Bachelor of Arts

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Gender and Sexuality Studies

Campuses

Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Cloud (online)

Overview

What is gender and sexuality studies?

Gender and Sexuality Studies provides an analytical approach to the significance of sex, gender and sexuality in many parts of our lives and the important roles they often play in how we understand ourselves and the structures we live in. In art and literature, popular culture and the media, politics and the law, marketing and advertising, health and wellbeing, the economics of family life and work, our public identities and intimate lives, sex, gender and sexuality are prominent features of contemporary and historical life.

Gender and Sexuality Studies at Deakin provides a structured interdisciplinary programme for studying sex, gender and sexuality, drawing on local knowledges and histories, while also situating these ideas in their global context.

Through an integrated study of local experiences and transnational flows of knowledge and influences, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Deakin provides students with an understanding of key forces which shape our understandings and lived experiences of gender and sexuality, both as cultural phenomena and as embodied practices. In particular, the programme emphasizes the intersectional dimensions of gender and sexuality, addressing questions of class, citizenship, ethnicity, race, religion, ability and geographical location. Throughout their studies, units in the Major help students to develop skills to analytically reflect on, and contribute to, a range of important debates. These include discussions about how sex, gender and sexuality inform understandings of the self, and how we recognize and respond to difference.

Why undertake a gender and sexuality studies major?

The Gender and Sexuality Studies Major forms part of your Bachelor of Arts degree. It offers graduates core disciplinary knowledge in Gender and Sexuality Studies, drawing on feminist studies and LGBTI/queer studies. It provides students with the skills and knowledge to research, analyse and discuss expressions of gender and sexuality across times and places. It builds a strong understanding of key concepts, critical vocabularies, historical contexts and contemporary issues.

A major in Gender and Sexuality Studies will equip you with the skills not only to recognize and respond to crucial social issues, but also to analyse and re-imagine them.

Career outcomes

The prominence of sex, gender and sexuality in our lives means that developing a strong historical and critical understanding of sex, gender and sexuality will be of use for people working in a wide variety of vocations, especially those which focus on working with and understanding people and the complex social structures that we live in.

Gender and Sexuality Studies helps prepare students to work as researchers, writers and creative practitioners. The Major will help people working within many different areas such as the law, criminology, social policy, community development, archives and museums, social work, education, psychology, marketing and healthcare to develop specialist knowledge of sex, gender and sexuality which they can apply within their specific vocational settings.