Master of Asian Studies - PostGraduate/Graduate Coursework
On this page:
- Asia and you
- Important Contact Details
- The structure of the Master of Asian Studies
- Entry Requirements
- How to Apply
- Library resources for Asian Studies
Important information elsewhere on this site:
The information on this page is also available in pdf (Acrobat) format.
Asia and You
The region of Asia is diverse, with many ethnic groups and complex political arrangements. Home to some of the world's oldest civilisations, the region is now also the world's economic powerhouse, containing both post-industrial, wealthy societies and others struggling with economic development and poverty. Monash has a large number of researchers working on aspects of politics, history, economy and culture in Asia. Their knowledge and expertise are available to you through the Master of Asian Studies, providing you with the literacy and skills necessary to understand this most important and complex region.
Careers with a Future
With 70 per cent of Australian exports going to Asia and increases in investment, tourism, education and various cultural activities, the Master of Asian Studies provides essential professional training for a number of career options. Our past students have found employment with companies, government departments, NGOs and educational and other institutions where the engagement with Asia is important. Moreover, the demand for Asian expertise is worldwide - EU companies, for example, are searching for Asia literate employees.
Asian Studies at Monash
The Monash program can lead you to a Masters of Asian Studies in three semesters and prepare you with a range of new and exciting directions for your career. The program provides recent graduates with an excellent way to "top off" a BA earned in a wide range of other disciplines. It is also tailored to the needs of mid-career employees and entrepreneurs wanting to direct their career towards Asia.
Important Contact Details
Dr Beatrice Trefalt is the coordinator of the Master course. She is also the Convenor of postgraduate coursework in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, teaches Japanese and Asian studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and conducts research in post-war Japanese history. You will occasionally meet her in your units.
Beatrice (or Bea as people call her) is the person to come and see for any questions relating to the Master, for discussion about the right kind of electives for you, for possible research projects and possible supervision and of course for any problem you need to discuss. The most reliable form of communication with Bea is through email,
Room W420, Menzies Building, ph. 9905 5118, beatrice.trefalt@arts.monash.edu.au
Ms Sally Riley is the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics administrative officer for postgraduate programs. She is a good person to ask regarding administrative matters relating to your course.
Room S425, ph. 9905 5409, sally.riley@arts.monash.edu.au
Dr Angelo Andrea DiCastro coordinates the two core units for the Master (for Professor Ross Mouer and Professor Marika Vicziany). He is affiliated with the Monash Asia Institute. His research interests are in Central Asian and South Asian Archeology.
Room S810, Monash Asia Institute, ph. 9905 5281 AngeloAndrea.DiCastro@adm. monash.edu.au
Professor Ross Mouer is the official coordinator of the core units and participates in their seminars, even if he has delegated coordination to Dr DiCastro. He is a specialist in Japanese sociology and is interested in labour and consumer issues, and is also the Director of the Japanese Studies Centre and the Convenor of the Japanese Studies Program.
Room W416, ph. 9905 2271 ross.mouer@arts.monash.edu.au
Professor Marika Vicziany is the Director of the Monash Asia Institute and also an official coordinator of the core units. Like Ross, she regularly participates in the Core units, even if she has delegated the coordination to Dr DiCastro. Her research area is in South Asian politics and economy, especially issues of poverty.
Room S812, Monash Asia Institute, ph. 9905 9259 marika.vicziany@adm.monash.edu.au
Mr Joe De Pasquale is the Faculty of Arts’s Manager of Higher Degree Recruitment and admissions. He is the best person to ask about specific administrative issues (such as early exit points, transfer into Research Masters etc)
Faculty of Arts, ph. 9905 8318 Joe.DePasquale@arts.monash.edu.auThe Structure of the Master of Asian Studies
This Masters is a 72-point course, taken over a year and a half full-time, or over 3 years part-time.
At the basic level, the Master looks like this:
The first 24 points are the compulsory Core Units:
- AST4000/AST5000 Contemporary Issues in Asia (semester 1, 2008).
Synopsis: Offered each year in the first semester, this unit is designed to introduce students to the larger issues currently shaping Asia. Topics covered include Asian values, mass poverty, terrorism, religious movements, and cyberdemocracy.
- AST4220/AST5220 Investigating other Societies: Area Studies in Global Perspective (semester 2, 2008).
