The multidisciplinary Master’s Degree in Gender Studies provides advanced training in the field of gender studies for both Finnish and foreign students with a variety of academic backgrounds and career plans. Incorporating local, cross-cultural and transnational emphases, the curriculum encourages students and faculty from above all the humanities, arts and social sciences to develop innovative, intersectional and interdisciplinary ways of expanding knowledge about gender and sexuality in global, local, and historical contexts. The degree engages the wide-ranging and multidisciplinary perspectives associated with gender studies: queer studies, transgender studies, sexuality studies, race and ethnicity studies, disability studies, area and global studies, cultural studies, postcolonial and transnational studies.
This programme is built around the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality, bridging the divide between the social sciences and the arts and humanities. The Master’s programme is designed for students with special interests in social sciences and in the humanities. It addresses the latest debates, using cutting-edge research from this exciting and growing area of study. It considers competing theories and approaches to gender and sexuality, and explores the ways in which these intersect with concepts of race, ethnicity, age, abledness, religion and class.
Learning Outcomes
The Master's degree programme in Gender Studies will give the students competence on gender policies and politics, the ability to work independently on central issues related to gender, feminism, gender equality, production of power and knowledge. This competence includes the use of gender as an analytic category and a critical perspective on crucial questions within science, politics, art and culture, and social issues.
After completing MA programme in Gender Studies the students have the qualifications to analyze, how gender and sexuality organize social structures, cultural practices, human interaction and people's identities. Students will have the capability to apply feminist conceptualizations and research approaches, and formulate relevant research problems. Further, they have the capability to collect and use various kinds of research data, present their analysis textually and orally in a scientific way, and to justify their analytical choices.
On the basis of skills acquired during Master's studies, the students will be able to exert influence in societal and cultural issues and to participate independently and with others in research and development, creating new knowledge on gender related topics in society and culture.
MA programme in Gender Studies will provide a high quality and extensive expertise on issues related to gender, sexuality, gender equality and equal opportunities in society. They have the capability to promote gender equality and human rights in various kinds of jobs and tasks in governmental and non-governmental organizations, in business and in civil society both in local, national and global contexts. They will be conversant with the ways, in which their discipline critically contemplates gendered and sexualized inequalities in society. Further, the MA programme in Gender Studies will provide the ability to generate new knowledge and to work for gendered and sexualized equality in society.