Critical Reading in Advanced Gender Theory (839P5)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

Critical Reading in Advanced Gender Theory aims to broaden and deepen your reading and thinking, and develop you as an autonomous scholar. It may even inspire you towards activism and organising for social change. In order to do this, we will study theoretical perspectives in feminism and gender studies (which includes queer and trans studies). Themes, perspectives and concepts we study include:

• intersectionality
• decoloniality
• deconstruction
• experience
• emotion
• labour
• reproduction
• identity
• power
• violence.

We try our best to take an intersectional and anti-colonial approach, which we see as a mindset and a process, not a matter of representation and not a destination.

The seminars are largely based on group discussion, where you can share ideas, try out arguments, and ask questions. This module does not have a traditional reading list. Each week, one key reading is recommended, but you are expected to do at least 3-4 pieces of reading for each topic before the seminar. You will find the literature yourself (with some guidance from your tutor).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module you will be able to:

• source interesting and cutting-edge reading materials in feminist, gender and queer theory, in relation to their chosen themes and topics
• demonstrate critical engagement with core theoretical debates in relation to their chosen themes and topics
• synthesise ideas and develop original arguments in the production of a written term paper.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 30 hours of contact time and about 270 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.