The School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London

Structure

The programme is structured in the same way as most SOAS MA degrees: students take three taught courses and complete a dissertation. 

All students take the compulsory course Gender Theory and the Study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Further options include a wide range of gender and gender-related courses from a comprehensive list offered by the Faculties of Languages and Cultures and Arts and Humanities. Students will write a 10,000 word dissertation based on either the compulsory course or one of the component courses. 

They will have access to a wealth of study resources available in the SOAS Library and in nearby institutions such as the British Library, University College London Library and Senate House Library.

The MA in Gender Studies will be administered by the Faculty of Languages and Cultures. Like the MA Area Studies programmes, it will not have a specific departmental home, reflecting its academic structure as an interdisciplinary degree.

The SOAS MA in Gender Studies will appeal to students with a variety of backgrounds and objectives:

• those coming from Women's Studies or Gender Studies who wish to engage more deeply with gender theory in relation to regional specialisation, especially, but not exclusively, the societies of Asia, Africa and the Middle East;
• those coming from Asian, African or Middle Eastern Studies who wish to incorporate the study of gender into their own areas of expertise; and
• those having previously trained in particular disciplines, such as Anthropology, Cultural and Media Studies, Religious Studies, Comparative Literature, History, Politics, etc.

By selection of courses to suit the academic needs of each student, this programme can provide:

• Specialised research training MA in Gender Studies, perhaps including a relevant language. This pathway is suitable for students contemplating advanced postgraduate research in Gender Studies with regard to regional specialisation.
• A broad MA programme for students with some background in Women's Studies, Gender Studies, and Area Studies etc. who wish to enhance their knowledge of gender in relation to cross-cultural issues, with or without language study.
• A special interest MA, which enables students to study in depth gender issues in relation to a particular regional or disciplinary specialisation.

Courses

Not all courses listed below may be available every year. For courses being offered in 2008/09, please visit the Centre for Gender Studies website or contact the Faculty office. Some courses may be taught in other departments of the School.

Core Course

• Gender Theory and the Study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Optional Courses

Students must choose the equivalent of two full courses from the list below; only one language course may be taken (see Faculty of Languages and Cultures).

• Genders and Sexualities in South East Asian Cinema
• Sex and Gender in the 20th Century: Contemporary Japan in Context (half-unit)
• Gender and Development (half unit)
• Civil Society, Social Movements and the Development Process (half unit)
• Gender in the Middle East (half unit)
• Gendering Migration and Diasporas (half unit)
• Issues in the Anthropology of Gender (half unit)
• Gender, Post-colonialism and the Study of Religions
• Gender and Music (half unit)
• Gender & Christianity (half unit)
• Issues in psychoanalysis and anthropology (half unit)
• Issues in the Anthropology of Food A (half unit)
• Issues in the Anthropology of Food B (half unit)
• Approaches to the Other in Science Fiction and Horror Films
• Cinema, Nation and the Transcultural
• Japanese Transnational Cinema: From Kurosawa to Asia Extreme and Studio Ghibli
• Japanese Post-War Film Genres and the Avant-garde (half unit)
• Cinemas of the African Diaspora (half unit)
• Indian Cinema: its history and social context (half unit)
• Indian Cinema: key issues (half unit)
• South Asian Cinema and the Diaspora (half unit)
• Postcolonialism and Otherness in South East Asia on Screen (half unit)
• Post-Crisis Thai Cinema (1997–2007) (half unit)
• Theory and Techniques of Comparative Literature
• Social and Political Dimensions of Modern Arabic Literature
• Literatures of South Asia
• War, Revolution, Independence in South East Asian Fiction (half unit)
• Survey of Korean Literature
• Modern Japanese Literature (half unit)
• Japanese Traditional Drama (half unit)
• Modern Trends in Islam
• Readings in Derrida on Religion (half unit)
• Readings in French Feminism and Religion (half unit)
• Judaism and Gender (half unit)
• Goddesses and constructions of gender in Hinduism (half unit)
• Orthodoxy and Gender in Indian Traditions
• Theory and Method in the Study of Religions
• Death and Religion
• Myth and Mythmaking
• Law and Social Movements
• Law and Society in South Asia
• Law and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
• Law, Human Rights and Peace Building: The Israeli-Palestinian Case
• Feminist Legal Theory
• Migration, Gender and the Law in South East Asia and Beyond
• Comparative Politics of the Middle East
• Cultural understandings of health
• Chinese Culture and Society
• Japanese Culture and Society
• South Asian Culture and Society
• South East Asian Culture and Society
• Near and Middle-Eastern Culture and Society
• West African Culture and Society
• East African Culture and Society
• The End of Empire in the Middle East & the Balkans
• Film and Society in the Middle East
• Postcolonial Theory and Practice
• Language courses (subject to availability)
• One language acquisition course taught at SOAS

Gender-related optional Courses Offered at UCL

(a maximum of one full course unit can be taken; not all courses listed below will be available each year)

• Gender in Archaeology (half unit)
• Feminist issues in Israeli Women’s Writing (half unit)
• Narrating the Nation: Selected Topics in Contemporary Israeli Literature (half unit)
• Gender and Representation in Twentieth-Century Scandinavian Literature and Film (half unit)
• Women in Jewish Tradition
• Family Politics in Israeli Literature (half unit)
• Gender Archaeology (half unit)
• Gender Policy and Planning (half unit)
• Cultures of AIDS in France: History, Policy and Representation (half unit)
• Anthropology and Ecology of Development: Population and Nutrition (half unit)
• Autobiography: Writing (and) the Self in French Literature (half unit)
• The Poetic Identity and its Representations (half unit)
• Gender in Modernity (half unit)
• Gender and Language (half unit)
• Latin American Cinematic Tradition
• Anthropology of the Balkans
• Holocaust Writings
• Public and Private Modernity (half unit)

Teaching & Learning

How to apply

Links

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