Applications for admission to commence study in Trimester 1, 2014, in the following University of New England history courses are now open:
- Advanced Diploma in Local, Family and Applied History – click here for more
- Bachelor of Historical Inquiry and Practice – click here for more
- Graduate Diploma in Local, Family and Applied History – click here for more
- Master of History – click here for more
All these courses are available by distance education and offer government supported places. Enquiries about Local, Family and Applied History at UNE can be made to:
Academic Coordinator, Local, Family and Applied History
Assoc. Professor Janis Wilton OAM
jwilton[at]une.edu.au
Ph: +61-2-6773 2107
More on studying Local, Family and Applied History at UNE:
Our family, our community, our locality, our region: we shape our sense of who we are partly by the people and places who surround us and with whom we live. Their stories are part of us, and to understand those stories is to understand ourselves and to imagine and explore the links between past, present and future.
The local, family and applied history awards and units taught at UNE offer a varied and stimulating way to engage with different aspects of these past and present lives. They introduce a range of sources, encourage fieldwork, explore different ways of researching and presenting the past, and establish networks among local, family and applied history enthusiasts around Australia.
The teaching of local, family and applied history at UNE has a long and distinguished history beginning with the pioneering work of Dr Lionel Gilbert at the Armidale College of Advanced Education in the early 1980s. This was arguably the first time a tertiary education institution in Australia dared to introduce these popular history areas as part of its teaching and research profile.
Over the years, the content of the courses has evolved as the subject area has encountered new issues, new debates and new methodologies. However, the principles laid down by Lionel Gilbert in the early 1980s are still fundamental. These include:
- Study is done by distance education
- Students draw on their own communities and family histories for many of their assignments.
- Developing skills in oral history, critical reading, good writing, analysing historical sources, interpreting objects, and understanding buildings, cemeteries and landscapes are of central importance
- Local and family histories are placed in the context of wider Australian history and of historical developments throughout the western world
