Women's and Gender Studies

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Summary Chart: This chart contains information about program eligibility, duration, and language prerequisites for the programs described below.

 Australia

Australian National University, Canberra
Courses in women's studies are offered through the Gender, Sexuality, and Culture Program. The program is trans-disciplinary and offers students opportunities to explore the related fields of gender studies and cultural studies, including a strong international and regional component. Both fields draw on new theoretical and methodological developments, including feminist theory, queer theory, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, post-structuralism, and post-modernism. Students may take courses that apply these theories and methodologies to contemporary issues and practices. EAP students can enroll in courses such as:

• Gender in the Humanities: Reading Jane Eyre
• Feminist Film Theory
• Trauma, Memory, and Culture
• Women in Italian Society
• Representation and Gender

University of Melbourne
The Women's Studies Program centers on interdisciplinary study of recent developments in feminist theory and on feminist critiques of existing disciplines. The program is critical of the traditionally Euro-centric perspective of women's studies and emphasizes recent developments in Australian and Asian-Pacific feminist scholarship. Courses integrate a wide range of fields, including anthropology, history, cinema studies, English, French, Islamic studies, linguistics, philosophy, political science, social theory, sociology, and criminology. Example courses include:

• Gender and Islam
• Gender and Politics in Southeast Asia
• Women, Gender, and Crime

University of New South Wales, Sydney
The program in Women’s Studies enables students to enroll in interdisciplinary courses focusing on feminist issues and issues of gender and sexuality. Courses are offered through several departments, including English, history, political science, sociology, social work, and Spanish. Topics include:

• Contemporary Australian Women Writers
• Gender and Frontier
• Women in Southeast Asian Societies
• Aboriginal Women
• Performing Pleasure and Pain: the Case of Frida Kahlo

University of Sydney
The Department of Gender Studies focuses on research and teaching in feminist and cultural studies. The research strengths of the department include philosophy, criminology, cultural history, media, and cultural studies, and ensure a wide base of fields for the study of gender. EAP students can enroll in a range of courses, including:

• Gender, Media, and Popular Culture
• Sex, Violence, and Transgression
• Medicine, Sex, and Gender
• Social Inequality in Australia

University of Western Australia, Perth
The Centre for Women’s Studies offers courses that focus on a wide range of themes, including the history and politics of gender relations; sexualities; the intersections of race, class, and gender; feminist theory; constructions of femininity and masculinity in contemporary culture; the structuring of sexual difference; the body; and work and technology. Drawing on critical feminist scholarship, students examine key issues in the meanings and experiences of gender in societies past, present, and future. All courses are interdisciplinary and enable students to pursue their interests in a variety of historical, cultural, and literary contexts. The Centre also sponsors Communication and Hypertext Links for Online Education, a website with facilities for communication, publications, research links, and news in women’s studies, gender analysis, and feminist scholarship.
 

 Barbados

University of the West Indies, Cave Hill
The Centre for Gender and Development Studies is a dynamic unit that is engaged in a program of teaching, research, and outreach on women's and gender issues in Caribbean society. The Centre uses gender analysis to investigate material and ideological relations of gender affecting Caribbean women and men. It is particularly concerned with exposing and transforming institutionalized gender inequalities for women to create a more just society. The university offers a range of courses in women's and gender studies through the departments of history and language, linguistics, and literature. Most courses are taught from a Caribbean or Afro-Caribbean perspective and provide insight into the unique cultural traditions of Barbados. Courses include:

• Women and Gender in the History of the English-Speaking Caribbean
• Twentieth Century Literary Theory
• Women in Europe Since 1750
• Language, Gender and Society
• Women Writers from Africa and the Caribbean

 Canada

University of British Columbia, Vancouver
The Women's and Gender Studies Program at UBC is housed in the Faculty of Arts. The curriculum is interdisciplinary in approach, with a special focus on women's issues specific to diasporic and Canadian aboriginal cultures. In addition to courses in the Women's and Gender Studies Program, students are encouraged to enroll in related courses in departments of critical studies in sexuality, history, political science, psychology, religious studies, and sociology. UBC also houses the Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations, which sponsors a regular seminar series of international scholars. The Centre works closely with UBC's undergraduate Women's Studies Program and is focused on developing ties with university, governmental, and community institutions in Canada and abroad.

