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Master of Applied History

Applied History

This degree offers a vocational program for historians and related professionals. Students will choose specialisation units that focus on one of three areas of strength in History at Monash: public history, oral history, and holocaust and genocide studies. Students may study full time or part time.

Areas of Strength:

 

Applied History Graduates may go on to work in the fields of commissioned history, heritage conservation and management, oral history, community history, museums, genocide studies and human rights, NGO's and related areas. The program has excellent links with professional historians working in these fields.

The applied history program draws on teaching strengths across the faculty, and students have a number of opportunities to build professional networks through assessment tasks, including a public history placement.

The 3 areas of strength in the Monash Applied History Program are embodied in our research projects, programs and centres:

 

Course Structure

  • Students will complete a total of 72 units, with 24 points of specialisation units and 24 points of elective units (all at level four), plus 24 points at level five comprising either a research project or an applied history placement.
  • Not all units are available each year.
  • Students can exit with a Graduate Certificate of Arts (24 points) or a Graduate Diploma in Applied History (48 points).
  • Off Campus study available only for the Masters of Applied History (Public History).
  • For entry requirements & course information please visit http://www.monash.edu/study/coursefinder/course/3077

Students complete two units (24 points) from one of the 3 streams

Level 4 Applied History Units - Students

Students complete two units (24 points) from one of the 3 streams

Holocaust and Memory Studies

  • APG4286 Final Journey: remembering the Holocaust **
  • APG4290 Holocaust memories: Landscape,mourning and identity **
  • APG4293 Genocidal thought **
  • APG4304 Colonial Encounters: Ideas of race and‘otherness' **
  • APG4314 Seeking justice in South Africa and Rwanda **
  • APG4629 Global Justice: Civil and human rights after 1945 **

This study area focuses on knowledge about genocide across the world. It explores the Holocaust as a turning point in human history, the causes and aftermath of modern genocides, and the various approaches to intervention and prevention. The program offers intensive overseas study options and internships on the theme of post-conflict justice, memory and reconciliation. A key component of the program is eyewitness testimony, drawing on the Shoah Visual History Archive as a tool of oral history

Convened by Dr Karen Auerbach

Oral History and Memory Studies

  • APG4297 Recording oral history: Theory and practice **
  • APG4305 History and memory: Interpreting life stories **
  • APG4310 Local and community history

Oral history illuminates the lived experience of hidden histories and produces riveting historial documentary in books, radio and television, museum exhibitions and multi-media production. Graduates will be fully prepared to undertake research degrees or may go on to work in the wide range of professions that make significant use of oral history & historical memory including museums, the media, heritage & corporate history, community and family history.

Convened by Professor Alistair Thomson

Public History

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

This course is intended for students who wish to pursue careers in such fields as commissioned research and writing, heritage conservation and management, oral history, community, local and institutional history, museums and related areas. The course has excellent links with the heritage industry, other leading Australian universities and professional historians working in these fields.

Convened by Assoc. Professor Seamus O'Hanlon

Level 4 Electives

Choose 2 units (24 points) from Units marked ** in the above streams or from the following list of units:

  • APG4296 Imagining Europe: representations and images of a continent (APG4296)
  • APG4301 Reading and writing history (APG4301)
  • APG4303 Issues in environmental history: Images of the natural world (APG4303)
  • APG4313 Hidden transcripts: Cultural approaches to the past (APG4313)

or other units offered in the faculty, with the approval of the course coordinator

Level 5 Applied History Units

Students complete one of the following:
  • APG5797 Applied history placement & APG5795 Applied history dissertation
or
  • APG5787 Applied history research project (24 points)
or
  • APG5788 Applied History project Part 1 (12 points) & APG5789 Applied History Project Part 2 (12  points)

 

 

 

 

 What our students say....

Petunia Mpoza 2010    

Petunia, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, has participated in ACJC study courses to Israel (2010) and South Africa / Rwanda (2009).
Petunia was studying at Monash's South African campus and said she was attracted by the opportunity to bring studied material to life, hear stories first hand, visit areas of significance (memorial sites) and "actually be within that space".

"They were not conventional study tours; they had substance and carried a lot of value. I encourage more students to participate as they equipped me with the skills to critically analyse, objectively report and to wholly understand the context and content of each narrative and history."  
Jill Adams 2010

(Masters of Oral History 2010), Jill is now undertaking a postgraduate research degree.

"What I discovered through the study of Oral History is the Value of people's stories; the importance of being able to record, and interpret and preserve the story.  The rewarding thing about this degree is that the course opened up opportunities for me - academic; literary and professional".

Contact Us

For further information please contact course convenors as follows:

Dr Karen Auerbach (Holocaust and Genocide Studies)
Telephone:  +61 3 9903 5007
Email: karen.auerbach@monash.edu

Professor Alistair Thomson (Oral History & Memory Studies)
Telephone: +61 3 9905 9785
Email: alistair.thomson@monash.edu

Associate Professor Seamus O'Hanlon (Public History)
Telephone: +61 3 9905 2163
Email: seamus.ohanlon@arts.monash.edu.au

or visit the arts faculty postgraduate page

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