Gender-based violence and violence against women (VAW) are among the central and persistent challenges to human rights globally, and ones that need to be tackled collectively and in a consistent manner. This is a need clearly enunciated in the UN’s Sustainable Development goals (SDG’s) where violence against women and girls is explicitly addressed. During the course, we examine the key concepts and forms of gender related violence and their relations with tradition and culture, and with the contemporary crisis in the environmental and geo-political landscapes (such as forced migration, climate change, as well as political conflicts and war). The course participants will engage in mapping global landscapes of vulnerability that are constituted both by continuities and disruptions, and in critically contemplating gender-related violence in connection. The course familiarizes students with gender-related violence as it is addressed in central human rights and sustainability policies, and engages students in critically and analytically rethinking their own understandings and possibilities for action against gender-related violence through interdisciplinary gender and feminist research.

Application period: 3.9.2018 - 5.10.2018. For further information and enrolment, please see:

The course consists of a pre-assignment given upon acceptance to the course, reading assigned materials, completing tasks in groups or individually, and a reflective study journal, including self-assessment.

The course is organized by the Gender Studies in the University of Oulu and offered as part of the virtual courses in the UNIPID university partnership.

The course is offered by HILMA Network for Gender Studies.

If you are selected to the course, please contact the course contact person in Tampere University (Hanna-Mari Ikonen, hanna-mari.ikonen@uta.fi) for agreeing on the registration of the course.