Course details

Summary

In Cultural Studies, ‘culture' is understood very broadly, but with a strong emphasis on local everyday life. Cultural Studies does not follow traditional distinctions between ‘high' and ‘low' culture; a Lorde music video becomes a significant cultural text alongside, say, a classical opera.

Cultural Studies analyses many popular cultural forms: film and television, comics and graphic novels, advertising, art, new media, music, fashion, sport and leisure to name just a few. These domains are shown to be extremely powerful political forces in shaping our societies and our identities.

The contemporary theories of culture view it as something dynamic, living and changeable. This leads to questions of how culture is produced, how we interpret culture, how culture can be preserved or destroyed, and how do new commodity models, communications and information technology and globalisation affect our culture?

PGCertArts students will be introduced to sophisticated subject matter and develop skills in the critical evaluation of academic literature in their discipline or area of specialisation. They will also foster high-level skills in critical thinking, problem solving, and communication.

The programme specialises in four strands or pathways of study:

• gender and sexuality
• Aotearoa New Zealand studies
• popular and visual culture
• human-animal studies.

Qualification structure and duration

To qualify for the Postgraduate Certificate in Arts, a student must complete at least 60 points from taught courses, as approved by the Head of Department and the Dean of Arts.

This certificate takes six months full-time or 12 months part-time to complete.

Further study

Subject to the approval of the Dean of Arts, a student may transfer courses passed with a B grade or higher for the Postgraduate Certificate in Arts to:

the Postgraduate Diploma in Arts

the Bachelor of Arts with Honours

the coursework section of a master's degree (there are a number of taught master's operated by the College of Arts)

Career opportunities

You can construct a degree that is quite generalised (perhaps suited for a teaching career) or relatively specialised (eg, film and media; sexuality and gender; places, spaces and technologies; bicultural studies; cultural identity and politics; environmentalism and human-animal studies).

Cultural Studies leads to careers in fields where a wide analytic grasp of contemporary culture is required eg, the media industries, journalism, publishing, writing, website design, advertising, museology, public relations, teaching and education, advocacy, policy analysis and arts management.

Because of the breadth and flexibility of a graduate's understanding of culture, they are also able to move among such fields easily.

Entry criteria

Candidates must have qualified for a Bachelor of Arts or an equivalent degree and satisfied the prerequisites for the subject concerned. Prerequisites vary between departments, but normally good grades in 300-level courses in that subject are required.

Other English language requirements: TOEFL PBT with a minimum score of 575 and TWE with a minimum score of 4.5; CCEL EAP Level 2 with a minimum B+ grade; CAE or CPE score of 176 with a minimum of 169 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE with an overall score of 64 and no PTE communicative skills score below 58.