Communication research: Issues and methodology
• COM4020 Communication applied: Industry practice

Electives

• ASM4290/ASM5290 Into the field: The theory and practice of ethnography
• AST4000/AST5000 Contemporary issues in Asia
• ENM4620/ENM5620 Literary theory
• PLM4440/PLM5440 Global soul: Consumers, citizens and rebels
• WSM4700/WSM5700 Issues in feminist cross-cultural research

With the permission by Head of Arts, a student will also be given a choice to undertake 24 points of a research component similar to an honours thesis, in addition to COM4010 (Communication research: Issues and methodology) and COM4020 (Communication applied: Industry practice).

Course coordinator

Dr. Helen Nesadurai

Critical theory

Offered by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Students complete 48 points, including one core unit, and two electives chosen from the following list.

Core unit

• CRT4080 Research project (24 points)

Electives

• CRT4030 Poetics
• CRT4070 Lacan and subjectivity
• CRT4100 Deleuze and Foucault
• CRT4200 Semiotics and poststructuralism
• CRT4225 Hermeneutics
• CRT4760 Gender, body and performance
• CRT4830 Popular culture and ethics

Course coordinator

Professor Andrew Milner

English

Offered by the School of English, Communication and Performance Studies

Students complete a dissertation, one core theory unit and two electives chosen from the list below.

Compulsory units

• ENM4120 Dissertation
• ENM4620 Literary theory

Electives

• CRT4030 Poetics
• ENM4210 Writing the child
• ENM4250 Gothic revivals
• ENM4260 Writers and the creative process
• ENM4270 Feminist poetics
• ENM4370 Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction
• ENM4580 Ireland, Swift, England: Special author subject
• ENM4700 Drama of the age of Shakespeare
• ENM4750 Exotic erotic other: World writing in English
• ENM4760 Visions and revisions: Reworkings

Course coordinator

Dr Chandani Lokuge

Environmental science

Offered by the School of Geography and Environmental Science

Students complete 48 points of coursework, including a 24-point research project. Units are worth 6 points unless otherwise indicated.

Core units

• ENV4020 Perspectives on environment and sustainability
• ENV4040 Frontiers in sustainability and environment
• ENV405C Research project (24 points)

Electives

Approved elective unit(s) to the value of 12 points.

If the student's previous background does not provide knowledge in particular areas, elective(s) would be chosen from:

• ENV414F Ecological systems and management
• ENV415F Law and the environment
• ENV416F Introduction to economics
• GES4890 Earth system interactions: From biogeochemical cycles to global change

Course coordinator

Dr Christian Kull

Film and television studies

Offered by the School of English, Communication and Performance Studies

Students complete 48 points at level four including one research unit, at least one methodology unit and electives chosen from the list below.

Research unit

• FTM4120 Research essay in film and television studies

Methodology units

• FTM4042 Historical film theory and criticism
• FTM4052 Contemporary film theory and criticism

Elective units

• FTM4220 Experimental screen culture
• FTM4230 Critical studies in television
• an approved 12 point level four unit from a related discipline with the approval of the course coordinator

Course coordinator

David Hanan

Geography

Offered by the School of Geography and Environmental Science

The program undertaken is the same as that undertaken by level four (undergraduate) honours students but has a slightly more substantial research component. Students complete 48 points including a research project and electives offered by the School of Geography and Environmental Science with the approval of the course coordinator.

Course coordinator

Dr Christian Kull

History

Offered by the School of Historical Studies

Students complete two 12 point units chosen from the list below and a 24 point research project. Unless otherwise indicated in the unit outline, all units are taught at Clayton.

Core unit

Students complete both research project units. They can be completed in separate semesters or both in the same semester.

