Performance Studies
UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR
A Performance Studies major considers the whole extended field of aesthetic, social and everyday performances across a range of cultural and historical contexts: from practices that we might readily recognise as theatre, dance, popular music, hybrid and/or contemporary performance through to the performative dimensions of rituals, festivals, sport, legal processes, protest actions and other kinds of activity.
This is a highly interdisciplinary program, drawing on anthropology, history, dance and movement studies among other influences. In various ways, all our units of study seek to explain the phenomenon of performance as a complex, collaborative endeavour, involving performers and audiences alike in the production of meaning, feelings, a view of the world as it is and as it might otherwise be.
Study plan
The Department of Performance Studies does not offer any junior units of study. Instead, students wishing to enrol in senior Performance Studies units need to complete at least 18 junior credit points in no more than two subject areas, including 12 junior credit points from Table A. In most cases, this simply means prospective students will have done two semesters' worth of study in at least one subject area located in the Arts Faculty.
Graduate opportunities
Sydney Arts and Social Sciences graduates work in government departments at all levels, and major private sector consultancies and corporations, locally and overseas. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers a range of subject areas that prepare graduates for careers in administration, education, business research, marketing, media, management consultancy, public relations, gallery and museum curatorship, hospitality and tourism, community and welfare. Our graduates are proficient in research and inquiry, and demonstrate personal and intellectual autonomy, and ethical, social and professional understanding, qualities sought after by leading employers all over the world.
Further study for major
Eligible candidates may proceed to an Honours year in the Bachelor of Arts, or apply for admission to a rich postgraduate program in the humanities and social sciences, comprising advanced learning and professional courses. Master degrees include capstone projects ranging from internships with government and non-government organisations in Australia and overseas, the gallery and museum sector, and leading media organisations, to opportunities for independent research projects which prepare students for higher degrees by research.
Related subject areas
Anthropology, History, Music