Major - Women's and Gender Studies

To be read in conjunction with the program of study requirements for the degree in which you are enrolled:

A student may complete a major sequence of 36 units in Women's and Gender Studies by completing two Year 1 topics (9 units), three Year 2 topics (13.5 units) and three Year 3 topics (13.5 units) selected from the topics listed in the program of study below.

A student may complete a minor sequence of 18 units in Women's and Gender Studies by completing two Year 1 topics (9 units), one Year 2 topic (4.5 units) plus an additional topic (4.5 units) from the Year 2 or Year 3 topics listed in the program of study below.

A minor in Women's and Gender Studies is not available to students who commenced the Bachelor of Education (Primary), Bachelor of Arts from 1 January 2019.

The minor sequence is not available to students who commenced the Bachelor of Arts, Master of Teaching (Primary) from 1 January 2020

Course aims
Learning outcomes
Program of study
Honours

Course aims

Women's and Gender Studies aims to educate students in the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills required to analyse gender and related categories of difference from a critical feminist perspective. It prepares students to identify and challenge injustice and those social and cultural norms which create exploitative power relations based on gender and/or other differences. It aims to foster self-reflexive and ethical approaches to all areas of life. Students will broaden their knowledge of gender issues in their local and international communities.

Women's and Gender Studies educates students in the use of a critical conceptual vocabulary that facilitates creative thinking about gender and encourages students to think about potential solutions to the problems raised by contemporary gender relations. It aims to develop students' capacity for thinking and communicating critically, creatively and autonomously by encouraging open communication and by the use of both independent and collaborative assessment tasks.

Learning outcomes

At the completion of the major students are expected to be able to:

demonstrate a familiarity with the basic concepts and vocabulary of the interdisciplinary area of Women's and Gender Studies,
demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the social, political and cultural workings of gender and its interrelation with other differences
apply Women's and Gender Studies frameworks and feminist theories to a diverse range of key areas of investigation
demonstrate a critical appreciation of their own social and cultural position with respect to gender and related differences
act with an enhanced ethical sense in relation to power relations based on gender and other differences
demonstrate advanced skills in verbal and written communication.

Program of study

The following is the program of study for a 36 unit major sequence in Women's and Gender Studies and should be read in conjunction with the course rule for the degree in which you are enrolled.

Major - Women's and Gender Studies

Year 1 topics

9 units comprising:

WMST1001 Sex, Gender and Identities in Australia (4.5 units)
WMST1002 Gender, Power and Change: Introducing Feminist Debates (4.5 units)

Year 2 topics

Select 13.5 units from the following:

HIST2015 Maps and Dreams: Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australian History (4.5 units)
HIST2022 Memory and the Politics of Difference: Sex, Race and Belonging (4.5 units)
INDG2001 Black Poetics: Indigenous Literary Studies (4.5 units)
INDG2004 Reconciliation and Indigenous Knowledges (4.5 units)
SOCI2021 Race, Power and Identity (4.5 units)
SOCI2027 Precarity and Possibility: Creating Social Change for the 21st Century (4.5 units)
SOCI2028 Sociology of Gender: History, Culture and Meaning (4.5 units)
SCME2102 Gender, Media and Technology (4.5 units)
WMST2016 Indigenous Women's Voices: Race, Gender and Colonialism (4.5 units)

Year 3 topics

Select 13.5 units from the following:

HIST3007 Crimes of the Flesh: Sex and 'Deviance' in Australian History (4.5 units)
SOCI3054 Sexualities: Identities, Power and Resistance (4.5 units)
WMST3010 Thinking through the Body (4.5 units)
WMST3014 Global Feminist Activism (4.5 units)
WMST3015 Media and Cultural Identities: Gender, Race and Sexuality (4.5 units)

Honours

Refer to Honours - Women's and Gender Studies

Every effort has been made to ensure the information published on the Course Rule pages is accurate at the time of publication. Flinders University reserves the right to amend its curriculum without prior notice, and will update the Course Rules to reflect any amendments at the earliest opportunity.