Please note that the registration period is limited. See the box under 'Application and Registration' for the exact registration dates of the minor and courses.
“I think of feminism as poetry; we hear histories in words; we reassemble histories by putting them into words.”
Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life (2017)
Come and join one of the largest gender studies groups in Europe!
Content
How do gender, ethnicity, race, religion, class, sexuality, ability and age impact representation and identity formation? How do structures of social power relations shape our globalized and mediatized world? What measures can be taken to prevent discrimination and promote emancipation? And how can academics, artists, activists, popular culture, and policy-makers respond to these pressing challenges?
Gender studies, a contemporary interdisciplinary field encompassing women’s and feminist studies, critically examines ways in which gender, ethnicity/race, sexuality, religion, ability, and class intersect and are constructed within popular culture, art, literature and digital media. This important minor offers the chance to learn about historical and contemporary feminist movements and about the forces both gender and ethnicity/race currently exert in society.
Goal
By providing essential gender studies concepts and methodologies – as employed in the humanities – this minor further offers you a critical perspective on social, cultural and power relations within contemporary society.
The minor aims to:
- familiarize students with traditions of modern feminist thought and point out issues that are central to feminist theory;
- train students to practice a new, critical way of looking at cultural practices that contest and reconstruct new and old identities;
- provide students with a map of contemporary feminist approaches to issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity/race and religious practices in a European context;
- teach students to mobilize gender and intersectionality as key concepts while looking at various cultural practices in the visual and technological field: film, photography, the Internet, mass media, art, as well as social performances of memory, citizenship and nationalism.
Knowledge and theoretical skills gained equip students with valuable tools for future professions in – for example, yet not limited to – education, campaigning and activism, journalism, NGO’s, policy-making, and the creative & cultural sectors.
Preparation for a Master's programme
The minor Gender Studies contributes to the requirements of 30 EC of Gender Studies and/or Postcolonial Studies courses for the 1 year master’s programme Gender Studies and to the requirements of 45 EC of Gender Studies and/or Postcolonial Studies courses the 2-year Research Master Gender Studies (Research). This minor is also a good preparation for:
- Arts and Society
- Media, Art and Performance Studies
- New Media & Digital Culture (depending on research interest)
- Comparative Literary Studies
Minor Coordinator
The lecturers
The minor Gender Studies is taught by staff from the Graduate Gender Programme (GGeP), GGeP is a national and international centre for research, PhD training, academic teaching and political engagement, which has a long-standing reputation and is one of the largest Gender Studies groups in Europe. GGeP lecturers combine various disciplinary backgrounds including media, cultural, literary & visual studies; philosophy, anthropology; and science and technology studies. Staff members have solid grounding in relevant theories and debates and offer research-led teaching. Our lecturers are also from different generations and as such encourage intergenerational relations and thinking.
Our students
The minor suits a wide-arrange of students from the humanities, social sciences and biomedical sciences with an interest in gendered, ethnicized/racialized, sexualized, religious and classed power relations in society, and their effects on daily life, academic knowledge production, and cultural practices. For example, the minor programme has attracted Media & Culture, Language & Culture, Communication & Information Studies, (Art) History, Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology students. The minor is taught in English and it welcomes exchange students. Staff encourages students from various backgrounds to collaborate in assignments, papers and presentations. We value innovation and we use evaluations from students to improve our courses continually.
Study programme
The minor Gender Studies consists of four compulsory courses (30 EC). The courses include lectures, seminars readings, film and documentary screenings, museum visits, individual and group presentations and assignments include essays and book reviews. The courses aim to be interactive and students are encouraged to raise questions, promote debate, offer criticisms and contribute to the course contents. Preference to start in period 1, but possible to start in any period.