- Students are to follow the requirements of the Handbook for the year they commenced the course.
However, the subject links below do not contain the subject information for the current year. You can view current subject information through the new Course Handbook.
History
History aims to understand and interpret the past. It is the subject that brings the past into the present. History is a dynamic discipline, since each generation returns to the past with different questions, based on their own experiences and concerns. Historical analysis brings together both facts and moral judgements to analyse the background to contemporary conditions. Perhaps more importantly, History can also help us to imagine the kinds of futures we want to live.
As an interpretive discipline, History helps to sharpen the skills needed in a broad range of occupations. It teaches us to research information, to critically evaluate debates, and to communicate our arguments and beliefs clearly and effectively. It enriches our experience of the world by offering ways to understand the broad scope of human experiences - from our everyday lives to larger global processes.
Wollongong's History Program focuses upon themes that link Australian and international history. These themes include culture, environment, gender, globalisation, historiography, labour, war and regional development. These themes may be traced in a variety of settings: in broad histories of specific Australian, Asian and European societies; in more specific historical examinations of empires, the political and social impacts of wars, and the development of the State; or in more specialised themes.
Studying History at Wollongong is also about learning what it is to be a historian, with each subject contributing to developing a sophisticated and critical appreciation of contemporary approaches to historical theories, methods, interpretation, argument, and uses of evidence.
Career Opportunities
History graduates follow many employment paths. They work in Federal and State government departments, in private enterprise, as researchers, in the media, in travel, marketing and tourism, as teachers at primary and secondary schools, institutes of technology and universities, as well as finance and service industries.
The History course builds a solid foundation for future study through developing the students' capacity to inquire, analyse and communicate information, ideas, and concepts. This is extremely helpful to the graduate in terms of taking postgraduate courses.
Major Study
The history major is the central core of study in a History student's undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree. It will consist of 52 credit points with 24 credit points being at 300-level. The purpose of a major is to provide a specific and coherent course of study which will allow students to develop specific skills. Each subject in the major is intended to provide an understanding of a topic, area or theme, which can be developed in subsequent years of study.
100-level subjects require no special knowledge and are best described as survey courses. They will however, provide students with a general introduction to a particular time, place or theme. Students will learn and be introduced to many valuable basic skills to help them build a strong foundation for their major. In these subjects students will learn how to:
identify the causes and effects of historical change;
summarise the main points of a historical work;
identify the thesis or central argument of a historical work;
describe the historical context of a work;
identify different types of historical evidence;
see how historians produce different accounts of the same of the event; and
to begin the use of primary source material to produce and defend arguments.
200-level subjects will refine and extend both skills and historical knowledge. They offer study in greater depth than the survey courses, and will take a closer look at events and places. 300-level subjects take a detailed approach to major historical problems, and unlike earlier studies, students will use a wide range of primary sources to investigate topics. These may include film, radio, television, archival manuscript, oral interviews, literature, newspapers, parliamentary records, photographs, diaries and/or company documents.
Students taking a major in history can count up to 16 credit points from the following: INDS150, INDS200, FREN220, STS 112 as well as the Politics subjects listed in the table below.
Note: students enrolled in a double major may only cross-count one subject.
Minor Study
A minor in History will consist of at least 28 credit points in subjects from the schedule of the history major. Students may not take more than two subjects at 100-level and may not cross-count any subjects from the minor in any other minor or major study.
Honours
Study Program
Subject Code |
Subject Name |
Credit Points |
Session |
100 Level | |||
INDS150 |
Introduction to Indigenous Australia |
6 |
Autumn |
AUST101 |
Australian Studies, Cultures and Identities |
6 |
Autumn |
AUST102 |
Locating Australia |
6 |
Spring |
HIST110 |
The Premodern World |
6 |
Autumn |
HIST111 |
The Modern World |
6 |
Spring |
POL141 |
Change and Debate in Contemporary Australian Politics |
6 |
N/O 2013 |
STS112 |
The Scientific Revolution |
6 |
Spring |
200 Level | |||
ARTS280 |
Community, Power and the Common Good |
8 |
Autumn |
INDS200 |
Identity, History and Resilience |
8 |
Spring |
FREN220 |
France in the Twenty-first Century |
8 |
Spring |
HIST201 |
An Ocean of History: An Introduction to the Pacific World |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST202 |
Slavery in the Asia Pacific |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST203 |
Australians and the Great War |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST216 |
Ancient History: Greece |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST217 |
Ancient History: Rome |
8 |
Spring |
HIST220 |
Living Australia 1800 - 2000: The Autobiography of Working Class Australia |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST232 |
Russia in War and Revolution |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST239 |
Water in Australia: An Environmental History |
8 |
Spring |
HIST252 |
A History of Modern China |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST253 |
Japan in the Twentieth Century: a socio-cultural history of change |
8 |
Spring |
HIST255 |
Australia and Asia: Connections and Comparisons |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST265 |
Gallipoli Study Tour |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST270 |
Western Front Study Tour |
8 |
Winter |
HIST291 |
Film and History |
8 |
Spring |
300 Level | |||
HIST310 |
Europe in World History |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST322 |
Twentieth Century Dictatorships |
8 |
Spring |
HIST325 |
Theory and Method of History |
8 |
Spring |
HIST334 |
Regional and Environmental History |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST342 |
Sickness and Death: Social History and Public Health in Australia |
8 |
Spring |
HIST343 |
Special Topics in History |
8 |
Autumn/Spring |
HIST350 |
Debates in Australian Cultural History |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST352 |
The Overseas Chinese: Migration and Organisation |
8 |
Spring |
HIST353 |
Japanese History Through Film |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
HIST370 |
War and Society |
8 |
Autumn |
HIST394 |
Commodification History |
8 |
N/O 2013 |
POL368 |
Protest and Power in America: The Sixties |
8 |
Autumn |
Other Information
Further information is available at http://coursefinder.uow.edu.au/ or email: fac-arts@uow.edu.au