MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Graduate Handbook 1996

Published by Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia

Caution Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1320-6222

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996


Visual arts

Department of Visual Arts

Head: Dr Conrad Hamann

Graduate coordinator: Mr Leigh Astbury

The discipline of visual arts includes both historical and critical studies in art history and theory (including architecture) and film and television studies. No graduate instruction or program is offered in any practical subjects. The department offers graduate studies in the following areas:

+ European art and architecture from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries;

+ Medieval art;

+ European art and architecture from Renaissance to baroque;

+ Australian art and architecture;

+ American art and architecture;

+ Film and television studies.

Members of staff and their fields of special interest

LEIGH ASTBURY Australian art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

JOHN GREGORY medieval art and architecture; renaissance art, especially in Siena; baroque art, especially in Italy and the Netherlands; the collecting of renaissance and baroque art in Australia.

CONRAD HAMANN nineteenth and twentieth-century architecture, with special reference to American and Australian.

DAVID HANAN film studies, with particular reference to film form, European and Asian cinema, and the psychology of the film experience.

ANNE MARSH performance art, photography, feminism, psychoanalytic theory and museum studies.

LEONIE NAUGHTON contemporary film theory, psychoanalysis and the cinema, feminist film theory, popular film culture and contemporary German film.

MARGARET PLANT Italian art with particular reference to Venice up to and including the twentieth century, twentieth-century Australian art, twentieth-century international art with emphasis on recent decades.

ELIZABETH STONEY contemporary film theory, European cinema, alternative cinematic practices and the history of photography.

ANNETTE VAN DEN BOSCH twentieth-century art in Europe, North America and Australia; women's art history; international art since 1960; the sociology of art and the art market; Australian cultural studies; feminist theory and critical theory, and arts and cultural policy in Australia and North America.

DEANE WILLIAMS Australian film, documentary and television.

Prospectus

A prospectus giving further details of the coursework Master of Arts in Australian art, the coursework Master of Arts in museum studies and cultural policy and the diploma program may be obtained from the Department of Visual Arts.

Facilities

The Monash University library provides a standard reference art library. Among other library facilities available to research students, the State Library has extensive art reference holdings and the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University both have specialist research collections in the visual arts.

For the purpose of film study the Monash library holds a moderately representative collection (comprising some sixty films) of world cinema to about 1950. In addition arrangements can be made for detailed research on some areas of more recent world cinema, and on areas of earlier cinema not held in the Monash library collection.

The Department of Visual Arts has a photographer attached to its staff and a fully equipped darkroom. Research students may from time to time be able to use the services of both the photographer and the darkroom in connection with their research.

Doctor of Philosophy

The degree of PhD in visual arts is taken by the submission of a thesis (the normal length is 60,000-90,000 words), on a topic approved by the head of the department, at the end of a period of supervised study and research.

Entry requirements

Candidates for this degree must have obtained a Master of Arts in visual arts, or first or second class honours division A in the final examination of a visual arts honours course at BA level or the equivalent.

Master of Arts by research

Candidates may undertake the MA in visual arts by a thesis (normally of 40,000-60,000 words in length), or by a combination of two fifth-year level subjects worth eight points each, and a thesis (normally 25,000-35,000 words in length). For further information on the latter alternative, see the entry on the Master of Arts in Australian art.

Entry requirements

Students who have an honours degree with a grade of H1 or H2A, or the equivalent, may be permitted to undertake an MA by 100 per cent research or go straight into the MA Part II. Students who have not undertaken any formal study of the visual arts may be required to undertake preliminary courses in the visual arts under the general direction of the head of the department.

Master of Arts in Australian art

Coordinator: Mr Leigh Astbury

The degree may be taken either by research or by coursework.

The coursework program is designed to offer advanced studies in both nineteenth and twentieth-century Australian art and architecture and is addressed to those seeking both an overview of Australian studies in the visual arts and the development of research initiative in specialised areas. The coursework degree consists of Part I and Part II (a total of ninety-six points value) over two years of full-time study or approximately four years of part-time study.

