Study Options
Undergraduate Studies
The Faculty advises students to enrol in two Major sequences within the B.A. degree. This means that undergraduate students will normally enrol in Drama alongside another Major sequence. While a Major requires a minimum of 80 units, it is recommended you undertake up to 100 units - the two first year courses and up to 80 further units at second and third year levels. After a wide-ranging introduction to the subject in your first year, you may continue through second and third year and combine contextual and applied courses covering drama from the classical Greek theatre to contemporary drama, from drama in the community to performance art and digital media.
After graduation, you may take a further year's work towards an Honours degree, and then undertake a research degree: Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
Honours
The Honours program is designed for those students who wish to develop their personal skills and understanding of the discipline of Drama. It is a research program which can be tailored to your own particular interests and provides a pathway to further postgraduate studies. The Honours degree is also a passport which signals to potential employers that you possess a high degree of personal initiative, that you can organise yourself and your work well, and that you are capable of undertaking a focussed research project and bringing it to a successful outcome.
The Honours program is a flexible one and you can enrol either as a full-time (1 academic year) or part-time student (up to 2 academic years). To be admitted you should have completed a major in Drama, with no less than a Credit average.
Your Honours research project in Drama can be conducted through the acquisition and analysis of source materials, usually found in libraries and archives, although often by “field work” as well, and also through setting up practical projects or experiments which will interrogate and test out your hypotheses. Your research may include both elements. However, if your research project primarily involves analysis and reflection upon the source material in order to construct a scholarly argument, then the outcome will probably be a thesis of 10-18,000 words. If it primarily involves a practical project which will provide the evidence or data from which you will draw some conclusions, then the outcome will include a research essay (probably of about 8,000 words) and the project itself as well as its documentation. The research and presentation of your outcomes covers two semesters as a full-time student and up to four semesters as a part-time student.
All honours students have access to the Drama Postgraduate resource room with access to computers, printing and photocopying facilities, and stationary supplies.
If you have an interest in doing Honours enquiries can be made by contacting Prof. Victor Emeljanow
Research Higher Degrees
The Academic staff of the discipline of Drama are able to provide a high standard of thesis supervision from initial project design through to completion in a variety of research areas. Research Higher Degree students are also provided with a range of resources throughout their candidacy such as laptop computers, access to study rooms, financial support for research costs, and support to present their work at academic conferences. Enquiries regarding RHD projects and supervision arrangements should be directed to Prof. Victor Emeljanow.
For more information please visit the Drama Research Areas page.
Current Research Higher Degree Projects
Jerry Boland, Performance autoethnographic inquiry into cycle productions Bathurst 1000 Festival Project (1989 -1996), PhD
Steve McLennan, Maitland Gaol: Peoples' Histories, PhD
Indija Mahjoeddin, Translating Randai, M Creative Arts
Maurie Scott, Dramatic Adaptations, PhD
Brian Joyce, Legacy in Applied Theatre, MPhil
David Houston, The Creation of Theatrical Work "Footy Tech!", M Creative Arts
Research Higher Degree Recent Completions
2004, Jim Garner, Deviance and Disloyalty: Historiographical Discourses in Representations of the Cambridge Spies, PhD
2004, Gillian Arrighi, The Neutral Mask: Its position in Western actor training and its application to the creative processes of the actor, M Creative Arts
2005, Clare Irvine, Making It New: Innovation in Australia's Youth-specific Theatre Field, PhD
2006, Evan Williams, Going to the Theatre: An Investigation of factors affecting theatre attendance in Sydney's entertainment district from 1896 to 1920, MA
2007, Rebecca Conroy, Performing Resistance: Oppositional Performance Practices in Contemporary Indonesia, PhD
2007, Gillian Arrighi, A Circus and its Context: The FitzGerald Brothers' Circus in Australia 1888-1906, PhD
2007. Stuart Gregg, CATSCANS / DOGMA: creating new music-theatre, M Creative Arts
