Explore our Gender and Sexuality taught Master's degree.

P-L30J

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

30 September 2024

Sociology

University of Warwick

Our MA in Gender and Sexuality enables you to gain confidence and critical literacy in feminist, queer and trans knowledge production, theories, epistemologies and methodologies. Drawing expertise from across the University, this programme employs innovative learning and assessment approaches inspired by feminist and queer pedagogies.

This inclusive, interdisciplinary, and intersectional MA in Gender and Sexuality enables you to gain confidence and critical literacy in feminist, queer and trans knowledge production, theories, epistemologies and methodologies. The programme draws on expertise from across the University and uses innovative learning and assessment approaches inspired by feminist and queer pedagogies. As co-producers of knowledge, students on this MA are encouraged and supported to participate actively in the research life of the Department of Sociology and the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender.

Skills from this degree

You will be encouraged and supported to go beyond familiar histories of gender and sexuality studies. You will be invited to think about the field in new ways, exploring interdisciplinary and intersectional connections and complexities of contemporary gendered lives. This will help you engage intellectually, practically, and ethically with the complex, contested and ever-changing landscape of gender and sexuality across the world.

Upon completion of the course, you will:

• Demonstrate in-depth specialist knowledge of concepts and theories relevant to the study of gender and sexuality;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of topics and methods applicable to your area of specific interest within the study of gender and sexuality;
• Develop professional and collaborative relationships with others;
• Formulate ideas and hypotheses and develop means through which to evaluate these;
• Evaluate critically current issues and research in the study of gender and sexuality.

Each of our MA courses has specified core modules which will be studied alongside a range of optional modules. 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 essays and other types of assignment. 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 departmental advice on applying to ensure your application has the best chance for success.

Required Core Modules

Feminist and Queer Thinking: Contemporary Challenges

This module engages with challenges for feminist and queer knowledge production that are emerging at present, across various contexts. It considers both challenges within knowledge production itself (e.g., methodological/ethical challenges when conducting research; the challenges to our thinking posed by new feminist and queer theories/turns) and challenges that feminist and queer scholars are facing more broadly (e.g., challenges posed by anti-gender mobilisations, or other social and political developments). As it engages with each challenge, the module connects theory, ethics and praxis, inviting you to reflect on the intellectual context of the challenge, consider the ethical implications of it, and workshop practical strategies to engage with it. This team-taught module draws on the diverse research expertise of academics affiliated with Centre for the Study of Women and Gender.

Feminist Theories and Epistemologies: Debates and Dilemmas

This module introduces debates in feminist theories and epistemologies. It is different from conventional modules on theory and epistemology, which often cover ‘key authors’ or theories chronologically. As we will see, one crucial intervention that feminist scholars have made has been precisely to question this approach to understanding theory. Instead, we will zoom in on debates and dilemmas that have challenged feminist scholarship and we will examine their complexities and contradictions. In this way, we will involve students in the active process of thinking through feminist debates and dilemmas, framing the classroom as a space of collective knowledge production, rather than passive learning of the history of problems already theorised and resolved by others. This team-taught module draws on the diverse research expertise of academics affiliated with Centre for the Study of Women and Gender.

One module on Research Methods

You will take at least one module in research methods. You can choose one (or more) from the following list:

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

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. 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 relevance to gender and sexuality studies.

• Gender, Imperialism and International Development
• Gender Analysis and Development Practice
• Feminist Pedagogy/Feminist Activism
• Queering Sociology
• Indigenous and Global South Feminisms
• Social Data Science
• Market Life: Wealth and Poverty in Global Capitalism
• Social Research for Social Change
• Postcolonial Theory and Practice
• Transnational Media Ecologies
• Key Problems in Criminal Justice
• Creative Research Methods
• Ethnography and the Anthropological Tradition
• Sociology of End Times
• Politics and Social Theory
• Capitalism, State and Market
• State of the Art of Sociology
• The Sociology of Work
• Religion and the Planetary Crises

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