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Women's Studies (PhD)

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The primary objective of the Doctoral program is to prepare candidates for a career in teaching and research. The program, however, also prepares candidates for other careers by giving them a comprehensive knowledge in feminist theory, methodology and analysis in a context that highlights the need for scholarship engaged with the realities of an increasingly transnational world. PhD graduates will have acquired and demonstrated their aptitude to produce scholarly work engaged with some of the most urgent issues in the global and local socio-political, cultural and economic landscape while identifying new directions for feminist scholarship and intervention.

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

  • 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.

  • 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. 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 program operates under the general regulations of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS) which can be accessed at www.grad.uottawa.ca.