 Chile

University of Chile, Santiago
EAP students may take advantage of a wide range of opportunities in gender studies. The University of Chile's Center for Gender Studies and Culture in Latin America and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Gender sponsor course work, seminars, and research activities focused on Latin American gender studies.

Students may also undertake independent study with one of many local NGOs or research centers dedicated to work on gender issues. Included among these are the Centro de Estudios de la Mujer, the Centro de Estudios para el Desarollo de la Mujer, La Morada, and the Area de Estudios de Género de la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. The program begins with a three-week intensive Spanish language program in Santiago.

Egypt

American University in Cairo
The Institute for Gender and Women's Studies is a multi-purpose, interdisciplinary center that serves scholars, activists, and policy makers interested in gender and women's studies in the Arab world, the Southern Mediterranean, Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, and Africa. Course work and related research activities expose students to important alternative visions of women and gender. The primary function of the Institute is to serve as a resource nexus for research projects, educational programs, conferences, workshops, seminars, and policy debates on gender and women's issues. EAP students can enroll in related courses, participate in the institute's film series, and attend regular seminars given by visiting scholars.

Courses at AUC include:

• Kinship, Family, Marriage
• Gender and Literature
• Women, Islam, and the State
• Women and Human Rights in the Middle East

Courses are taught in English and Arabic language study is required each term.

Germany

Humboldt University, Berlin
Humboldt's broadly-based program in gender studies for advanced UC undergraduates and graduate students offers course work in two tracks: Gender Relations in Work, Politics, Education, Law, and Medicine; and Gender Constructs and Images. Courses are interdisciplinary and are taught in German. The curriculum incorporates a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including political science, theology, history, European ethnology, American studies, art history, science, medicine, and law. Course offerings in the past have included:

• Homosexuality in the Twentieth Century
• History of Feminist Film Theory
• Cyberfeminists Between Culture and Technology
• Crises of Masculinity
• The Female Intellectual
• The Male Myth: Themes, Roles, and Rituals in Literature after 1800

To qualify, advanced undergraduate students should have two years of university-level German, plus at least one upper-division course in gender studies. Graduate students must be proficient in German and follow an academic plan agreed upon by their UC graduate department. The program includes a six-week intensive German language program (optional for graduate students).  

Hong Kong

Chinese University of Hong Kong
The inter-departmental Gender Studies Programme draws on courses in the departments of anthropology, English, history, modern languages, religious studies, sociology, and others, and offers undergraduate minors and graduate degrees in women's studies and gender studies. In cooperation with the Gender Research Centre, the program hosts a monthly seminar for presentations by international and local scholars working on gender-related issues. A few of the courses offered are:

• Gender in Asia
• Media, Sex, and Violence
• Sexuality and Culture
• Women, Family, and Community
• Women and Religion in Colonial India
• Gender, Law, and Politics
• Body Politics in Literature and Representational Culture
• Women, Religion, and Chinese Literature
• Love and Sexuality in Intercultural Studies

The majority of the courses are taught in Chinese (either Cantonese or Putonghua).

University of Hong Kong
Although the university does not have a women's or gender studies department, a broad range of courses are available through the departments of English, sociology, history, American studies, fine arts, political science, and social work. Courses offered include:

• Women and Politics
• Women, Feminism, and Writing
• Language and Gender
• Twentieth Century American Women's Writing
• Gender and History
• Case Studies in Women's History:
• Hong Kong and the U.S.
• Gender and Crime
• Gender and Society
• Gender in Chinese Societies
• Art and the Portrayal of Women

India

University of Hyderabad
Indian scholars traditionally have been at the forefront of feminist inquiry and research. The University of Hyderabad offers interdisciplinary courses on gender-related issues through the departments of literature, history, performing arts, and philosophy. Courses re-examine Western gender theory within the context of Indian indigenous cultures. In addition to course work, opportunities exist for internships and independent study with local women's groups and NGOs.

A four-week intensive Hindi (or Telegu) language program in the foothills of the Himalayas precedes the fall semester. Hindi/Telegu language study is also required during the fall term.

 Netherlands

Utrecht University
The Netherlands has been at the forefront of resolving women's and gender issues in today's world. At Utrecht University, students may select from courses in gender and ethnicity, historiography of feminism, the politics of representation, and many other areas of study. Although most courses are taught in Dutch, English offerings are increasing. The program begins with a three-week language and culture course prior to the regular semester.

