Honours Program
- Coordinator
- General information
- Combined honours
- Fourth-year honours units
- Minor thesis
- Admission to honours
Coordinator
Dr Alison Ross
Phone:
(03) 9905 2095
E-mail: Alison.Ross@arts.monash.edu.au
General information
An honours course in the Centre can have an emphasis on comparative literature, cultural studies or critical theory. The honours sequence consists of CLS4080 (CLS4080(A) and CLS4080(B) ), the 'Minor Thesis' (worth 24 points), plus two further fourth-year level units in the Centre (ie ones with a CLS code or ones approved by the Centre, each worth 12 points), making a total combined value of forty-eight points. See coordinators for details of the units. Some of these units are cross-listed from other disciplines: check for pre-requisites and the unit content. Mid-year entry and part-time candidature are supported by the Centre, but on a case-by-case basis. Students writing fourth-year theses in comparative literature are normally required to consider literary texts in their original languages.
The Douglas Muecke Prize is awarded each year by the Centre staff for the best thesis submitted by a CLCS honours student.
Combined honours
Combined honours may be taken in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (a title which includes critical theory) and another discipline (Visual Culture, for example), provided that all honours requirements have been met in both disciplines and unit to the advice of the honours co-ordinators and the approval of the Heads of the Schools involved.
Fourth-Year Honours Units
| Code | Unit |
Co-ordinator |
|---|---|---|
| CLS4080(A) /CLS4080(B) | Minor Thesis (compulsory ) | Dr A Ross initially |
| CLS4100 | Deleuze and Foucault | Dr A Ross |
| CLS4200 | Semiotics and Poststructuralism | Assoc Prof Millicent Vladiv-Glover |
| CLS4030 | Poetics | tba |
| CLS4225 | Hermeneutics | Prof Andrew Benjamin |
In addition to these units, students who wish to take a cognate unit from another Honours program in the School of Languages, Cultures or Linguistics, or from another School's Honours programme, can apply to the Honours Co-ordinator for permission to do so. Permission will normally be granted in cases where the unit is relevant to the Honours course the student is undertaking and where the co-ordinator of the unit is willing to accept the student. Some units cannot be taken without appropriate previous study.
Not all units taught for this program are offered by the Centre each year. You will need to choose your units carefully if you are a part-time student, consulting the Director of the Centre to find out which units will be available each year.
Please note that the Centre may not be able to offer all the units listed here, for instance if numbers are low or staff are not available. Please consult carefully with academic staff before choosing your units and be ready to make other choices. Timetable details are not usually fixed until the beginning of the year.
Minor Thesis
Candidates are required to complete a minor thesis (15,000-18,000 words) on an approved topic of their choice.
Three copies of the thesis must be submitted (4 copies are required from students undertaking combined Honours). One copy of the thesis should be submitted in a 2-ring black folder and two copies should be bound (three copies for combined Honours students). Students are also encouraged to submit a copy of their dissertation on CD ROM in PDF format.
Students undertaking a thesis topic in Comparative Literature are normally required to read literary texts in the original language.
Thesis Supervision
Students should see the Director of the Centre or the Honours coordinator, to arrange for a supervisor for their thesis and for assistance in formulating a topic that can be supervised by Centre staff.
There is a list of staff associated with the Centre who are willing to supervise in the areas most often requested by students below. Other members of staff in the Faculty may be approached and if they are willing to supervise you we can arrange for them to be credited with the workload.
Students should meet regularly with their supervisor and are advised to present a detailed outline of the thesis to their supervisor at an early stage of supervision.
Thesis Preparation
The minor thesis will be judged on grounds of preparation as well as content. Quotations must be given accurately, references must be accurate and complete, and the style convention chosen must be followed consistently throughout the thesis. Students should choose a style convention from those generally accepted throughout the degree (eg. Harvard system, MLA). Your supervisor can be consulted for guidance on this matter.
The thesis must be typed in appropriate spacing with adequate margins on A4 size paper. the first page should contain the title of the thesis, the name of the author, the degree for which the work is submitted, the year, and the names of the Centre and the University. Two copies of the thesis are to be submitted of which one copy will be kept by the Centre and the other returned to the student. The thesis should be submitted in spring-back folders or spiral-backed bindings. Programs may grant an extension of time for submission of the honours thesis or for final course work up to the last day of the examination period of the semester in which the work is due. Applications for extensions beyond this date must be made to the Academic Programs Committee.
Admission to Honours
The minimum requirement for admission to fourth-year honours in CLCS is completion of a major sequence in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, or an equivalent programme at another institution, with grades of 70% or above in units to the value of not less than eighteen points at third-year level and an additional twelve points at either second- or third- year level. Students applying for Honours in interdisciplinary areas, such as Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, may qualify for entry if they have completed an approved major in an area cognate with that for which they are applying, and if they have satisfied the other normal entry requirements. Each student's entry to honours must be approved by the Director of the Centre, the CLS Honours Coordinator, the Head of School, or a staff member delegated to represent them. Individual advice will be given to students wishing to enter honours as it is not a suitable course for all students who meet the minimum requirements.