Offered By	ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
Academic Contact	Dr Rosanne Kennedy, BA MtHolyokeColl., PhD Duke

Gender, Sexuality and Culture offers students the opportunity to explore the related fields of Gender Studies and Cultural Studies, with a strong international and regional component. Both fields draw on new theoretical and methodological developments, including feminist theory, queer theory, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, post-structuralism and post-modernism. Students will have the opportunity to take courses that apply these theories and methodologies to a range of contemporary issues and practices. Students may choose to concentrate either on gender studies or cultural studies, or to devise a major that integrates both fields.

Gender studies is concerned with the ways in which identities and sexualities (feminine, masculine, heterosexual, lesbian and gay) are constructed in a range of discourses (political, legal, historical, scientific, literary, popular), in the media and in embodied practices (sport, behaviour, cosmetic surgery, dieting, leisure activities). Courses in the major reveal how gender and sexuality are socially constructed and reproduced, and how hierarchies of gender and sexuality are implicated in all aspects of social life. Students will examine interrelations between gender, race, class and sexuality in a variety of cultural, historical and political contexts. In addition, students will have the opportunity to explore the construction of social identities and power relations, and the role of gender and sexuality in citizenship, state politics, development, war and international relations.

Cultural studies is concerned with questions of meaning, identity, production and consumption. How do everyday objects and behaviours - from mobile phones to rave parties - become meaningful cultural commodities and practices? What role do objects and practices play in constructing social identities? Cultural Studies is also concerned with cultural politics at the local, national, regional and international level. Courses in the major explore issues such as how significant national and international events are represented in the media; whose voices are heard and whose stories are told; what events are memorialised, and the construction of histories. Students will have the opportunity to study the role of the media in contemporary culture, and will be introduced to important concepts for the study of culture such as mass culture, popular culture, representation, the sign, the text, the body, sexuality, power, subjectivity, pleasure and consumption. Courses in the major draw on a wide range of texts from elite and popular culture, including magazines, newspapers, film, art, photography, political tracts, video, the internet and performance art.

Requirements

Students are required to submit written work by the due dates, to attend all lectures, workshops and tutorial classes, and to present any prescribed tutorial exercises. Students are expected to possess copies of the prescribed texts.

The major consists of 42 units. These must include a minimum of:

1. at least 6 but no more than 12 units of GEND first year courses
2. at least 24 units chosen from core courses
3. the remaining units may include either core or cognate courses

Core courses are those in which

1. the concepts of gender and/or culture are central to the course
2. are grounded in gender studies and/or cultural studies
3. are transdisciplinary

Cognate courses are those in which

1. the concepts of gender and/or culture have a significant but not necessarily central role
2. are disciplinary in nature

The list of core and cognate courses will change from year to year, depending on availability.

Warning: Students should note that although courses from other Faculties are included in this major, they are not classified as "Arts" courses and you may not be able to include them in your degree. 

For students enrolled in a single BA the Program Rules allow for a maximum of 48 units (8 courses) out-of-faculty. 

For BA students enrolled in a combined degree, enrolment is restricted to Arts courses only, therefore you may not include out-of-faculty courses. 

For a list of courses that are approved to count as "Arts" courses in the BA please see the Bachelor of Arts Course Listing at the end of the College of Arts & Social Sciences entry in the Undergraduate Handbook or see the Undergraduate Courses offered by the ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences. 

For information on Honours in Gender, Sexuality and Culture click here.

 

 

 

 

The information published on the Study at ANU 2009 website applies to the 2009 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2008 website.