MA in Gender Studies - Intersectionality and Change

Become an agent for change! This one-of-a-kind master’s program makes you highly skilled in analyzing how social and cultural change can be initiated or sustained by integrating a critical understanding of gender and intersectionality.

The program focuses on intersectional gender, i.e gender and its interplay with other social categorizations and power differentials such as ethnicity, class, nationality, sexuality, age, and (dis)ability.

If you are attracted by the idea of challenging existing norms and structures in society – this is the program for you. A key ambition is to develop an understanding of the links between activism, theory, professional development, and career paths. Students taking the program usually have a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds, for example in sociology, teaching, psychology, political science, and business administration. The program is offered as a one‑year option, 60 credits, or a two-year option, 120 credits.

To give you the latest update on current research, we invite you to take part in seminars at the internationally renowned Unit for Gender Studies. This is one of the largest interdisciplinary research and teaching units for intersectional gender studies in the Nordic countries.

The program combines online distance education with three mandatory on-campus gatherings per academic year. You will interact with your teachers and fellow program members in a digital classroom. The forms of instruction, which are based primarily on the use of the internet, place greater demands on your own activity than a purely campus-based program.

Syllabus

Introduction

This Master’s program in Gender Studies - Intersectionality and Change (GS/IC) is a two-year, full-time study program. It prepares the students for further postgraduate studies, teaching, and research in the inter-and transdisciplinary field of Gender Studies with special reference to Intersectionality and Change. Moreover, the program qualifies the students to integrate intersectional gender perspectives in higher education across disciplines and faculties as well as for professional work with processes of intersectional gender mainstreaming and transformation in society at large, in organizations, media, communication, politics, and knowledge production at a national and transnational level. The program offers students knowledge of theories and methodologies in Gender Studies with special reference to Intersectionality and Change as well as academic expertise to use this knowledge to analyze and to intervene innovatively and professionally in gendered and intersectional processes of change in academic knowledge production, in higher education, in national and international organizations, politics, media, and communication. The program aims to stimulate an independent and critical approach and to enable students to act as agents for change with special regard to gender in its intersections (interplays) with other social and cultural power differentials such as ethnicity, sexuality, class, age, dis/ability, etc. It is also an aim of the program to give students the possibility to develop knowledge and skills, which allow them to contribute to processes of transformation and innovation as researchers and teachers in higher education, or in other professional contexts where the agency is based on scholarly knowledge, production is required.

The program is divided into two parts: Level One comprising the first year, and Level Two comprising the second year. Both levels are organized as independent units. Students who wish to take only Level One are eligible for a Master of Social Science (60 credits) in Gender Studies with a specialization in Intersectionality and Change, when they have completed and passed all included exams.

Aim

National Qualifications according to the Swedish Higher Education Act

Knowledge and understanding

For a Master of Arts (120 credits) the student shall:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding in Gender Studies, with special reference to Intersectionality and Change, including both broad knowledge of the field and a considerable degree of specialized knowledge in certain areas of the field as well as insight into current research and development work,
• demonstrate specialized methodological knowledge in Gender Studies, with special reference to Intersectionality and Change.

Competence and skills

For a Master of Arts (120 credits) the student shall:

• demonstrate the ability to critically and systematically integrate knowledge and to analyze, assess and deal with complex phenomena, issues and situations even with limited information
• demonstrate the ability to identify and formulate issues critically, autonomously, and creatively as well as to plan and, using appropriate methods, to undertake advanced tasks within predetermined time frames and so contribute to the formation of knowledge as well as the ability to evaluate this work
• demonstrate the ability in speech and writing both nationally and internationally to report clearly and discuss her or his conclusions and the knowledge and arguments on which they are based in dialogue with different audiences, and
• demonstrate the skills required for participation in research and development work or autonomous employment in some other qualified capacity.

Judgment and approach

For a Master of Arts (120 credits) the student shall:

• demonstrate the ability to make assessments in the field of Gender Studies with special reference to Intersectionality and Change, informed by relevant disciplinary, interdisciplinary, social, and ethical issues, and also to demonstrate awareness of ethical aspects of research and development work
• demonstrate insight into the possibilities and limitations of research, its role in society, and the responsibility of the individual for how it is used, and
• demonstrate the ability to identify the personal need for further knowledge and take responsibility for her or his ongoing learning.

Teaching and working methods

The program combines online distance education with intensive meetings on campus. In total six campus-based periods will be held. The first campus period will be at the start of the program. Thereafter a campus-based period will be held at the beginning of semester 2, semester 3, and semester 4. In addition, a campus-based period will be held at the end of semesters 2 and 4.

The courses consist of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, supervision, and course assignments, both in the on-campus classroom and online. In addition to this, the students are expected to engage in independent studies. The forms of instruction that are based primarily on the use of the internet place greater demands on the student’s own activity when compared to a purely campus-based program.

The pedagogical format in both the online and the face-to-face classroom is experimental. More traditional academic formats are mixed with formats that focus on written and spoken performances which challenge traditional boundaries between academic and creative writing, speaking, and intervening.

The program integrates formats inspired by a pedagogy that offers students the possibility to improve their foreign language skills and their skills in terms of teaching/learning in a multi-lingual environment, where translations are a key issue for all, both native and non-native English speakers.

The forms of examination include individual essays, active participation in internet-based and face-to-face seminars as well as team assignments. Both master theses are presented and defended at public seminars and with an opponent/critical discussant. The student should thus act both as a defendant and as an opponent/critical discussant.

The course syllabuses describe in more detail the contents, teaching and working methods, and examination.

