Faculty of Arts

 Cultural Studies

Table of Contents

Subject Lists
    Subject descriptions
        First Year
        Second and Third Year
        Fourth Year Honours

Convener: Chris Healy (Department of English)

The Faculty of Arts offers an interdepartmental program in Cultural Studies housed in the Department of English. The program allows students to study the interrelationships of popular, national and class cultures and sub-cultures, as they are formed in and through everyday life, the contemporary print media, broadcasting, film and popular music.

The program combines interdepartmental coursework in the methodologies of cultural studies as a discipline. It also provides opportunities for concentrated study of specific areas of cultural production, and specific issues in and sites of cultural politics, including those of nation, class, gender, ethnicity and race. It addresses questions about the social functions of culture, the institutions in which culture is produced and transmitted, and its role in the formation of identities.

 1. Strengths of the area of study

The Cultural Studies program at the University of Melbourne has three areas of focus: theories of the popular media and media technologies, post-colonialism, theories of transgression (in particular queer theory), and theories of the popular media and media technologies. Students may choose to either focus on one of these areas or strands, or they may choose to select subjects from across these areas.

 2. Career opportunities

The Cultural Studies program is of particular interest and value for students planning to work in the arts, in the media, and in cultural policy.

 3. First Year

Students interested in undertaking a major in Cultural Studies are strongly advised to enrol in both of the following subjects, but they are not formal prerequisites for second year Cultural Studies.

Recommended first-year subjects
	106-101 Contemporary Culture and Media	1
	106-106 Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life	2

Students who intend to continue working in the postcolonial strand of the program are advised to enrol in one or both of the following subjects, though again it is not a formal prerequisite for second year Cultural Studies.

Recommended first-year subjects (Postcolonial strand)
	131-120 Introduction To Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies	1
	166-123 'The World Is an Amazing Place': the Politics of Other Cultures	2

Prerequisites

Students can enter the Cultural Studies program at 2nd year level after having completed 50 credit points at first year level from across any one or more of the following areas of study:

• Anthropology
• Art History
• Cinema Studies
• English
• History
• History and Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy
• Political Science

 4. Requirements for a major

For a major in Cultural Studies students are required to pass five subjects, totalling 83.3 points, in the following way:

All students must complete the foundation subject 106-290 Contemporary Cultural Studies. Of the remaining 4 subjects, at least three should be taken from the list of second or third year subjects below. Where students elect to take only three subjects from this list, one subject may be taken from the list of 'Optional Departmental Subjects'.

Second Year and Third Year Cultural Studies subjects
1st Semester		Semester
	106-207 Television Cultures	1
	106-218 Reading Sexuality	1
	106-247 Postmodernism	1
	106-268 Reading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Textual Production	1
	106-283 From Rock To Rap: Cultural Formations	1
	106-295 Feminist Cultural Studies	1
	106-297 Modernity, Spectacle and the Popular Media	1
	131-290 Exhibiting Histories and Cultures: Museums, Objects, Spectacles	1
	136-209 Critical Theories	1
2nd Semester
	106-221 City Cultures: New York/L.A. Stories	2
	106-270 Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda	2
	106-276 Performance in Contemporary Culture	2
	106-289 Reading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Production	2
	106-290 Contemporary Cultural Studies	2
	106-293 Popular Culture	2
	106-296 Imagining Hollywood	2
	111-251 Theorising the Body in Australia	2
	111-254 Commodity Culture: Myth, Meaning and Advertising	2
	The following subject is available at 3rd year level only
	191-428 Crime and Culture	1
Not available 1998
	106-261 Postcolonial Cultural Studies	n/a
	106-291 Sites of Culture	n/a
	111-248 Television and Australian Import Culture	n/a
	111-253 Feminist Film & Television Theory	n/a
	111-256 The Entertainment Experience: Cross-Media Forms and Interactive Technologies	n/a
	131-276 Representations of Gender	n/a
	166-242 An/Other China: Theorising Everyday Life	n/a

 4.1. Optional Departmental Subjects

Optional subjects may be taken in conjunction with Interdepartmental Cultural Studies subjects. Students should consult with the relevant department for timetable verification. Students should check that they meet the enrolment prerequisites, if any, of the following subjects. Prerequisites may be waived for students undertaking an interdepartmental program. Please consult a Faculty Course Adviser for details.

