Women's and Gender Studies Now: Concepts, Theories, Histories - SOC00041M

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Module summary

This module provides a context and foundation for other more specialised work in Women's and Gender Studies by creating a space for thinking about the historical and conceptual underpinnings of feminism and feminist theory and activism within the academy. It enables students from many different disciplinary backgrounds to work with their peers to develop knowledge suitable for interdisciplinary and intercultural feminist research.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

This module explores key issues and concerns within Women’s and Gender Studies. We explore key analytical frameworks that have enabled feminist theorising while also historicizing their provenance and locating them within networks of power and knowledge. By examining the ‘unease’ that led to the questioning of various gendered and sexual norms that catalysed the founding of feminism in the Global North and South, we examine historical and contemporary challenges in defining gender, sex, and sexuality arising from changes in gender relations, gender identities, and sexuality as expressed in social, cultural and political life. Taking an intersectional, transnational, and interdisciplinary approach the module engages critically with a diverse range of case studies and material to explore ways in which Women’s and Gender Studies has critically engaged with issues of equality and justice globally. The module enables individual students from many different disciplinary backgrounds to work with their peers to develop a broad range of knowledge suitable for interdisciplinary gender research.

Module learning outcomes

After successfully completing this module, students will be able to:

• Interrogate and explain key issues and concerns within Women’s and Gender Studies, including the ways in which sex, gender and sexuality are conceptualised.
• Critically engage with and account for the social construction and categorisation of difference with an astute awareness of how gender intersects with identity categories such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, dis/ability, age.
• Appreciate the importance of historicising feminist pedagogy and the development of Women’s and Gender Studies as an interdisciplinary field within the academy.
• Develop feminist research and knowledge with an appreciation of the importance of cross-cultural work in Women’s and Gender Studies, with a sensitivity to questions of difference and diversity.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

You will write a draft as a procedural essay (compulsory but not assessed) partway through this module, and will receive detailed feedback and a tutorial to help you improve your essay writing.

Indicative reading

Avtar Brah Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities London: Routledge, 1996.

Raewyn W. Connell Southern Theory: Social Science And The Global Dynamics Of Knowledge Cambridge: Polity Press 2007.

Mary Eagleton (ed) Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader 3rd ed. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

Jean Makdisi, Noha Bayoumi, Rafif Rida Sidaw (eds.) Arab Feminisms: Gender and Equality in the Middle East London: I.B. Tauris, 2014.

Carole R. McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim (eds.) Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives London: Routledge, 2002.

Oyèrónk ´Oyewùmí African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the politics of sisterhood Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003.

Victoria Robinson and Diane Richardson (eds.) Introducing Gender and Women’s Studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 4th edition.

M B Zinn et al. (eds.) Gender through the Prism of Difference Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.