Historical consciousness and moral consciousness as a joint, or intertwined, concept is relatively new in the history education context of Australia. While it has been used for a longer period in research internationally, it is only in the past decade that is has gained momentum and popularity in the Australian research context. This paper examines doctoral theses submitted to Australian universities since 2000 to map how historical consciousness and moral consciousness is conceptualised in higher education research. As the largest group of researchers in universities, the selection of this concept to analysis how it is conceptualised and operationalised in theses is of interest when mapping its application. From a total of 14 theses that included the terms, two were selected for an in-depth case study that this paper reports on using a critical discourse studies approach.