About AUD

M.A. Gender Studies
(School of Human Studies)

Duration: 2 years (4 semesters and a summer internship)
Total credits: 64
Medium of instruction: English

Eligibility: A Bachelor’s degree in any discipline with 45% marks (or an equivalent grade) from a recognised university. Relaxation of 5% for candidates belonging to SC, ST and Physically Disabled (PD) Categories will be given.

Reservation of seats: In accordance with Government of NCT of Delhi rules.

The past half a century has seen an increased interest in the analysis of the socially constructed nature of gender and the inequities associated with it. This analysis has made apparent that gender not only organizes the everyday lives and embodied experiences of men and women but also operates within the socio-cultural, economic and political realms. Further, gender is a central dimension in the construction of the very knowledge systems that provide analytical tools through which we make sense of this reality. Paradoxically, however, as the study of gender has shown, the structure of knowledge itself has been constructed within patriarchies. Thus both the experience of women and the category of gender have been obscured in many traditional disciplines.
 
The increased sensitivity to gender that has emerged in the past several decades has seen the development of courses in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies in many Universities across the world. One of the significant lessons from teaching and research on gender issues concerns the limitations that arise in attempts to work within the confines of a single disciplinary framework. Given the intersections between gender and other categories such as race, class, caste, community and nation, the study of gender must be interdisciplinary in nature. The richness of such interdisciplinary work is evident in the growth of the field in India over the past decade. Whether in domains such as feminist theory or law, body, sexuality, masculinity and femininity, literary and cultural representations as well as their critique or the nature of epistemology, writing in gender is amongst the most exhilarating. Moreover, scholarship and research in gender often addresses the theoretical and the applied simultaneously. This has translated in the addition of gender in core and concurrent courses at the undergraduate level creating a larger number of students with some inclination towards the study of gender at a deeper and more intricate level. It is this group of students to whom the Masters programme in Gender Studies at AUD seeks to reach out. The MA programme is likely to be of interest to graduates, post-graduates and professionals from allied disciplines like Political Science, Psychology, Law, Public Administration, Economics, History, Sociology, Home Science, Education and Literature. In addition, persons involved in the area of gender issues seeking an extension of their personal and professional capacities may also find the course beneficial.
 
The MA in Gender Studies is envisioned as one of the Masters’ programmes offered by the School of Human Studies at AUD. The central concern of the programme offered in the School of Human Studies is to enable students to develop a sound interdisciplinary understanding of their field that generates a capacity for theory, research and intervention with human experience. The student who has graduated from the School should be able to understand human experience and functioning as determined simultaneously by micro and macro processes.
 
Consistent with this ideal, the Masters programme in Gender Studies in AUD is envisaged as a thoroughly interdisciplinary course drawing upon gendered analysis from the sciences, social sciences and the humanities. On completion, students should be able to understand the situatedness of an individual within a family, society, culture, nation state and global politics. Unlike some courses in Women’s Studies / Gender Studies in India, this course does not focus on the development aspects alone. Rather, it considers the understanding of psycho-social and subjective aspects of the gendered experience to be integral to any gender studies programme. This is also one of the unique strengths of this programme.
 
The course will help students to:

a. Unravel the biases that operate within traditional disciplines
    whether in the sciences, social sciences or humanities.
b. Develop skills in analytical and critical thinking that enable them
    to examine a range of processes through the lens of gender.
c. Transmit their learning from the course to varied domains of
    work.
d. Create insight on the interplay between the personal and the
    political aspects of gender.
 
The course will combine theory, method and contemporary context to develop in student’s sensitivity towards the workings of gender in wide ranging domains.  It will challenge students to think about the operation of gender at multiple levels through an exhaustive set of readings and stimulating experiences. Subject matter experts and resource persons whose work incorporates an edge of gender would employ alternative pedagogical devices such as film screenings, visits to NGOs, workshops and so on to make the learning experience enriching and enjoyable.  
 
Students equipped with the degree would be able to intervene in multiple settings that require a focus on the inequities associated with gender such as governmental and non-governmental organizations, educational settings, mental health and disability, media as well as academia.