• Total units 48 Units
  • Major code PAST-MAJ
  • Academic career Undergraduate
Pacific Studies Major

The Pacific Studies major employs an interdisciplinary framework to explore important historical and contemporary issues in Oceania. It also provides the basis for students to critically examine the ways in which knowledge about the region, and the region itself, have been framed, constructed and represented, with a particular focus on indigenous epistemologies and voices. Students engage with scholarly and policy debates of critical contemporary importance in the region, including gender, climate change, globalization, the arts, development, and peace, conflict and intervention. The linguistic diversity of Oceania is reflected in the core courses of the major, which are infused with indigenous voices and languages. The major provides students with opportunities to further explore the Pacific through the disciplinary lenses of archaeology, anthropology, indigenous studies, political science, literature, philosophy, and visual arts.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

  1. Understand and evaluate historical and current events and developments that have shaped the Pacific,
  2. Identify and critique the contemporary socio-cultural and political systems of the Pacific,
  3. Analyse developments in the Pacific in their regional and global context,
  4. Understand the processes and disciplinary approaches through which current knowledge about the Pacific has developed.

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Requirements

This major requires the completion of 48 units, which must consist of:

24 units from completion of the following course(s):

Code Title Units
PASI1011 Pacific Encounters: An introduction to Pacific Studies 6
PASI1012 Pacific Worlds: critical inquiry in Oceania 6
PASI2001 Pacific Studies in a Globalizing World 6
PASI3001 Politics and Development in the Contemporary Pacific 6

A minimum of 18 units must come from completion of courses from the following list:

Code Title Units
ARCH2005 Archaeology of the Pacific Islanders 6
ASIA2087 Peace Building in the Pacific and Asia 6
ASIA2093 Natural Resource Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific 6
ASIA3053 Rituals of Life and Death in Asia and the Pacific 6
PASI2002 Australia in Oceania in the 19th and 20th centuries 6
PASI3013 Environment and Development in the Pacific 6
WARS2004 War in the Islands: The Second World War in the Pacific 6
  PASI 2010: Talking the Pacific
PASI3002 Gender and Sexuality in the Pacific 6
PASI3005 Pacific Islands Field School 6
POLS2055 Pacific Politics 6
STST2003 Australia and Security in the Pacific Islands 6
PASI2030 Study Tour: Regional Policymaking for Pacific Development 6
ENVS2005 Island Sustainable Development: Fiji Field School 6-12

A maximum of 6 units may come from completion of courses from the following list:

Code Title Units
ASIA2065 Asian Politics: From Concepts to Causes 6
ASIA2067 Economies of Emerging Asia 6
ASIA2301 Human Migration and Expansion in the Rise of the Asia-Pacific 6
ASIA2302 Culture and Modernity in Asia: Anthropological Perspectives 6
ASIA2304 What is Literature? Asian Perspectives 6
ASIA2307 History of Empire in Asia 6
ASIA2001 Language in Asia and the Pacific 6
ASIA2103 Language in Asia and the Pacific (L) 6
GEND2001 Gender and Cultural Studies in Asia and the Pacific 6
INTR2010 International Relations in the Asia-Pacific 6
STST2001 Security Concepts in the Asia-Pacific 6
HIST2231 Exploration: Columbus to the Moon 6
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