Postgraduate - Area of Study History

NOTE: This area of study has had one or more changes made to it since publication on 1 October 2011. For details of change/s, please consult the change register at http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2012handbooks/2012-change-register.html.

Historical research is primarily concerned with interpretations of the past based upon the careful analysis of evidence and the critical assessment of other perspectives. History's questions are intrinsically fascinating: How can we know about the past? What can we know? Who speaks in the historical record, and who does not? If the past is written about in this way or that way, what are its consequences for interpretations of the present and the future?

The school's aim is to provide research and coursework students with the critical tools to undertake their own investigations of past worlds and to explore their own. Courses in the school also focus upon different approaches to the tasks of research, interpretation and writing, and encourage students to address questions such as the nature and status of different forms of historical evidence, the 'uses' of history in public debate, and the relationships between history and other ways of recording and remembering the past.

History offers postgraduate research supervision across a broad range of fields, along with coursework units and degrees which enable students to explore their own interests as well as key theoretical, interpretive and methodological questions about the nature of historical knowledge, research and writing. Research degrees in history combine detailed work in a particular area with broader training in appropriate research skills and in understanding of the changes within history as a discipline. Research students are offered regular research training and work-in-progress seminars, an annual one-day conference for the presentation of graduate research, and the opportunity to participate in editing Eras, a refereed online journal. Seminars, conferences and reading groups offered by the school, provide a supportive environment for all postgraduate students.

Specific research strengths in history at Monash include:

• American history, especially social and cultural history
• Australian social and cultural history, especially urban history, local history, oral history, public history and social welfare
• biography, autobiography, oral history, memory and life stories.
• European social and cultural history, especially French history, German history, Renaissance studies, urban history, family history and the intellectual history of religion and belief in medieval and early modern Europe
• Indigenous history and the history of racial and ethnic relations
• Jewish history
• military history
• South and Southeast Asian history, Indonesian history and the history of imperialism, colonialism and post colonialism
• the history of gender and sexuality, especially in Australia, Britain and Europe during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries

There is also considerable expertise in the area of historical biography.

Students with research interests in areas such as public history and heritage should also refer to the postgraduate area of study entry for 'public history'.

For a full list of staff and research interests, see http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/history/staff

Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Research)

Offered by the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies

Students complete two 12-point elective units and a 24-point research project.

Research project

Students choose from the following options;

• APG4623 Research project in history (24 points)
• APG4624 Research project in history - Part 1 (12 points) and APG4770 Research project in history - Part 2 (12 points)

Elective units

Students complete two electives selected from the following:.

• APG4286 Final journey: The life and death of European Jews, 1900-1945
• APG4287 Israelis and Palestinians between war and peace
• APG4289 Medieval dialogues: Reason, mysticism and society
• APG4293 Genocidal thought
• APG4294 Fascism, Nazism, and racial and social utopias
• APG4296 Imagining Europe: Representations and images of a continent
• APG4297 Recording oral history: Theory and practice
• APG4299 History and heritage
• APG4301 Reading and writing history
• APG4302 Interpreting the Bible: Jewish and Christian perspectives
• APG4303 Issues in environmental history: Images of the natural world
• APG4305 History and memory: Interpreting life stories
• APG4311 Text and community in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
• APG4313 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past
• APG4319 Zionism: The argument
• APG4321 Jewish literature of subversion
• APG4339 Sustainability and the sacred
• APG4340 Confronting death through ceremony and symbol: A cross-cultural analysis
• APG4342 Islamic thought in the modern world
• APG4618 Researching histories
• APG4629 Global justice: Civil and human rights after 1945

Course coordinator

Dr Christina Twomey

Offered by the School of Applied Media and Social Sciences (SAMSS)

Students are required to complete 48 points of study comprising the following units:

• ATS4794 Research writing in history and politics
• ATS4805 SAMSS honours dissertation part 1
• ATS4806 SAMSS honours dissertation part 2
• ATS4807 SAMSS selected topics in theory and practice

Course coordinator

Dr Keith Wilson

Master of Arts by Research and Coursework

The entry below only details the coursework component of this degree. For all requirements including the research/thesis component refer to the full course entry at http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2012handbooks/courses/2846.html.

This course is designed to provide students with a broader knowledge of specific fields of history and their associated methodological techniques, to introduce key theoretical concepts and questions regarding the nature of historical investigation and the examination of evidence from a variety of sources, and to provide a context of existing approaches and methods for students developing research theses.

Units

Students complete 24 points at fifth-year-level from:

• APG5289 Medieval dialogues: Reason, mysticism and society
• APG5293 Genocidal thought
• APG5294 Fascism, Nazism, and racial and social utopias
• APG5296 Imagining Europe: Representations and images of a continent
• APG5297 Recording oral history: Theory and practice
• APG5299 History and heritage
• APG5301 Reading and writing history
• APG5302 Interpreting the Bible: Jewish and Christian perspectives
• APG5303 Issues in environmental history: Images of the natural world
• APG5305 History and memory: Interpreting life stories
• APG5311 Text and community in Renaissance Italy
• APG5313 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past
• APG5319 Zionism: The argument
• APG5321 Jewish literature of subversion
• APG5339 Sustainability and the sacred
• APG5340 Confronting death through ceremony and symbol: A cross- cultural analysis
• APG5342 Islamic thought in the modern world
• APG5618 Researching histories
• APG5629 Global justice: Civil and human rights after 1945
• APG5794 Research project in history

Course coordinator

Dr Michael Hau

Further courses

For a list of units studied or course outlines, refer to the relevant courses.

• 3937 Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Research)
• 2846 Master of Arts by research and coursework
• 2695 Master of Arts*
• 3077 Master of Applied History
• 0020 Doctor of Philosophy*

* By research.