Monash University Handbook 2010 Postgraduate - Course

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.

This course consists of 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.

Level four

Compulsory units

Students complete at least two of the following chosen in consultation with the course coordinator:

• HYM4095 History and heritage
• HYM4510 History and the museum
• HYM4620 Family history and genealogy
• HYM4660 Recording oral history: Theory and practice
• HYM4820 Local and community history

Electives

Students complete two of the following chosen 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
• HYM4900 History, biography and autobiography
• HYM4950 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past
• JWM4030 Jewish history, Jewish memory
• RLM4100 Religion and ceremony in Australian society
• RLM4110 Sustainability 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

Level five

Students complete one of the following options:

• HYM5170 Public history placement and HYM5100 Public history dissertation
• HYM5005 Public history research project *

* Part-time students take HYM5005A Public history research project Part 1 (12 points) in the first semester and HYM5005B Public History research project Part 2 (12 points) in the second semester.

Students may apply to exit after successful completion of:

• 24 points with a Graduate Certificate in Arts.
• 48 points with course 3076 Graduate Diploma in Public History.

Master of Public History