New Zealand

EAP’s New Zealand programs are year-long. The academic year runs from February through late November.

• Women of the Pacific Basin
• Gender and Colonialism in the Pacific
• Gender Relations in Twentieth Century New Zealand
• Feminist Perspectives in Education

Victoria University of Wellington
The Gender and Women's Studies Program focuses on themes such as the development of feminist thought; the politics of difference; sexuality studies; representations of women through language, literature, and the visual arts; and feminist analyses of economic and social policy. The department is committed to including Maori content and analyses in all of its courses. Courses do not examine women's issues in isolation nor study women as objects, but seek to make students active in the construction of knowledge relevant to the experience of being female or male. Course offerings include:

• Women's History in New Zealand
• Issues in Feminist Film Studies
• Religion and Gender
• Women, Crime, and Social Control

South Africa

University of Cape Town
The African Gender Institute was established within the Humanities Faculty as a resource to promote social justice through research, outreach, and education. The program offers EAP students the opportunity to explore the way gender can be used as a tool of social analysis in a range of fields, including contemporary politics, law, media and literary studies; comparative anthropologies; psychology; and development studies. Students are challenged to consider alternate, non-Western perspectives of gender. Many courses address topics specific to South Africa and the African continent. Among the courses EAP students can choose from are:

• Gender and Development
• Theories, Politics, and Action
• Politics of Gendered Knowledge
• Women in Religion
• Women and Gender in Southern Africa
• Sex, from Sappho to Cyber

University of KwaZulu-Natal
The postgraduate Honours-Masters program in Gender Studies (School of Anthropology, Gender, and Historical Studies), at the Howard College-Durban campus offers courses with an interdisciplinary approach to current debates on gender. The courses focus on how gender is theorized as a concept, how it operates in the lives of individuals, and how it functions as a social practice via institutional and cultural technologies. Courses include:

• Introduction to Gender Studies
• Gender, Politics, and Theory
• Gender, Education and School Violence
• Gender and Health
• Gender and Language
• Gender and Media
• Genders, Sexualities, Cultures, and Histories
  

Spain

University of Barcelona
In Barcelona EAP students can take advantage of a broad range of courses taught in Catalán. Women's and gender studies are taught from a variety of perspectives and are offered through the departments of anthropology, economics, history, philology, psychology, and sociology. Courses include:

• Gender Relations in Latin American Societies
• Anthropology of Gender
• Historic Identities and Trajectories of Women
• Gender and Film in the United States
• Psychological Differences of Sex and Gender
• Sociology of Sexuality

The program begins with a four-week intensive Spanish language program.

Sweden

Lund University
The Centre for Gender Studies offers interdisciplinary undergraduate courses on current issues within women's and gender studies and research for groups outside the university. Courses are normally taught in Swedish, but can be taught in English (based on the needs of students enrolled in the course). Course work is especially focused on direct application of theory to practice, and students have opportunities for community observation and other practical learning exercises.

Courses focus on the following issues:

• central theories and concepts in women's and gender studies
• women's societal conditions in Sweden and internationally
• social and cultural construction of masculine/feminine identities
• women and discourses on women in Western history
• gender perspectives on technology and society
• critical perspectives on the natural sciences

Sample courses include:

• Gender, Social Change, and Modernity in Sweden
• Scandinavian Models of Equality: Gender, Class, Ethnicity, and the Social Welfare State
• New Technologies, Scientific Debates, and Gender Relations

EAP offers a summer intensive Swedish language program that is recommended for participants in the fall program and required for those in the year program. Swedish language study is required during the fall for full-year students.

United Kingdom/Ireland

University of Sussex, Brighton
Through the School of Social Sciences EAP students can enroll in courses that are offered as part of the Gender Studies pathway at the Centre for Gender Studies. This pathway looks at issues of gender from the perspectives of sociology, psychology, history, anthropology, and politics. Supplemental courses are available through the School of African and Asian Studies, and the departments of Anthropology, American Studies, History, and International Relations. Course offerings include:

• Sex and Gender
• Perspectives on Gender
• Theorizing Gender
• Gender Through the Lifespan
• Gender and International Relations
• Kinship, Gender, and Social Reproduction
• Gender Relations and Agrarian Change
• Gender and Recent American Writing
• Justice and Gender in Europe and the Atlantic

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