UWS's Centre for Cultural Research creates Australia's first professional doctorate in cultural research
22 September 2005
A new doctorate being offered by the University of Western Sydney will make the late Donald Horne proud - and give the likes of Barry Humphries a run for his money.
In what is considered to be a national first, the University's Centre for Cultural Research is offering a professional doctorate in cultural research, aimed at professionals in government, business and community sectors who want to explore how culture shapes and transforms contemporary societies.
Professor Bob Hodge, who will direct the program, says the unique doctorate has pioneered a new alliance between industry and academia around the theme of 'culture'.
"ABS Census data shows the number of people employed in cultural industries is growing across Australia," he says.
"Culture is much broader than the arts: it includes all the patterns,
values and meanings that make up a way of life. Culture is a vantage point for all the most intractable problems of modern life."
The doctorate will appeal to people who work in areas that deal with
cultural diversity and community relations; urban development and planning; art, culture and heritage; creativity and innovation; cultural impacts of technology and globalisation; and the culture of organisational change.
Doctoral candidates must have professional experience, preferably at a middle or senior level. The course is three years full-time, six years part-time.
Professor Hodge says candidates will build up a portfolio of four
practice-based projects, each of interest to industry.
"Each will be translated into an industry report and a publishable article, meeting the different needs of academia and industry; bridging the two worlds, helping to make Australia a clever country."
Those taking up the doctorate have a broad canvas on which to paint their research.
"Some candidates may want to look at the culture of their own work place," says Professor Hodge.
"Others will take on real-life problems marked by diversity and complexity, and come up with new kinds of solution, and a deeper understanding.
"People and problems can come from a wide range of industries, including arts and tourism, communications, health and transport."
He says employers will benefit from the up-skilling of their best and most creative people, and will reap the benefits of high-quality research focused on some of their industry's most fundamental problems.
"UWS hopes that employers will see the huge value of sponsoring a professional doctorate," says Professor Hodge.
Professor Bob Hodge, Cambridge educated, is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has an international reputation, and is widely published in semiotics and cultural theory.
