Gender Methodologies across the Humanities and Social Sciences, 7.5 credits

Aim

The aim of the course is to foster an in-depth understanding, as well as to guide students towards honing critical analytical skills related to the application of gender studies methods to various interdisciplinary research topics in the humanities and social sciences.

With a focus on gender theories, perspectives and methods, the course aims to offer a pluralistic approach to identifying intersections that unite different disciplines and thematic threads that can be utilised towards further research.

The course assumes that in analyses of different types of texts, cultural tropes and social and political events and narratives, gender is not only a theme to investigate but also an important theoretical lens to apply in order to explore current as well as historical themes within a wide spectrum of disciplines.

Through its combination of academic staff in Comparative Literature, Gender Studies and Sociology, active in international research networks, the course brings a purposely interdisciplinary and internationalist approach.

Course objectives

Through participation in the course, students will be able to:

1. Critically analyse how gender, gender norms, binaries and hierarchies are constructed, reproduced and challenged in different literary, social, cultural and political contexts.
2. Apply and critically discuss advanced gender theories/perspectives and concepts in the analysis of different types of material and issues.
3. Identify and problematise how notions of gender interact with multiple orders of power and social categorisations, including class, sexuality, ethnicity.
4. Compare and integrate perspectives and analytical methods from different humanities
   and social science disciplines.
5. Independently formulate and develop analytical arguments based on relevant theory, research and textual material.

Content

The course is interdisciplinary and led by academic staff with expertise in various thematic and disciplinary areas such as narrative analysis, discourse analysis, critical and empathic close reading. The course is based on analyses where gender functions as a central lens for reading, addressing and interpreting different types of narratives and events – literary, social, cultural and political. The course’s reading list affords students the opportunity to reflect on various examples and develop their critical skills in a way that transcends traditional subject boundaries. The course will deal with gender-related examples and case studies in the humanities and social sciences as part of an ongoing and critically rigorous inquiry that problematises and challenges gender binary notions and hierarchies in different contexts.

Entry requirements

A person meets the entry requirements for the course if he or she has been admitted to a third-cycle study programme and will be given credit for the course in that study programme.

Teaching form

Online seminars. One in-person meeting on site at Mid Sweden University Sundsvall Campus.

Examination form

Course participants will be examined in writing through a submission that will enable them to apply the methodological principles of the course to their own individual research topics and learning needs. The text will be presented and discussed as part of the campus meeting for the course.

Grading system

Two-grade scale

Other information

The course may be given in English.