Synopsis: this unit equips students with the skills needed to undertake research and fieldwork. Students are exposed to a wide range of methods, data collection procedures, interpretive debates and ethical questions
The remaining 48 points are flexible: they can be filled at your discretion with a mixture of:
- language study (up to 24 point)
- coursework in your area of choice (consult with the coordinator for appropriate coursework),
- supervised small research projects (up to 24 points)
More details on each of these possibilities follow.
Language Study:
We strongly encourage you to study an Asian language as part of your Master’s program: being able to understand, converse and read in an Asian language (or in another Asian language if you already have one) is an essential prerequisite for any analysis of the region. Having said that, we are aware that the time commitment may not be suitable for those who are working as well as studying. Please note that language units are consecutive six-point units, so that a full-time Master in 18 months could feasibly only include 18 points of language.
Note that it is possible to overload (that is, do 30 points in a semester) in order to include language study: this means of course balancing out with ‘underloading’ in the following semester. You should only do this if you are confident that you can handle a higher load of work in any one semester.
We offer the following language from beginner to highly advanced: Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean. Note that you may start the language at beginner level in this Master program. If you have studied the chosen language before, the suitable level for you will be determined by a ‘placement’ test.
The appropriate contact persons for each of the languages are as follows:
Chinese (Dr Robert Irving)
robert.irving@arts.monash.edu.au
Indonesian (Mr. Basoeki Koesasi)
basoeki.koesasi@arts.monash.edu.au
Japanese (Ms Jun Yano)
jun.yano@arts.monash.edu.au
Korean (Dr Young-A Cho)
younga.cho@arts.monash.edu.au
Coursework electives:
The Faculty of Arts as well as other Faculties offer a variety of possible units in disciplines relevant to the Master of Asian Studies, including for example environmental studies, Business and management, media and communication and so on. It is impossible to list them all, and in some cases entry into these units from another area (from example, from Asian Studies into Design or Law) requires the mediation of the Coordinator and demonstration of appropriate background on the part of the Student. This is why we strongly encourage prospective students to discuss interests and ideas with the coordinator (Beatrice) in advance, so that an appropriate selection of electives may be tailored.
However, there is also a choice of regularly available electives that our students have found useful as a basis for their study of Asia in the past. We encourage the students to consider for example:
Semester 1 2008:
12 points
| PLM4290 | China: the Quest for Modernisation |
| PLM4930 | South-east Asian politics |
| ASM4230 | Culture and conflict in Indonesia |
| PLM4430 | Political Islam |
| JAL4530 | Teaching and Learning Asian Languages |
6 points
| IDA5130 | Environmental Revolutions |
| ENV5020 | Perspectives on Environment and Sustainability |
Semester 2 2008:
12 points
| AST4060 | Japan and Asia since 1945: war legacies and memory wars |
| ASM4430 | The Third world |
| RLM5140 | Confronting death through Ceremony and Symbol: a cross-cultural analysis |
6 points
| ENV4040 | Frontiers in Sustainability and Environment |
| IDA4140 | Urbanisation and Regional development in the Indo-Pacific Rims |
| IDA4120 | Community development |
| IDA5220 | The Art and Business of International Development |
| MGX9150 | Contemporary Asia |
| CHI4440 | Understanding Contemporary China (note prerequisite for Chinese level 2) |
Semester 1 2009 (to be confirmed):
| PLM4290/PLM5290 | China the quest for modernisation |
| PLM4930 | South-east Asian politics |
| PLM4430 | Political Islam |
| ENV4020 | Perspectives on environment and sustainability |
Semester 2 2009 (to be confirmed):
| ASM4430 | The Third world |
| ENV4040 | Frontiers in Sustainability and Environment |
| IDA4140 | Urbanisation and Regional development in the Indo-Pacific Rims |
| IDA4120 | Community development |
| IDA5220 | The Art and Business of International Development |
| MGX9150 | Contemporary Asia |
| CHI4440 | Understanding Contemporary China (note prerequisite for Chinese level 2) |
Research projects:
You may also choose to do up to 24 points of your Master’s program in the form of 12-point research projects or policy papers. These research units involve working with a supervisor to produce a small thesis (about 9000 words per unit) based on extensive research.
These are particularly recommended for those who are keen to pursue an interest in a specific area, or who are considering transferring into a postgraduate degree by research, where entry is contingent on a demonstrated ability to conduct substantial research projects.
Possible supervisors for such research projects should be determined in consultation with the coordinator of the Masters. Here are the names and areas of research of some of these supervisors:
Professor Marika Vicziany (marika.vicziany@adm.monash.edu.au)
Director of the Monash Asia Institute, Professor Vicziany is a specialist on mass poverty, development and regional security in India, Pakistan and China. She has undertaken a large number of consultancies for business, government, AusAID and the ADB in the last two decades.
