UWA Handbook 2024

Major Overview

Description

The Gender Studies major traces histories, theories, and experiences of gender and its intersections with race, class and sexuality. It explores the everyday practices, institutions, and cultural texts of students' gendered lives and investigates the social and cultural legacies that inform contemporary lived experience. The major is grounded in interdisciplinary methodologies and equips students with the analytical, communication, and advocacy skills to foster equity, diversity and inclusion in any context. Gender Studies also emphasizes skills in collaboration, teamwork, leadership, group dynamics, and literacy in screen, print and digital cultures.

Outcomes

Students are able to:

1. demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of feminist thought, its key shifts, major theorists and philosophical movements including queer theory and masculinity studies as emergent branches
2. articulate the complexities of gender as a socially constructed practice that is situated in time and place, and intersects with other subject positions like race, class, religion, and sexuality
3. contextualise the history of women's liberation as a social movement, its links to feminist activism and other social justice movements, and the continuing relevance of linking theory to practice
4. use feminist methods of research, writing, and thinking about gender including reflexively creating, situating, and queering knowledge
5. communicate effective arguments using concepts such as gender, sexuality, ideology, subjectivity, corporeality, agency, and intersectionality
6. deploy communicative strategies that model and facilitate respect for others, social inclusion, and constructive dialogue.

Broadening guidelines

All students studying towards a Bachelor's Degree at UWA are required to Broaden their studies by completing a minimum of four units (24 points) of study outside their degree specific major. Broadening is your opportunity to explore other areas of interest, investigate new disciplines and knowledge paradigms and to shape your degree to suit your own aspirations and interests. Many of you will be able to undertake more than this minimum amount of broadening study and we encourage you to do so if this suits your aspirations. Over the next few months you will find here some broadening suggestions related to your degree-specific major. While we know that many students value guidance of this sort, these are only suggestions and students should not lose sight of the opportunity to explore that is afforded by your Broadening Choices. Advice can also be sought from your Allocated Student Advising Office.
Suggested Minors to broaden you study area, are:
(1) MNR-WHLTH Women's Health
(2) MNR-CITZN Active Citizenship
(3) MNR-ETHIC Applied Ethics
(4) MNR-BIOAN Biological Anthropology
(5) MNR-BRBEH Brain and Behaviour
(6) MNR-MEHUM Environmental Humanities
(7) MNR-SCCOM Science Communication
Suggested units to broaden your study area, are:
(1) MUSC1351 Women in Music
(2) INDG1150 Aboriginal Encounters: Strangers in our Backyard
(3) INDG1160 Boodjar Moort Katitjin: Introduction to Indigenous Heritage and Knowledge

Courses

Gender Studies can be taken as a degree-specific major in the following degree courses:

• BP001 Bachelor of Arts
• BH005 Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours)

Units