History is not simply about dates and facts. Rather it is about new ways to interpret and understand the past. History reaches broadly into different aspects of the human experience and considers societies and civilisations across a range of periods and continents. This makes history one of the most exciting and challenging disciplines to study at university. But history is not just about what has come before us. It also provides new ways to make sense of the world today. We cannot understand the current shape of societies and states across the globe, or issues facing individuals and social groups, without considering the past. How did the notion of democracy arise? Why do most of us live in cities? How have ideas and experiences of family or sexuality changed? Why are certain countries and communities implacable enemies? History explores the origins of institutions and ideas that continue to shape our lives, and it explores how people have reacted to and sometimes reshaped the world around them. In so doing, it tells us where we came from, who we are and give us insight into the future.
Students may construct a sequence, minor or major in history. At level 1 students studying a sequence in history will take two introductory units. At levels 2 and 3 students studying a minor or major in history will take units from List A (which develop intellectual and vocational skills in history) and List B (which focus on specific historical periods and places), and may also choose electives from List C (history-related units offered by other subject-areas).
First-year level
Students studying a sequence in history must complete two units (12 points) from the following:
- ATS1247 Ancient civilisations 1
- ATS1248 Ancient civilisations 2
- ATS1316 Medieval Europe
- ATS1317 Renaissance Europe
- ATS1318 Understanding Asia I: Foundations
- ATS1319 Understanding Asia 2: Transformations
- ATS1320 Nations at War I: From Napoleon to Gallipoli
- ATS1321 Nations at War II: Revolutions in the twentieth century
- ATS1322 Conflict and coexistence: Jews, Christians, Muslims
- ATS1323 The Bible as history
- ATS1324 Histories of God
- ATS1325 Contemporary worlds 1
- ATS1326 Contemporary worlds 2
Suggested first-year sequences in history are:
Second/Third-year level
Students studying a minor or major in history must have completed the first-year sequence. In addition:
- a minor requires completion of a further two units (12 points) chosen from list A and list B below, with a minimum of one unit from List A
- a major requires completion of a further six units (36 points) chosen from list A, list B and List C below, including at least two units must be chosen from list A, and a minimum of four units from lists A and B. A minimum of three units also must be taken at third year level.
List A
List B
- ATS2571/ATS3571 History, film and TV in 20th century Australia
- ATS2572/ATS3572 Crisis and renewal in the late Renaissance: Machiavelli and the age of the prince
- ATS2573/ATS3573 Relics and legends: Deciphering popular Christianity
- ATS2575/ATS3575 Murderous cities: Killers, slums and social reform
- ATS2574/ATS3574 Fears and fantasies: Deviance and criminality in the modern world
- ATS2576/ATS3576 History wars: The uses of the past
- ATS2578/ATS3578 Soldiers of fortune: Mercenaries from antiquity to Afghanistan
- ATS2579/ATS3579 Witches and depravity in the medieval and early modern world
- ATS2583/ATS3583 History and film: Nazi Germany and the Jewish holocaust
- ATS2584/ATS3584 Australia's black history
- ATS2587/ATS3587 Twentieth century Australia: From Anzac to Apology
- ATS2588/ATS3588 Australia to 1901: Making a nation
- ATS2590/ATS3590 Twentieth-century Britain: Rule Britannia to cool Britannia