• HYM4100A Research project in history - Part 1 (12 points)
• HYM4100B Research project in history - Part 2 (12 points)

Electives units

Students complete two of the following:*

• EUM4020 Religion and secularism in the quest for European integration
• HYM4095 History and heritage
• HYM4115 Private and public voices in Renaissance correspondence
• HYM4120 Reading and writing Australian history
• HYM4140 The Raj imagined: Stories and films of British India in their historical context
• HYM4175 Interpreting the Bible: Jewish and Christian perspectives
• HYM4180 Images of the natural world: Issues in environmental history
• HYM4185 Colonial encounters: Ideas of race and 'otherness' in the British world, 1650-1900
• HYM4200 History and memory: Oral history, life stories and commemoration
• HYM4260 Medieval dialogues: Reason, mysticism and society
• HYM4270 Research methods in biography and life writing
• HYM4280 Reading and writing biography and life stories
• HYM4290 Holocaust memories: Landscape, mourning, identity
• HYM4320 Citizens: histories of Australian citizenship
• HYM4330 Cultures of devotion in Renaissance Italy
• HYM4340 The highland clearances: Displacement, migration and memory in Scotland
• HYM4370 Fantasies of the flesh: The body in history
• HYM4430 Perfecting America: Rhetoric, reform and reaction
• HYM4440 Genocidal thought
• HYM4470 Genocide and colonialism
• HYM4490 Fascism, Nazism, and racial and social utopias
• HYM4510 History and the museum
• HYM4560 The past around us
• HYM4570 Theories of violence: Genocide, war and terror
• HYM4590 Imagining Europe: Representations and images of a continent
• HYM4620 Family history and genealogy
• HYM4660 Recording oral history: Theory and practice
• HYM4690 Rome, the papacy and the world
• HYM4740 The French Revolution: Issues and debates
• HYM4820 Local and community history
• HYM4840 Text and community in Renaissance Italy
• HYM4900 History, biography and autobiography
• HYM4950 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past
• HYM4960 The body, gender and history
• ITM4010 Global justice: Civil and human rights after 1945
• JWM4020 Between homeland and holy land: Israel in Jewish thought
• JWM4030 Jewish history and Jewish memory: Writing and reading the Jewish past
• RLM4040 Islamic thought in the modern world
• RLM4060 Medieval women and their world: Constructing identities 1100-1450
• RLM4070 Buddhism: society, politics and ethics
• RLM4100 Religion and ceremony in Australian society
• RLM4110 Ecology, gender and the sacred
• RLM4140 Confronting death through ceremony and symbol: A cross-cultural analysis

* Not all units are available every year.

Course coordinator

Dr Michael Hau

German

Offered by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Candidates must complete a total of 48 points of level-four units from those listed below including a research project. All units are12 points unless otherwise indicated:

• GNM4165 Language and society: sociolinguistics from a German perspective
• GNM4275 Critics of civilisation
• GNM4375 Special reading course
• GHM4385 Age of Goethe

Research projects

• GNM4166 German language and society: research project
• GNM4355 Research project in German studies
• GNM4365 Research project in German studies (24 points)

Studies abroad

All graduate students are strongly encouraged to conduct a part of their studies in a German-speaking country. Assistance is provided in obtaining scholarships and arrangements exist with German universities enabling students to continue their courses under supervision and with a maximum of assistance.

Course coordinator

Dr Christiane Weller

Japanese studies

Offered by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Students complete 48 points in consultation with the course coordinator, including either 12 or 24 points of research, no more than 12 points of Japanese language units, and the remainder from level four Asian Studies units (with the prefixes AST, JAL, JIT or JST). It may be possible to include study in Japan as part of this program.

Course coordinator

Associate Professor Alison Tokita

Music

Offered by the School of Music - Conservatorium

Students complete 48 points including one 12-point core unit, and three electives chosen from the list below.

Core unit

• MUM4420 Research methods

Composition option - co-core unit

• MUM4760 Special project: Composition and music technology (24 points)

Performance option - co-core unit

• MUM4960 Chief practical study 1

Electives

• MUM4120 20th and 21st century repertoire studies
• MUM4140 Theatrical music
• MUM4180 Chamber music
• MUM4200 Keyboard music
• MUM4220 Vocal music
• MUM4600 Special research project in music
• MUM4640 World music: fieldwork techniques and technology
• MUM4760 Special project: composition and music technology
• MUM4980 Music pedagogy

Course coordinator

Dr Joel Crotty

Philosophy

Offered by the School of Philosophy and Bioethics

Students complete 48 points consisting of the following units:

• PHM4000 Research project in philosophy (24 point full-year unit)
• PHM4010 Philosophy masters qualifying A
• PHM4020 Philosophy masters qualifying B

In addition to the workload associated with each unit, students will be expected to attend weekly work-in-progress seminars for honours and graduate students and to make a presentation to the seminar series.

