School of Humanities

Being human is an amazing journey

The study of humanities equips you to ask and answer the big questions, challenging you to explore where we came from, who we are and where we’re going.

Human experience is made meaningful through culture, language, literature, history and philosophy. Enrich your whole life by gaining a deep understanding of these threads that tie us all together.

Exploring the humanities provides you with the skills to power lifelong career success in any field, with enduring skills in critical thinking, communicating and influencing.

Our disciplines

Classics and Ancient History

This covers the study of Latin and Ancient Greek, as well as the literature, history, art and archaeology of these ancient civilisations, and their contributions to the modern world.

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English and Literary Studies

Studying English and Literary Studies enriches our understanding of major literary, cinematic and theatrical traditions across the globe.

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European Languages and Cultures

We study languages and cultures of Europe: French, German, Italian and Spanish, and look at social and cultural aspects of contemporary Europe.

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Environmental Humanities

Understanding the human dimensions of environmental crisis.

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History

History is the study of the past and its legacies in the present.

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Philosophy

Philosophy involves thinking about some of the big questions we ask in our lifetime.

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Translation Studies

Translation Studies explores a multitude of areas including cognitive translation studies, machine translation and cultural translation studies.

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Gender Studies

Gender is an everyday and embodied experience that shapes our public and private lives.

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Become a bilingual citizen of the world at the largest language hub in WA

With four European, four Asian and two Classical languages on offer, UWA is the leading institution in WA for language learning.
Immerse yourself in another language. Learn to see the world in a new way. Move between cultures with ease.

Access UWA Language Hub

Welcome from the Head of School Alexandra Ludewig

Hear about our courses

 

Bachelor of Human Rights

The Bachelor of Human Rights is a unique, interdisciplinary program of study that equips you with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage with real-world issues in human rights. Hear about hands-on learning, practical experience and what you can expect to prepare you for a career in a range of areas.

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Bachelor of Modern Languages

The Bachelor of Modern Languages enables students with a particular interest in world languages and cultures to study two languages in depth. Choose from Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. 

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Our courses 

School of Humanities - Alumni

Caitlyn Stone

JK (Jerald Justin Ko)

Julia Waite

Kasia McNaught

Sarah Elliott

Award-winning teaching

Our staff are consistently acknowledged as the best teachers at UWA. Our award-winning lecturers have been recognised, both nationally and at UWA in the Student Guild’s Student Choice Awards, for their innovative approaches to teaching and supervision. This is backed by membership of some of the world’s most learned academies and a host of international honours.

 

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Scholar of the Month

Scholars of the Month
Hamish Russell

September Scholar of the month | Hamish Russell

Hamish has joined the School of Humanities this semester in a teaching-intensive position. He’s from Aotearoa/New Zealand but he’s just spent a decade in Toronto, Canada, where he completed his PhD in philosophy and then worked as a lecturer. Hamish is teaching for the school’s interdisciplinary degrees in Human Rights and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). He’s very happy about this fit, since he found his way into philosophy via a PPE program.

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Dara Acosta Vizcaino 

July Scholar of the month | Dara Acosta Vizcaino

A lifelong enthusiast of languages, Dara is deeply passionate about understanding societies and cultures through the lens of their linguistic expressions. Initially, she intended to focus her postgraduate studies on Phonetics, including etymology and dialectology. However, she soon discovered a profound interest in sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, and psycholinguistics, prompting her to revise her thesis and shift her research focus.

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 Chris Letheby 

June Scholar of the month | Chris Letheby

Chris Letheby is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science with a long-standing interest in the nature and significance of mystical and spiritual experience. His research to date has focused mainly on a single, endlessly fascinating case study: transformative experiences induced by psychedelic drugs.

Chris teaches a range of units at UWA, from formal logic and first-year “intro to philosophy” to philosophy of mind and philosophy of artificial intelligence.

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Kate Averis 
May Scholar of the month | Kate Averis

Kate Averis has joined UWA recently as Lecturer in European Languages after having taught at universities in the UK, France and Colombia.

Kate's research spans Spanish and French studies, literary studies and gender studies. She researches literary texts written in and between Spanish, French and English that disrupt conventional understandings of regional and national literary systems by disturbing the monolingual pact between language, nation and culture. Kate studies these effects in contemporary women’s writing, which provides a particularly rich terrain for observing the disruptive crossing of boundaries, whether linguistic, literary, spatial, social, gendered, racialised, or other.

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Centres and Journals 

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Contact

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Location

UWA Arts Building, Hackett Entrance No 1

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Access

Weekdays 8.00am to 4.00pm