Gender Studies (MA Program)

Karin Beeler, Professor (English) and Coordinator
Jacqueline Holler, Professor
Maryna Romanets, Professor
Kristen Guest, Professor (English)
Catherine Nolin, Professor (Geography) 
Fiona MacPhail, Professor (Economics)
Dana Wessell Lightfoot, Professor (History)
Angèle Smith, Professor (Anthropology)
Annie Duchesne, Assistant Professor (Psychology)
Gabrielle Daoust, Assistant Professor (Global and International Studies)
Sara Farhan, Assistant Professor (History)
Luna KC, Assistant Professor (Global and International Studies)
Loraine Lavallee, Assistant Professor (Psychology)
Theresa Healy, Adjunct Professor
Dawn Hemingway, Adjunct Professor

Website: www.unbc.ca/gender-studies

The Gender Studies MA program at UNBC offers the opportunity to work with scholars in a variety of disciplines who share a focus on women and/or gender as a category of analysis.
 
The program has particular strengths in areas such as gender, literature, and cultural studies; gender, history, and anthropology; gender, colonialism, and postcolonialism; gender and globalization; feminism, justice, and ethics; gender and health; and gender and international studies. Gender Studies MA students have the opportunity to design a course of study that incorporates gender- or feminism-based methodologies and interdisciplinarity while developing expertise in an area of concentration. While providing a transnational frame of reference, we also pay attention to the national and regional; students will therefore emerge from the program with both a broad analytical framework and a well-developed focus.

Application deadlines are found in this calendar under Admissions and Regulations, or online at: www.unbc.ca/calendar/graduate (under Semester Dates). The Gender Studies MA Program accepts students for the September and January Semesters.

For additional information about graduate admissions or to download application materials, go to the Office of Graduate Administration website at www.unbc.ca/graduate-administration.

Requirements

MA with Thesis

The MA with thesis is 24 credit hours in total, normally taking up to two years.

Fifteen credit hours (five courses) plus GNDR 700-9 (Gender Studies Thesis) are required. Students may take a maximum of four courses per semester. The thesis includes a written text (maximum of 100 pages) and is defended in an oral examination. Students interested in alternative forms of presentation must obtain special permission from the Chair of the program and Dean.

MA thesis work is expected to be original, and make a substantive contribution to knowledge and the means of expressing that knowledge.

Students are required to include in their credit hours GNDR 611-3 (Contemporary Feminist Theories). Students working in the field of Social Science research are required to include in their credit hours GNDR 611-3 (Contemporary Feminist Theories) and GNDR 609-3 (Advanced Feminist Methods).

MA without Thesis

The MA with coursework only is 24 credit hours, and can be completed in one year.

Twenty-one credit hours (seven courses) plus GNDR 701-3 (Gender Studies Major Research Paper) are required. Students may take a maximum of four courses per semester. The major research paper is expected to be 30 to 40 pages, and to extend from an original research project already initiated in coursework.

Students are required to include in their credit hours GNDR 611-3 (Contemporary Feminist Theories). Students working in the field of Social Science research are required to include in their credit hours GNDR 611-3 (Contemporary Feminist Theories) and GNDR 609-3 (Advanced Feminist Methods).

Students taking either the MA with Thesis or MA without Thesis may take courses in other graduate programs with the approval of the Chair or the Coordinator of the Gender Studies Program and the Dean. The interdisciplinary component in the Gender Studies program encourages students to articulate their studies with other interdisciplinary graduate programs such as International Studies, Environmental Studies, and First Nations Studies. Students may also choose to take graduate courses in the regular disciplinary fields such as History, Biology, and Political Science.


Updated: August 9, 2023