History, English, Languages and Screens courses

We offer a range of study options from open-access courses to PhD research. Explore a sample below.

FutureLearn open access online courses

English and Writing

History

Undergraduate degree level courses

The courses below are taught on a rotation in the areas of English and writing, history and ancient history, philosophy, screen and cultural studies, as well as language studies in French, German and Japanese. Courses feature prominently in the Bachelor of Arts, the Diploma in Languages as well as a number of other programs at the University of Newcastle. Please click the links for further details.

Postgraduate taught degree level courses

Honours degree level courses

The Bachelor of Arts Honours degree provides students with high levels of proficiency in their previous Arts degree (GPA 5.0 and above) with the opportunity to take their studies to an advanced level. Many students take Honours simply because they want to keep studying our key areas of ancient and modern history, screen and media studies, English and writing, French and Japanese. However, Honours also provides students with credentials testifying to their ability to engage in high-quality independent study and is a necessary preparation for their careers as well as postgraduate study.

Semester one begins with two courses. HASS4000 BA Research is core for all students. Students then choose from two courses based on their interests, HASS4001 BA Theory and Practice in Historical, Cultural and Critical Inquiry or HASS4002 BA Theory and Practice in Screens, Languages, English and Writing. All semester one courses are available on Callaghan’s campus and via Zoom video conferencing. Then, in semester two, students enrol in HASS4003 BA Thesis I and HASS4004 BA Thesis II to write their thesis with the guidance of an academic supervisor. These give students the opportunity to put the skills they have acquired into practice in the form of a substantial 15,000 word research-driven project. This can be in one of three formats: 1) scholarly; 2) work-integrated learning; and, 3) creative/digital.

Honours pathways

English and writing

English and Writing offers students the chance to complete an independent critical or creative project on a topic of their own choice. Sample theses include:

  • Putting Humpty back on the wall: why aren’t we talking about nursery rhymes in the digital age?
  • Myth in Hope Mirrlees's Lud-in-the-Mist
  • “Two Hours North”: How the liminality of a regional setting impacts on queer identity - short fiction
  • Kâao Nôk Naa - Rice outside the paddy fields: Illegitimacy, family secrets and Third Culture Kids in Thailand - a memoir
  • “Tarare”: cannibalism and medicine during the French Revolution - a historical fiction
  • Better is Relative - story sequence based on fairy tales
French

French allows students to further their written and spoken French skills or to focus more specifically on their chosen area study while increasing their reading comprehension skills in French. This means that students can choose to write their thesis in French or in English. Sample theses include:

  • Novels of Amélie Nothomb (in French)
  • Le petit sauvage by Alexandre Jardin (in French)
  • French politician Ségolène Royal (in French)
  • Armance by Stendhal (in English)
History and ancient history

Ancient and Modern History areas foster student opportunities to undertake advanced study on their interests. Recent theses topics include:

  • Thucydides and the Athenian Empire
  • Slave revolts in Sicily and Italy
  • Flower Imagery in Literary Representations of Greek myth
  • Cruel and unusual punishments in the Roman Empire
  • 1949 Coal Strike: Communism and the Cold War
  • Red Scares, Black Scars: Rethinking the Impact of McCarthyism on the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1954
  • Shifting Loyalties: Three Leading Anglo-Australian Conservatives and the Rise of Fascist Militarism, 1931-1941
  • Sexed by Sex Ed: Education and the Construction of the ‘Ideal Woman’ in 1950’s Australia
Japanese

Japanese offers students the opportunity to undertake advanced study in Japanese that involves research in the fields of language, society and culture, using Japanese language source materials.

Screen and cultural studies

Screen and cultural studies allows students to focus on carefully selected theories and methods in the process of analysing practices, institutions, systems, texts and experiences of contemporary life as played out within the fields of film, media and culture. Sample theses include:

  • Queer Action Heroes
  • A Systems View of Advertising Creativity
  • Writing Identity: The Limits of Sex and Gender in Second Life
  • One is Not Born, but Rather Becomes, a “Geek”: How Homosociality and Reflexivity Shape the Performance of Geek Masculinity in The Big Bang Theory
  • Making Fans in Japan
  • ”What Would You Prefer?”: Managing Fandom in Multi-Platform Narratives

Higher Degrees by Research (HDR)

Our staff supervise a range of research thesis topics for Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees in their specialist areas of expertise. We encourage students to discuss criteria and topics with their potential supervisors well in advance of their application. A typical M.Phil. thesis will be between 40-60,000 words and a Ph.D. thesis between 80-100,000 words.

Learn more about thesis guidelines

A range of competitive scholarships are also available, including University, Government and Vice-Chancellor awarded support. Students should consult each scholarship’s relevant guidelines for information about their specific criteria.

Degree applications are accepted at any time, however scholarship applications are typically due in early September. We encourage students to discuss criteria and topics with their potential supervisors well in advance of their application.

Learn more about HDR applications

HDR areas

We offer PhD and Master by Research pathways in the areas below.

English and writing
  • Detective Fiction
  • Theory and History of the Novel
  • 19th Century Literature
  • Comparative Literature
  • Renaissance Literature
  • Women's Writings
  • Literary Computing
  • Indigenous Literature
  • Modern and Contemporary British/ American Literature
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Critical Theory
  • Indigenous Studies
  • Contemporary Australian and World Poetry
  • Popular Culture
  • Children's Literature
  • Fantasy Literature
  • Creative Writing (Literary Nonfiction, Short Fiction, Novel and Poetry)
French
  • Crime Fiction (French and Anglo-Saxon), especially the Série Noire
  • Translation projects, both practical and theoretical
  • Twentieth-/twenty-first century French literature, especially the works of Boris Vian
History and ancient history
  • Early and later Roman Empire
  • Byzantine Empire
  • History of violence
  • Australian history
  • Atlantic history
  • Ottoman history
  • Women's history/feminist history
  • Histories of sex and sexuality
  • Australian foreign and defence policy
  • Napoleonic Europe
  • Cultural history, including religion
  • Intellectual history
  • Australian and international wine studies
  • Global Indigenous history
  • Diaspora and transnational history
  • Urban and regional history (especially Newcastle)
  • Applied history and public heritage studies
  • History of the environment and climate change
Japanese
  • Japanese studies in general
  • intellectual and cultural history
  • military history
  • social history
  • classical and modern literature
  • Japan's relations with East and Southeast Asia
Philosophy
  • Political philosophy
  • Deliberative democratic theory
  • Secularisation theory
  • Ethical theory
  • Technological ethics
  • Situated cognition
  • Philosophy of religion
  • History of ideas
Screen and cultural studies
  • Film theory and history
  • Television studies
  • Gender and sexuality in the media
  • Popular music and culture
  • European cinema
  • The Internet and social media
  • Postcolonial studies
  • Contemporary world cinema
  • Race and ethnicity in media cultures
  • Identity and taste in consumer culture
  • Media structures and institutions
  • New media technologies

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