Monash University Handbook 2011 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 four units at level four, including a minimum of two core units, plus 24 points at level five. Not all units are available each year.

Level four

Core units

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

• APG4295 History and the museum
• APG4297 Recording oral history: Theory and practice
• APG4299 History and heritage
• APG4309 Family history and genealogy
• APG4310 Local and community history

Electives

• APG4300 Reading Renaissance letters
• APG4301 Reading and writing Australian history
• APG4303 Issues in environmental history: Images of the natural world
• APG4305 History and memory: Interpreting life stories
• APG4306 Reading and writing biography and life stories
• APG4312 History, biography and autobiography
• APG4313 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past
• APG4320 Jewish history, Jewish memory
• APG4339 Sustainability and the sacred
• APG4340 Confronting death through ceremony and symbol: A cross-cultural analysis
• APG4343 Religion and ceremony in Australian society
• other units offered in the faculty, with the approval of the course coordinator

Level five

Students complete one of the following:

• APG5797 Public history placement and APG5795 Public history dissertation
• APG5787 Public history research project (24 points), or APG5788 Public history research project Part 1 (12 points) and APG5789 Public History research project Part 2 (12 points)

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