- ATS2593/ATS3593 History of sexuality 1800 - to the present
- ATS2595/ATS3595 The rise and fall of Nazi Germany
- ATS2596/ATS3596 The Vietnam War
- ATS2601/ATS3601 Cults and the end of time: A history of millenarian discourse
- ATS2602/ATS3602 Renaissance Italy
- ATS2603/ATS3603 The age of crusades: Cultures and societies
- ATS2604/ATS3604 Arthur: History and myth
- ATS2606/ATS3606 The island world of Southeast Asia
- ATS2607/ATS3607 Nationalism and revolution in Southeast Asia
- ATS2612/ATS3612 The Renaissance in Florence
- ATS2614/ATS3614 Slavery and freedom: From the American to the French revolution
- ATS2616/ATS3616 Twentieth-century America: Race, rights and power
- ATS2617/ATS3617 The American civil war
- ATS2623/ATS3623 Nationality, ethnicity and conflict
- ATS2626/ATS3626 Global disasters: Impact, inquiry and change
- ATS2631/ATS3631 The idea of travel: Global perspectives
- ATS2633/ATS3633 Global cities: Past, present, future
- ATS2908/ATS3908 Making the American century: US expansion from colonies to superpower
- ATS2909/ATS3909 Public enemies, public heroes: Gangsters, romance, and reality
- ATS3285 Dante's medieval world: Politics, religion and the city
- ATS3288 Angels and demons: Rome, the papacy and the world
- ATS3799 Special reading unit
List C
Students can include a maximum of 12 points of the following units towards their major:
- ATS2286/ATS3286 After Auschwitz: Remembering the Holocaust
- ATS2342/ATS3342 Alexander the Great and his world
- ATS2343/ATS3343 Imperial Egypt and the Mediterranean world
- ATS2346/ATS3346 Imperial Rome: A study in power and perversion in the early empire
- ATS2348/ATS3348 The middle kingdom in Egypt: From collapse to recovery and foreign rule
- ATS2349/ATS3349 The golden age of Athens
- ATS2350/ATS3350 Kleopatra's Egypt
- ATS2351/ATS3351 The early dynastic period and old kingdom in Egypt, 3050-2150
- ATS2352/ATS3352 Egypt's golden age and its aftermath
- ATS2353/ATS3353 Social justice and Indigenous Australians
- ATS2354/ATS3354 Interrogating racism: Indigenous Australians and the state
- ATS2357/ATS3357 Australian Aboriginal women
- ATS2385/ATS3385 Anzac legends: Australians at war
- ATS2386/AUS3300 Broken earth: Journeys through the Australian landscape
- ATS2387/ATS3387 Beyond Gallipoli: Australians in two world wars (Prato)
- ATS2388/ATS3388 Gallipoli journey: ANZAC and the Ottomans (overseas)
- ATS2389/ATS3389 Gallipoli's shadow: Australia at war (Prato)
- ATS2390/ATS3390 Anzac journey: Gallipoli and the Ottomans (overseas)
- ATS2523/ATS3523 Modern Eastern and Central Europe: Culture and society
- ATS2580/ATS3580 The Middle East in the modern world
- ATS2582/ATS3582 The history of the Arab-Israeli conflict
- ATS2585/ATS3585 The world of the Bible
- ATS2586/ATS3586 Islam: Principles, civilisations, influences
- ATS2591/ATS3591 The Arab-Israeli conflict through film and literature
- ATS2598/ATS3598 Jews in the modern world
- ATS2599/ATS3599 Modern Israel: History, politics and society
- ATS2600/ATS3600 The Holocaust in an age of genocide
- ATS2608/ATS3608 Myth and meaning in ancient worlds
- ATS2609/ATS3609 Jesus and the Jews
- ATS2636/ATS3636 Sacred and profane: Religion, the secular and the state
- ATS2610/ATS3610 Ancient religions
- ATS2611/ATS3611 Mystics, authority and society
- ATS2632/ATS3632 Post-conflict: Justice, memory, reconciliation
- ATS2712/ATS3712 The religious quest: Eastern faith and illumination
- ATS2907/ATS3907 Islamic leadership in the 20th century
- ATS2898/ATS3898 The Italian city through an historical and literary perspective
- ATS3284 Final journey: Remembering the Holocaust
- ATS3287 Israelis and Palestinians between war and peace
- ATS3314 Seeking justice: South Africa and Rwanda
- ATS3341 Interpreting the sources of Islam: The Qur'an and Hadith