Professor Ross Mouer (ross.mouer@arts.monash.edu.au)
Professor Mouer has published widely on work organisation and society in Japan, and has supervised research students on a wide range of areas related to Japan, Australia-Japan relations and Japan literacy in Australia.
Professor Mark Wahlqvist (mark.wahlqvist@med.monash.edu.au)
Professor Wahlqvist has had a combined career in internal medicine and human nutrition with chairs in both these fields over the last two decades. He has published over 1000 articles and has played a major role in national and international nutrition science, education and policy.
Professor Greg Barton (Greg.Barton@arts.monash.edu.au)
Professor Barton has a particular interest in Indonesian social movements, politics and religion. He is currently working on progressive Islamic thought and its contribution to civil society and politics, together with researching Jemaah Islamiyah and other radical Islamist groups in Indonesia. He has long studied the politics of reform, democratization and regime-change in Indonesia. Indonesian politics
Associate Professor Alison Tokita (alison.tokita@arts.monash.edu.au)
Expertise in Japanese performing arts, international marriage, Japanese popular culture, and Japanese diaspora.
Associate Professor Gloria Davies (Gloria.davies@arts.monash.edu.au)
Associate Professor Davies has extensive expertise in Chinese cultural and intellectual activities in the modern era, critical theory and knowledge production, comparative literature, women's studies and gender issues.
Dr Penny Graham (penny.graham@arts.monash.edu.au)
Expertise in sociocultural anthropology: questions of identity, religion, ethnicity, nationalism, gender and labour migration in Southeast Asia.
Dr Beatrice Trefalt (Beatrice.trefalt@arts.monash.edu.au)
Specialist in post-war Japanese history, war legacies in Japan in the 1950s, war legacies in Asia, history and memory, post-war population movements in Asia.
Dr Brett Hough (Brett.Hough@arts.monash.edu.au)
Specialist in Balinese culture and arts.
Dr Dennis Woodward (dennis.woodward@arts.monash.edu.au)
Expertise in Chinese politics, with special interests in China's political economy and its military.
Dr William Peterson (William.Peterson@arts.monash.edu.au)
Dr Peterson has published widely on theatre, politics, and intercultural theatre practice in Singapore, the Philippines, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. His primary research focus at present is on the terrain where theatre, politics, culture and religion intersect in a range of performance activities in the Philippines, including the many performative events associated with “Holy Week”, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. He has also published on Maori and New Zealand theatre and maintains an active and ongoing research interest in international festival culture.
Dr Wendy Smith (Wendy.Smith@buseco.monash.edu.au)
Specialist on socio-cultural and economic issues in Japan, Malaysia and Southeast Asia, cross-cultural management, gender and religious diversity.
Dr David Wright-Neville (david.wrightneville@arts.monash.edu.au)
Formerly with the Office of National Assessment (Canberra); specialist on politics and terrorism in Southeast Asia.
Associate Professor Robert Rice (robert.rice@arts.monash.edu.au)
Expert on the Indonesian economy and economic development in Asia more broadly.
Entry Requirements
Applicants should have a bachelors degree with at least a credit average in the final year, or a bachelors pass degree with demonstrable professional experience at a senior level in a relevant area.
How to Apply
Domestic Students:
Please follow the instructions on the following page:
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/prospective/apps-postgraduate.html
International Students:
Please follow the instructions on the following page:
http://www.monash.edu.au/study/international/apply/
Library Resources for Asian Studies
The Monash library contains excellent resources in Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean for postgraduate students researching Asia. Some of its Asian collections are amongst the most comprehensive in Australia and attract researchers from interstate and overseas. A large amount of important research material is on microfilm, and a growing number of Asian studies journals are available electronically.
Specialist Librarians
Telephone: +(613) 9905 917
Dr Aline Scott-Maxwell
Indonesian/Southeast Asian Studies Librarian
aline.scott.maxwell@lib.monash.edu.au
Mr Dennis Kishere
Chinese Studies Librarian
dennis.kishere@lib.monash.edu.au
Ms
Jung-Sim Kim
Korean Studies Librarian
jung.sim.kim@lib.monash.edu.au
Ms Ayako Hatta
Japanese Studies Librarian
ayako.hatta@lib.monash.edu.au
Ms
May-Lee Wee
Asian Economics and Politics
Librarian
may-lee.wee@lib.monash.edu.au