Arts and Social Sciences 2026 | Page 11

AREAS OF STUDY

COMMUNICATION
Develop a strategic and critical understanding of the role of mediated communication in society. In this major, you’ ll explore the workings of the media and develop the skills to describe and analyse the organisation, processes, uses and effects of traditional and new communications. You’ ll learn to critically analyse the media and understand the structure of communications industries and the relations between media, culture and power in global and local contexts.
Why choose communication?
Whether it’ s in our relationships, professions or political and cultural engagement, our lives are increasingly played out in and through media. As the world becomes more connected, there’ s an important need for people who can navigate the complexities of the dynamic media landscape.
Units you can take in this area of study:
• Media studies
• Communication technologies and practices
• Digital media policy and governance
• Contemporary media theory
• Research methods in the arts and social sciences
• Digital Asia research project
• Social media and communication campaign
• Task force: Responding to global challenges
• Documentary filmmaking and society
• A world in crisis: Multilevel responses to global emergencies
• Workplace learning internship.
Career options
• Communications expert
• International consultancy
• International development
• Management
• Marketing
• Public relations
• Social media manager
• Teaching.
FILM, TELEVISION AND SCREEN STUDIES
Study historical, textual and critical approaches to film and television, and related new screen technologies. This major covers Asian and European national cinemas, a range of directors and genres, early and contemporary cinema, film stardom and popular television genres.
Why choose film, television and screen studies?
You’ ll develop filmmaking and screen storytelling skills, and master historical, critical and theoretical methods of analysis used in the study of the moving image. This includes formal, institutional, reception-based and cultural studies approaches, consideration of issues relating to the intersection of ideology and culture, the representation of gender, race and class, and questions concerning the relations between film and television and new technologies.
Units you can take in this area of study:
• Film, television and screen studies: Approaches
• Film, television and screen studies: Forms
• Film genres
• Film histories: 1895 to the present
• Research methods in the arts and social sciences
• Audience studies: Sources and methods
• Stardom, screens and society
• Southeast Asian cinema
• Documentary filmmaking and society
• Workplace learning internship.
Career options
• Archiving and restoration
• Criticism and reviewing
• Curatorship
• Festival work
• Film and television production
• Film distribution and marketing
• Screen media research and development.
GENDER STUDIES
Delve into an exciting interdisciplinary field of inquiry. This major brings together innovative theory, research techniques and lived experiences to understand the ways in which our bodies are sexed, gendered and sexually oriented, how they relate to contemporary and global debates on sexual and reproductive health and rights and the plurality of sexualities, with a focus on Asia.
Why choose gender studies?
You’ ll be introduced to a variety of critical models of analysis, including feminist and queer studies, that’ ll assist you in developing a range of problem-solving skills. Your transferable professional skills in gender analysis, and the ethos of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice will be relevant to professional contexts such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, social work, human rights, professional counselling, social media, public relations and a wide range of industries.
Units you can take in this area of study:
• Introduction to sexuality studies
• Introduction to gender studies
• Research methods in the arts and social sciences
• Genders, sexualities and religions in Southeast Asia
• Sexual and reproductive health and rights in global contexts
• Stardom, screens and society
• Contemporary feminisms in Asia
• Performing Asian, African and Black masculinities
• Task force: Responding to global challenges
• Workplace learning internship.
Career options
• Advocacy, capacity building and community mobilisation
• Business analysis and development
• Content creation and strategy
• International development
• Media, communications and advertising
• Talent recruitment and management
• Think tanks.
GLOBAL STUDIES
Learn more about the issues that have shaped, and continue to shape, our contemporary world. This interdisciplinary area of study explores how transnational political, economic, social and cultural developments influence the possibilities for cooperation to address subnational, national, regional and global problems, and assesses the prospects for a more peaceful and just global order.
Why choose global studies?
You’ ll be exposed to a wide range of international issues and challenges, from policymaking to identity politics, economic governance, migration conflict, and civil society activism. You’ ll learn to confront the issues of the 20th and 21st centuries from a diverse range of perspectives, gaining a deep understanding of the ideas, events, and processes that underpin global change.
Units you can take in this area of study:
• Introduction to global studies
• Introduction to world politics and history
• International human rights
• Research methods in the arts and social sciences
• Borders, people and identity: Migration in the 21st century
• Power and conflict: The international politics of the Asia Pacific
• Democracy and its discontents: Understanding the power of ideas
• International relations
• Task force: Responding to global challenges
• Documentary filmmaking and society
• A world in crisis: Multilevel responses to global emergencies
• States, markets and global capitalism
• Workplace learning internship.
Career options
• Global media and journalism
• Government
• International diplomacy
• Non-government agencies
• Tourism.
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