Bachelor of Arts
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Unit Set Code
MJ-A000070 (major)
MN-A000070 (minor)
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.
Units
Complete the following 4 core units:
AGS101 | Sex and Gender: Ideas That Changed the World |
AGS102 | Histories of Sex and Gender |
AGS200 | Cultural Studies of Sex and Gender |
AGS300 | Theories of Sex and Gender (available from 2020) |
Complete at least 3 units from level 2, selected from:
AIH205 | Sex and Gender in the British Empire |
ACR203 | Crime, Victims and Justice |
ASC206 | Sociology of Health |
ASC287 | Love, Sex and Relationships |
ALL256 | Gender, Sex and Literature |
Complete at least 1 unit from level 3, selected from:
ALL326 | Gender, Sexuality and Texts for Young People |
ASC320 | Sex, Crime and Justice in An Electronic Age |
The following is recommended to complement the major stream:
ASP129 | Love, Sex and Death |