Course coordinator

Associate Professor Dirk Baltzly

Politics

Offered by the School of Political and Social Inquiry

Students complete 48 points including one core unit and three electives chosen from the list below.

Core unit

• PLM4060 Research project (Politics)

Electives

• PLM4065 Advanced seminar in international political economy
• PLM4340 Fringe politics and extremist violence: An introduction to terrorism
• PLM4290 China: The quest for modernisation
• PLM4310 Wars of recognition: terrorism and political violence
• PLM4390 Grand theories of politics
• PLM4420 Islam and modernity
• PLM4430 Political Islam
• PLM4440 Global soul: Consumers, citizens and rebels
• PLM4460 Conflict resolution and Islam in the Middle East
• PLM4520 Perspectives on world politics
• PLM4600 Strategic studies
• PLM4800 Australian national government
• PLM4930 Southeast Asian politics

Course coordinator

Assoc. Prof. Shahram Akbarzadeh

Religion and theology

Offered by the School of Historical Studies

Students complete 48 points comprised of one research project, at least one methodology unit, and two electives chosen from the list below (note that not all units are offered each year).

Research unit

• RLM4000 Research paper in religion and theology

Methodology units

• HYM4175 Interpreting the Bible: Jewish and Christian perspectives
• RLM4100 Religion and ceremony in Australian Society

Electives

• EUM4020 Religion and secularism in the quest for European integration
• HYM4260 Medieval dialogues: Reason, mysticism and society
• HYM4330 Cultures of devotion in Renaissance Italy
• HYM4690 Rome, the papacy and the world
• JWM4020 Between homeland and holy land: Israel in Jewish thought
• JWM4030 Jewish history and Jewish memory: Writing and reading the Jewish past
• RLM4040 Islamic thought in the modern world
• RLM4060 Medieval women and their world: Constructing identities 1100-1450
• RLM4070 Buddhism: society, politics and ethics
• RLM4110 Ecology, gender and the sacred
• RLM4140 Confronting death through ceremony and symbol: A cross-cultural analysis

Students may apply to undertake units at level four at another tertiary institution, such as the Melbourne College of Divinity, approved by the director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology.

Units taken outside Monash will not amount to more than 50 per cent.

Course coordinator

Associate Professor Constant Mews

Visual culture

Offered by the School of English, Communication and Performance Studies

Students complete 48 points at level four including a research unit, at least one methodology unit and electives chosen from the list below:

Research unit

• VAM4000 Research essay in visual culture

Methodology units

• FTM4042 Historical film theory and criticism
• FTM4052 Contemporary film theory and criticism
• VAM4010 Visual culture and its theories
• VAM4020 Theory of art history and criticism

Electives

• CRT4760 Gender, body and performance
• VAM4021 Beyond the museum: Institutions and insurrections
• VAM4023 Visual culture internship
• VAM4030 Themes in nineteenth-century Australian art
• VAM4050 Twentieth-century Australian modernism
• VAM4070 Australian postmodernism
• VAM4084 The culture and imagery of cities
• VAM4100 Issues in Australian architecture and heritage
• VAM4290 Cultural theory and visuality
• VAM4830 Exploration and immigration in the cultural imaginary
• an approved unit from a related discipline with the approval of the course coordinator

Course coordinator

Leigh Astbury

Women's studies

Offered by the School of Political and Social Inquiry

Students complete 48 points including a research unit, WSM4010 and one elective. Part-time students will be required to complete WSM4010 and an elective level-four unit in the first year and WSM4005 in the second year of the program.

Core units

• WSM4005 Research component
• WSM4010 Gender, sexuality, power

Electives

• One unit as approved by the course coordinator.

Course coordinator

Assoc. Prof. Maryanne Dever

Students who successfully complete the program and achieve at least a distinction in the 24 point research project are eligible to apply for a higher degree by research.

There are no alternative exit points from this course.

Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Research)

* 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.