Research

Research and education of the Unit of Gender Studies put focus on meanings of gender in culture, society, economics, technology, knowledge production, and science from an interdisciplinary perspective. Gender is studied in its intersections with other social categories (ethnicity, sexuality, etc.).

Gender studies

At Tema Genus, we conduct research, Ph.D. training, undergraduate and master’s education, and social outreach, all with a foundation in interdisciplinary gender studies and often together with international collaborators.

Gender

Gender research is conducted at LiU, both from a multidisciplinary approach and within different subjects. It is a broad, international and dynamic field.

Gender, Nature, and Culture

The research area of gender, nature, and culture builds upon post-disciplinary bridgings of arts and sciences.

Feminist cultural studies and politics

This is a research field where culture and its diverse expressions and power plays, but also the production conditions involved in cultural production are put under critical and analytical scrutinizing, examined, described, and negotiated.

Postcolonial Feminisms

Postcolonial feminism critically addresses social and cultural phenomena as agents of epistemic, affective, and political decolonization. It focuses on gendered aspects of migrations and diasporas, and the North-South feminist movements and debates.

_Are you curious about what it is like to study at LiU? Join us for a chat about what it is like to live and study on our campuses in Sweden. We offer free webinars and recordings for both prospective and admitted degree students throughout the year. Visit our _ _Meet us online _ _page. _

About Linköping University

Linköping University will never rest on its laurels.

In close collaboration with the business world and society, Linköping University (LiU) conducts world-leading, boundary-crossing research in fields including materials science, IT and hearing. In the same spirit, the university offers many innovative educational programs, many of them with a clear vocational focus, leading to qualification as, for example, doctors, teachers, economists, and engineers.

The university has 32,000 students and 4,000 employees on four campuses. Together we seek answers to the complex questions facing us today. Our students are among the most desirable in the labor market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.

LiU achieved university status in 1975 and innovation is our only tradition.

History of Linköping University

In 1975 Sweden’s sixth university was founded in Linköping. Since then Linköping University (LiU) has grown considerably, expanding to Norrköping and Stockholm.

Linköping has been an important center of learning since medieval times when Linköping Cathedral offered a school with extensive international contacts and its own student hall in Paris. In 1627 the Cathedral School became the third upper secondary school in Sweden and in 1843 a college for elementary school teachers began operations. In Norrköping, the Fröbel Institute – Sweden’s first college for training pre-school teachers – was founded in 1902.

From university college to university

What would later become Linköping University began to take shape in the mid-1960s. Higher education in Sweden was expanding and in 1965 the Swedish Parliament decided to establish a branch of Stockholm University, together with a university college of engineering and medicine, in Linköping.

In the autumn of 1967, the branch of Stockholm University moved into premises in central Linköping. There the first students could take courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Two years later the units for engineering and medicine got underway.

In 1970 education and research started moving into the recently built Campus Valla, a short distance from the town center. Buildings A and B were the first to be completed. The same year the various parts were merged to form Linköping University College, including faculties of engineering, medicine and arts, and sciences.

The new university college was the first in Sweden to offer study programs in Industrial Engineering and Management and Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, both starting in 1969. A few years later, in 1975, Linköping University launched Sweden’s first Computer Science and Engineering program.

1975 was also the year when Linköping University College became Linköping University, the sixth university in Sweden. In line with the 1977 reform of the Swedish higher education system, teacher education was also transferred to Linköping University.

Interdisciplinary research and problem-based learning

Linköping University has always worked with innovation in education and research. In 1980 the newly formed Department of Thematic Studies adopted an approach that was new in Sweden. Research was organized in interdisciplinary themes, such as Technology and Social Change or Water and Environmental Studies. Scientists worked across boundaries to solve complex problems. LiU was also first in Sweden to introduce graduate research schools for different themes. The model later spread to other parts of the university and became a national success.

The new Faculty of Health Sciences (Hälsouniversitetet), formed in 1986, combined governmentally and regionally funded education. It introduced a radically changed methodology, being the first in Sweden to use problem-based learning, PBL. Later, LiU became the first university in the world to allow students from different health sciences programs to treat actual patients on a student-managed training ward.

Expansion to Norrköping – and Stockholm

A significant milestone in the history of the University was the opening of Campus Norrköping in 1997. Some programs had previously operated from Norrköping, but the number of students now grew drastically in line with government efforts to expand higher education. Historical factories in the former industrial district were again filled with life, as they were filled with classrooms, laboratories, cafés, a library and of course students.

Linköping University also expanded to Stockholm when the reputable Carl Malmsten School of Furniture sought a collaborative partner from the academic sector. The Malmsten furniture design and handicraft programs became part of LiU in 2000. After almost 60 years at Södermalm in central Stockholm, Malmstens moved to new premises on the island of Lidingö in the autumn of 2009. LiU got its fourth campus.

Buro Millennial / Pexels

LiU in figures

Some important figures for Linköping University.

Education

• 32,000 students (full-time equivalents 17,907)
• 21,400 on Campus Valla
• 5,500 on Campus Norrköping
• 3,900 on University Hospital Campus (US)
• 2,100 distance students and students in other locations, including Campus Lidingö

(Some students take courses on more than one campus.)

• 120 study programs, of which 27 are international programs in English
• 550 single-subject courses
• Exchange agreements with 400 universities in 50 countries
• 2,400 international students
• 2,200 first cycle degrees
• 2,700 second-cycle degrees

Research and scientific training

• 300 professors
• 1,200 PhD students
• 40 licentiate degrees
• 140 doctoral degrees

Staff

• 4,000 employees (full-time equivalents 3,156)