Optional Departmental Subjects
Department of Classics and Archaeology		Semester
	150-277 The Greeks in Australia	n/a
Department of English
	106-240 Novel and Film	2
	106-241 Postcolonial Writing	1
	106-246 Popular Fiction	1
Department of Fine Arts (Art History & Cinema Studies)
	111-243 Postmodern Prospects: Issues in Contemporary Art and Criticism	1
	111-246 International Art Cinema	n/a
	111-247 Contemporary Hollywood Cinema	n/a
	111-258 Surrealism and the Cinema: From Cartoons to Video Clips	2
	111-264 Postmodern Culture: the Visual Arts in Manhattan	2
	The following subjects are available at third year level
	111-433 You Beaut Country: Australian Art and Design in the 1950s	1
	111-444 Making Gender: Art, Film and Spectatorship in the West 1850-1995	n/a
	111-461 The Love Story: Film and Narrative Theory	n/a
Department of Geography
	121-207 Landscapes of Power: New Cultural Geographies	1
Department of History
	131-201 Varieties of History: History and Media	1
	131-204 Australian Sporting Culture A: Playing	1
	131-208 Race and Colonisation in Western Discourse	2
	131-219 Changing Concepts of 'Woman's Place': Europe, the United States and Australia, 1790-1950	n/a
	131-220 Gender, Culture and Society	2
Department of HPS (including Anthropology and Social Theory)
	136-206 Gender, Science and Technology	1
	136-251 Theoretical Foundations of Sociology	2
	136-259 Social Theory and Political Analysis	n/a
	136-260 Psychoanalysis and Social Theory	n/a
	136-271 The Human Cosmos: Myth, Ritual and Society	n/a
	136-277 Power, Ideology and Inequality	n/a
	136-281 Culture Change and Protest Movements	2
	136-454 Theories of Modernity	n/a
Department of Philosophy
	161-228 Philosophy of Feminism: Issues in Contemporary Feminist Thought	1
	161-241 French Feminisms	2
	161-242 Philosophy and Literature	2
Department of Political Science
	166-223 International Relations	2
Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
	175-214 Language in Aboriginal Australia	n/a
	175-219 Language in Society	2
Faculty of Music Students interested in further subjects in Ethnomusicology and Australian Music Studies should consult the Faculty of Music Handbook.
	740-144 Music Cultures of Asia and the Pacific	2

Enquiries about the Cultural Studies Program should be directed to the Cultural Studies coordinator in the Department of English.

 5. Entry to Honours

The prerequisite for entry into Combined Honours in Cultural Studies is completion of all the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts degree, admission to Honours in another area of study and completion of a major in Cultural Studies with a average grade over the major of at least H2A. Exceptions to this provision may only be made with permission of the Conveners of Cultural Studies and the approval of the Faculty.

 6. Honours requirements

Students undertaking Combined Honours in Cultural Studies complete:

• two single semester Cultural Studies subjects from the following list (or alternative subjects if approved by the Convener of Cultural Studies) (33.3 points); and
• 106-400 English Honours Thesis or a thesis in another combining department (33.3 points), and
• subjects in the combining department according to the requirements of that department (33.3 points).

Honours subjects
First semester		Semester
	106-428 Cultural Practice/Cultural Politics	1
	106-430 Studying Subcultures	1
	106-448 Consumerism, Spectatorship and Gender: Theorising Visual Fascination	1
	131-456 Memory and Memories	1
	136-447 Reading Texts in Social Theory	1
	136-451 Disease and Culture	1
Second semester
	106-436 Que(e)ries: Lesbian and Gay Theory	2
	106-454 Global Sports	2
	106-458 Cultural Policy Studies	2
	111-487 Avante-Garde Film, Modernity and Desire	2
Not available 1998
	106-402 Theorising Literary and Cultural Studies	n/a
	106-431 The Horror Genre: Fiction, Film and Theory	n/a
	106-443 Body Cultures	n/a
	106-444 Global Culture: History and Theory	n/a
	106-447 Colonial Cultural Studies	n/a
	111-420 Art and Mass Culture in the 1960s	n/a

 7. Opportunities for further study

The MA in Cultural Studies is an MA by thesis and there is no coursework involved. Students wishing to apply for entry into the MA program should have an H1 or H2A Honours degree (or equivalent) in a related discipline.

 8. For more information

For more information please contact:

Subject descriptions

Students interested in undertaking a major in Cultural Studies are strongly advised to enrol in both of the following first year subjects, but they are not formal prerequisites for second year Cultural Studies.

First Year

Second and Third Year

Fourth Year Honours

Status:                   Official 1998
Last Modified:            Tuesday October 21 17:09
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Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au