Future Students

Cultural Studies

The Area Of Study

Cultural studies investigates everyday life and how it reveals who we are and how we live. From art to the iPod, literature to fashion, high theory to pop culture, graffiti to multimedia, and from tattooing to writing, performance, film and television, all our cultural practices reveal how we make meaning, how we organise our social and political relationships and how we identify ourselves.

The analysis of culture provides insights into how ideas arise, how meanings are made and how they are communicated. In the Information Age everyone is a “content provider”, whether it’s at work or on MySpace. Both rigorous and creative, cultural studies will help you understand the day-to-day practices of communication and representation.

The Department of Media, Music and Cultural studies also teaches units in performance and creative writing. Drawing on a wide range of traditions in the humanities and social sciences, cultural studies trains you in the analytical techniques and skills in research and argument that will prepare you for careers in fields like the media, public and private sector administration and policy development, education, the creative arts and digital communication. The Department offers an innovative and dynamic Honours program, with the prospect of postgraduate study opportunities in both of which students can develop their skills of enquiry and analysis in projects they design themselves.

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Degree Program Information

Degree UAI 2008 CSP Course Duration
Bachelor of Arts 76.00 3 years full-time /equivalent part-time
Bachelor of Arts in Media and Cultural Studies # 78.25 3 years full-time /equivalent part-time
Bachelor of Arts with Bachelor of Laws 95.45 5 years full-time

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What You Will Study

You must complete a program of study (major) in one of the following:

  • Media and Cultural studies
  • Critical and Cultural studies
  • Writing and Performance
  • Interdisciplinary Cultural studies
  • Drama studies
  • Performance Drama

Your program of study may include units from the subject areas listed below:

  • cultural studies
  • critical and creative writing
  • performance
  • contemporary culture
  • sexuality, gender and the body
  • multimedia
  • ancient history
  • modern history
  • politics
  • sociology
  • philosophy
  • production and writing

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Recommended Prior Knowledge

First-year cultural studies units do not require any assumed knowledge, prerequisites or recommended studies. Other units taken as part of a degree may require assumed knowledge, prerequisites or recommended studies and you should refer to the Macquarie University Handbook of Undergraduate Studies for full degree requirements.

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Career Options

  • administration
  • policy development
  • public relations
  • advertising
  • publishing
  • arts industries
  • social and cultural research
  • communications
  • education and teaching
  • journalism

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Further Information

Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies
Macquarie University, NSW, 2109
Telephone:  (02) 9850 8778
Fax:  (02) 9850 6893      
Email: mmcs@mq.edu.au
Web:  www.ccs.mq.edu.au

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