Module Descriptions MA Gender, Culture and Society
Core Modules:
WS6031 Theoretical Approaches to Gender, Culture and Society I
This course will review and critically examine the main theoretical
approaches to gender, sexuality and the position of women and men in
society, starting in the late eighteenth century, but concentrating on the
period from the 1970s onwards. The module will analyse theories about
the social and cultural construction of gendered identities, their origin,
maintenance and representation. It will pay attention to intersectionality,
the connection between gender and other identity markers like age,
ethnicity, race, ability, sexuality, class etc. Of central importance is the
practical application of different theoretical positions to specific topics like
gender and employment, gender and childhood, gender and the body,
gender and nationalism, gender and the media, gender and the family.
WS6042 Theoretical Approaches to Gender, Culture and Society II
This course will build on the knowledge of feminist, gender and queer
theory students will have acquired in the module ‘Theoretical Approaches
to Gender, Culture and Society I’. Specifically, it will be shown how
different scholars have used these theoretical concepts and methods to
study topics like family, work, technological change, mass and consumer
culture and globalization. The module will also analyse theories about the
social and cultural construction of gendered identities, their origin,
maintenance and representation. It will pay attention to intersectionality,
the connection between gender and other identity markers like age,
ethnicity, race, ability, sexuality, class etc.
WS6051 Feminist Approaches to Research
This 3 credit module will enable students to bring feminist critiques of
knowledge and methodology to their research and writing up the
dissertation. Students will address questions such as: What have feminist
theorists to say about objectivity and truth/ the distinction between
knower and known/ self and other/ mind and body/ subject and object?
How might we understand culture and society differently if we incorporate
reproduction, bodily work, and intimate relations in our research? What
might be the limits of ‘feminist standpoint’, the idea that women, as a
subordinated group, are in a better position to arrive at an adequate
representation of social reality than men? What kinds of questions guide
feminist research? How do feminist researchers approach the objects of
their research? What is the relationship between the object of research
and the feminist researcher?
AW6002: Thesis Writing
This 3- credit module on thesis-writing focuses on structural, rhetorical,
and strategic issues. The thesis as the point of order is examined, as is
the question of how order in sections and subsections either interrupt or
serve to unify the overall text. Academic rigor and stylistic appropriacy is
examined in terms of the social and rhetorical contexts. Individuals’
writing strategies are examined and evaluated to determine their
effectiveness. New strategies are explored.
Optional modules:
WS6032: Feminism(s), Diaspora, Multiculturalism
This module addresses the emergence of culture as a significant area of
political debate in contexts of global diasporas and multiculturalisms and
why the most divisive struggles over cultural difference take place in
relation women’s lives and bodies. It also examines the connections and
disconnections between multicultural politics of identity and difference and
feminist politics of gender justice and equality. Finally, it provides
students with a theoretical framework for understanding how social and
ethical questions of gender rights and justice are linked to forms of social
and political membership in contexts of diaspora and multiculture.
WS6023: Feminist Literary Theory: Perspectives on Women and
Literature
Analysing feminist literary theories and testing their practical applications
in relation to a diverse range of women’s writing; examining the
relationship between gender and writing and the notion of writing as
revision; examining the cultural locations of women’s writing, in terms of
class, ethnicity and sexuality, as well as themes of nation, region and
cultural affiliations; examining women writers’ use of various ‘high’ and
‘low’ genres, including speculative fiction, myth, autobiography, and
poetry.
HI5021: The History of Women, Medieval to Modern: Sources,
Methods and Approaches
The origins of women’s history; introduction to the sources for the study
of women’s history; methodological approaches; historiographical
approaches; primary source documents relating to religion, politics, work,
education, sexuality, rights, the role of individual women will be identified
and interrogated in individual sessions along with the key debates and,
interpretations.
PS5121 Feminist Perspectives on Conflict and Development Issues
Major feminist schools of thought, and how their ideas interrelate;
empirical feminist studies of conflict and the causes of conflict; feminist
approaches to development, both from the first world and from the third
world; challenges to feminist thought on conflict and development.
The module will be taught via a one three hour seminar per week.
Assessment will be mainly based on a major essay, in-class evaluations
and a review of the literature.
SO5051: Researching Social Exclusion
The concept of exclusion; its social, cultural, political and ideological
underpinnings; the dynamics and the processes involved; the implications
of exclusion; the structural, cultural and ideological issues underlying this
phenomenon and its reproduction.
SO5061
Researching Social Change
Defining social change; the concept of progress and social engineering;
contingency reflexivity, risk society and postmodernism; periodisation of
change; world trends; socio-economic theory and structural change;
changing aspects of Irish society; institutional change in Western Europe;
identity formation and cultural change; problematising the concept of
class in theories of change; citizenship in a changing world; power and
contestation.
SO5031 Qualitative Research Methods 1
The qualitative paradigm; major traditions of inquiry; the role of literature
and previous research in inductive research; differences between sampling
in qualitative and quantitative research; research procedures/data
collection methods; methods of data analysis; ethical considerations in
qualitative research; writing qualitative reports and research proposals
CU6031 Comparative Literature: Cultural Constructions of the Past
This module will explore developments and trends in comparative
literature and exemplify these by focussing on the comparative analysis of
the inter-relationship between history and cultural memory in the light of
postmodern ideology. It will pay special attention to the exploration of
subaltern collective memory and the role of textual and filmic re-writings
of history.
CU6012: Utopian Theory and Texts
This module will explore theories of utopianism as a fundamental
component of cultural, political, and social life. Projecting ways of living
that are better than the status quo, utopian visions can be dynamic,
sometimes dangerous, elements in the processes of socio-political change.
The outline of our investigation is as follows: the concept of utopia;
ideology and utopia; the ubiquity of utopia: the reality of utopia: the
politics of utopia. We will end with work on case studies of utopianism.
WS6013 Dissertation
Students write a dissertation of ca. 15,000 words in a relevant area –
which reflects the conceptual, theoretical and methodological skills
acquired through the Masters programme and which displays the ability to
use these convincingly. The dissertation topic will be decided through
consultation with the course director and other relevant faculty. Students
will work individually on the topic under the guidance of an assigned
research supervisor.