Banner - Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Back to Program List

Women's Studies (MA)

Download the Program description (in PDF)
 
General
Information
Teaching
Staff
Admission
Program
Requirements
Courses
Contact
Us

The objective of the MA program in women’s studies is to encourage the acquisition of in-depth, plural, diversified, and heuristic knowledge of the different currents of feminist thought, including theoretical and methodological proposals. The program aims to develop an aptitude for research in the university or the community, while enriching the student’s personal work through the supervised writing of a research paper or thesis.

The program offers a specialization in one or the other of the following fields of research:

1) Gender, Power and Representations

The field of Gender, Power and Representations examines gendered representations in such domains as literature, arts, communications, history, politics and the law (among others). Such scholarship interrogates commonplace understandings of masculinity and femininity and examines the ways in which sex and gender intersect with race, class, sexuality, ability and age. Focusing on the locations and forms of power with regard to the notions of “sex”, “gender”, “difference” and interlocking oppressions, this field also examines how these perspectives are created, inscribed, and regulated through various spheres of social and institutional activity in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

2) Women, Rights and Citizenship in a Globalized World

The field of Women, Rights and Citizenship in a Globalized World explores scholarly and practice issues related to feminist gendered analyses of globalization and cosmopolitanism, citizenship and development, transnational migrations and activisms, as well as rights, social justice and health in an increasingly globalized world. The field responds to the need to examine the ways in which women are now located in a world characterized by a reordering of economic, political and cultural processes and a reconfiguration of the territorial and discursive boundaries of rights, justice, participation, and collective agency, as well as the implications of the intersections of gender with race, class, and sexuality in such analyses.

The program is offered full-time and part-time. Courses are offered both in English and in French. In accordance with University of Ottawa regulations, students can write their papers, exams, and theses in the official language of their choice (either English or French). Students are encouraged to acquire at least a passive knowledge of the second official language before graduation.

The programs operate under the general regulations of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS) which can be accessed at www.grad.uottawa.ca.