Explore our Gender and International Development taught Master's degree.

P-M9P7 full-time

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

30 September 2024

Sociology

University of Warwick

Question the concepts surrounding gender and international development with this global, cutting edge MA. Offered by Warwick's Sociology Department, you will be able to choose from a wide range of specialist modules, looking at how gender intersects with other differences, including sexuality, race and social class.

If you are interested in questioning the concepts of gender and development, and giving priority to issues and debates identified within specific countries – rather than relying on predominantly western literature – then this is the programme for you. It is an international, interdisciplinary and analytical course. It does not assume that development is about the ‘third world’ modelling itself on the west, nor about women modelling themselves on men.

Skills from this degree

• Ability to analyse and evaluate development policy
• Ability to analyse and evaluate development practices
• Ability to analyse gendered effects of development policy and practice
• Ability to carry out independent research
• Ability to understand and assess claims to knowledge made by a range of relevant disciplines
• Ability to write about complex ideas in a clear way

Each of our MA courses has specified core modules which will be studied alongside a range of optional modules. You will be required to choose four optional modules from our departmental list. All our MA courses follow a consistent structure meaning that you will follow a programme of taught modules, followed by a 15,000-word dissertation.

Class sizes can range from 6 to 30 students, dependent on each module.

Each module consists of at least 20 hours of teaching. Many modules are taught in 2-hour seminars of 10-15 students. Others follow a 1-hour lecture and 1 hour class format. You will also have a supervisor for your dissertation, who you will meet regularly to support this independent research project.

Taught modules are assessed through written assignments. You will focus on your 15-000 word dissertation after the end of Spring Term.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

Read our department advice on applying to ensure your application has the best chance for success.

Gender, Analysis and Development Practice

This module will give experience in applying different concepts and theoretical perspectives to practical issues and problems in gender and development, as a means of learning how to undertake rigorous analysis. It will include focused sessions on the research literatures, followed by group work analysing case studies from different regions of the globe. The specific case studies used illustrate current debates in the literature and address key issues in contemporary development practice.

Gender, Imperialism and International Development

This module fosters comprehensive, critical and advanced knowledge of theoretical approaches to gender and development. It starts by locating gender and development within a history of colonialism, imperialism and orientalism, asking how gender relations have shaped and been shaped by colonialism; how contemporary forms of western imperialism invoke ideas about gender; and how far western feminism has been able to resist orientalist ideas about a ‘modern’ west and a ‘backward’ east. Then it looks critically at some of the measures of gendered development today, including the GDI, GEM, Millennium Development Goals and the replacement Sustainable Development Goals.

Dissertation (Year One full-time and Year Two part-time)

The dissertation module gives you the opportunity to complete an independent piece of research on a topic of your own choice with the support of your dissertation supervisor, plenary teaching, and other online resources. The aim is for you to creatively use the substantive and methodological training acquired in the earlier part of your course to critically analyse a research topic of sociological relevance.

Optional modules

You can take four optional modules, at least one from List (A) and one from List (B). Further modules can be taken from any list but no more than one outside option can normally be taken, from the list of Recommended Outside Options (List D) or, by agreement with the Course Convenor, one module offered by another Department or Centre within the Faculty of Social Sciences.

List A

• Market Life: Wealth and Poverty in Global Capitalism
• Social Research for Social Change
• The Sociology of Urban Life
• Postcolonial Theory and Politics
• Transnational Media Ecologies
• Feminist Pedagogy Feminist Activism
• Queering Sociology
• Indigenous and Global South Feminisms
• Feminist Theory and Epistemology
• Feminist and Queer Thinking: Contemporary Challenges

List B

• Qualitative Methods in Social Research
• Quantitative Methods in Social Research
• Understanding Social Science
• Researching Inequality: Race, Class, Gender in Global Perspective

List C

• Politics and Social Theory
• Capitalism, State and Market
• State of the Art of Sociology
• Sociology of End Times
• Prisons, Punishment and Penal Policy: A Comparative Perspective
• Mastering Complex Real-World Data

List D

• Women’s Human Rights and Global Justice

Read more about our core and optional modules on the Sociology website.Link opens in a new window

You can take four optional modules, at least one from List (A) and one from List (B). Further modules can be taken from any list but no more than one outside option can normally be taken, from the list of Recommended Outside Options (List D) or, by agreement with the Course Convenor, one module offered by another Department or Centre within the Faculty of Social Sciences. 

List A 

• Market Life: Wealth and Poverty in Global Capitalism 
• Social Research for Social Change 
• The Sociology of Urban Life 
• Postcolonial Theory and Politics 
• Transnational Media Ecologies 

• Feminist Pedagogy Feminist Activism 
• Queering Sociology 
• Indigenous and Global South Feminisms 

List B 

• Qualitative Methods in Social Research 

• Quantitative Methods in Social Research 
• Understanding Social Science 
• Researching Inequality: Race, Class, Gender in Global Perspective 

List C 

• Politics and Social Theory 

• Capitalism, State and Market 
• State of the Art of Sociology 
• Sociology of End Times 
• Prisons, Punishment and Penal Policy: A Comparative Perspective 
• Mastering Complex Real-World Data 

List D 

• Women’s Human Rights and Global Justice 

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