These issues based Core Studies courses form the compulsory disciplinary core to the Master of Asia-Pacific Studies. The core courses will be thematic and methodological in character and will provide the essential disciplinary focus for students progressing to language and elective options centred on the cultural, social, historical and language context in analysing current issues.

Students will benefit from research-led teaching, drawing on the skills and experience of lecturers and researchers from the Asia-Pacific graduate studies field across the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific in the Faculty of Asian Studies, the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Crawford School of Economics and Government, and other relevant areas in the University. It will be important for students to be cognisant of original language sources supporting their studies.

The study of Asia is known to be challenging. Australians who study their own society already have a wide general knowledge of their subject, which is often not the case when they study Asia and the Pacific. Similarly, someone who grew up in one Asian country may lack general knowledge of other Asian or Pacific countries, given the great diversity of the region. An aim of the core coursework is to provide contextual knowledge and background. However, general knowledge by itself is not enough. It is also necessary to have a good understanding of different methodologies that are useful in the study of Asia and the Pacific. Fortunately, the ANU's unique concentration of Asia-Pacific specialists working on an extremely wide geographic area from very varied disciplinary perspectives enables the Faculty to equip students to meet the varied challenges the future will bring. The Core Coursework does this by examining four themes - Religion, Nationalism, Popular Culture, and History - through a number of Asia and Pacific case studies. Some of the case studies will be relevant to one particular Asian or Pacific country or region (such as the forest fires, the fall of Suharto, Fijian coups, the Tiananmen massacre); others will be relevant to Asia or the Pacific more generally (such as economic booms and crises); and still others will be relevant not just to Asia but to the world (epidemics such as SARS, globalised media, the drug trade and so on).

 In this course, students will acquire
 
- broader knowledge of the modern history and politics of the Asia-Pacific
- improved capacity to analyze complex bodies of material
- experience in presenting concise, convincing written argument
- opportunity to hone skills of oral presentation to groups
- increased ability to participate successfully in team-based projects

Seminar Presentation and Report and Discussant Input (40%); 4000 word Essay (60%)

It should be noted that students intending to proceed to the MAS or MA(AS) degrees should achieve 70% or more when marks for all the courses are added together and the average calculated. It is also expected that you would have achieved 70% or more when marks for the core non-language courses are averaged.

- one 3-hour seminar per week
- 5-6 hours of pre-class reading or other preparation

Meet entry requirement for the MAPS, or consent of PA or delegate.

Delivery Mode:

On Campus