Entry requirements

Applicants must have a Bachelor of Arts pass degree with a major sequence in visual arts/art history and have achieved results of at least credit standard in the third-year level subjects. Applicants entering with a BA honours degree with a grade of at least H2B, or the equivalent, in visual arts/art history may proceed to Part II of the MA program by coursework. Applicants with an honours degree with a grade of H2A or H1 or the equivalent, may be permitted to proceed to the MA Part II by research.

MA Part I

Students are required to complete subjects totalling forty-eight points value from the following list:

+ VAM4010 Making art history

+ VAM4019 The theory and culture of art museums and galleries (Subject to approval of postgraduate coordinator)

+ VAM4020 Theory of art history and criticism

+ VAM4021 Beyond the museum: institutions and insurrections

+ VAM4030 Themes in nineteenth-century Australian art

+ VAM4050 Twentieth-century Australian modernism

+ VAM4060 Readings in Australian art

+ VAM4070 Towards an Australian postmodernism

+ VAM4084 The culture and imagery of cities

MA Part II

Coursework

Students are required to complete subjects totalling forty-eight points value. Students (except those entering Part II with a BA honours degree in visual arts/art history) are required to take VAM5090 (Visual arts research essay) plus three other subjects from those listed below:

Schedule

+ VAM5019 The theory and culture of art museums and galleries (Subject to approval of postgraduate coordinator)*

+ VAM5021 Beyond the museum: institutions and insurrections*

+ VAM5030 Themes in nineteenth-century Australian art*

+ VAM5050 Twentieth-century Australian modernism*

+ VAM5060 Readings in Australian art (Advanced course)*

+ VAM5070 Towards an Australian postmodernism*

+ VAM5080 The culture and imagery of cities*

+ VAM5090 Visual arts research essay (students will be assigned to a supervisor according to their choice of topic) (first or second semester)

*Students who have completed the asterisked subjects in Part I are ineligible for these subjects in Part II.

Research

Students undertaking the MA by research must choose two Part II coursework subjects at eight points value each from the above, plus write a thesis (66 per cent of the degree) of 25,000-35,000 words length on a topic of Australian art research. The research degree will normally take students one year to eighteen months full-time study, or two to three years of part-time study. For students undertaking both Part I and Part II of the course, the total duration of the program must not exceed three years for full-time and five years for part-time students.

Master of Arts in museum studies and cultural policy

See the entry under Australian studies.

Graduate Diploma of Arts (Art History/Film Studies)

The diploma offers a qualification to those engaged in visual art areas, or to those seeking cultural studies in art history, theory and film.

Students are required to complete four subjects at twelve points value each (totalling forty-eight points value for the diploma) from the schedule below. The course will normally involve one year of full-time study or two years of part-time study. In 1995 all students commencing the diploma will take subjects to the value of twelve points each. Not all subjects are available in a given year.

Entry requirements

The diploma is offered to persons already holding a degree in any area.

Schedule

+ VAD4007 Gender and genre: masculinity in film

+ VAD4010 Making art history

+ VAD4020 Theory of art history and criticism

+ VAD4021 Beyond the museum: institutions and insurrections

+ VAD4030 Themes in nineteenth-century Australian art

+ VAD4050 Twentieth-century Australian modernism

+ VAD4060 Readings in Australian art

+ VAD4070 Towards an Australian postmodernism

+ VAD4080 Readings in Italian Renaissance art

+ VAD4084 The culture and imagery of cities

+ VAD4090 Visual arts research essay

+ VAD4190 Forms of narrative cinema

+ VAD4200 Film theory and film criticism: part 1

+ VAD4210 Film theory and film criticism: part 2

+ VAD4600 Film, culture, class

+ VAD4630 German cinema

+ VAD4750 Indonesian and South East Asian film and television


| Arts Graduate handbook | Monash handbooks | Monash University