MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS
Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996
Published by Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
Caution
Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1320-6222
Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Gender studies
Scholarship concerning gender as a social construct has become an established
field of study over the last twenty years. The analysis and critique of
culturally shaped attributes and behaviours have been successfully developed
and expanded into the humanities and social sciences curriculum largely through
the work of feminist scholars, in courses developed from a woman-centred
perspective. The multidisciplinary major and a minor sequence in gender studies
evolves from this scholarship to offer a developing critique and understanding
of both masculinities and femininities. Drawing on feminist, malestream and
post-structuralist theorising of gender, the subjects offered investigate
gender relations as a collective social issue.
Particular attention will be paid to gender and power in social, historical,
political and representational frameworks as they are understood through
differences in class, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
Major and minor sequences
The major and minor sequences consist of a designated multi-disciplinary group
of subjects drawn from a pool of designated English/ mass communications,
history-politics, sociology, Koorie studies and social welfare subjects.
Students will use and analyse feminist and comparative gender critiques of
traditional areas and objects of study. The individual subject outlines
describe the specific approach taken and indicate the significance of gender
issues to the curriculum presented. The final interdisciplinary subject,
GSS3101, is compulsory for the major.
Objectives
The objectives of this major are to enable students:
+ to develop an understanding of gender studies as a distinctive way of
reviewing traditional academic disciplines, through a multi-disciplinary
approach;
+ to develop analytical and critical skills across a range of disciplines
to understand gender as a significant dimension in contemporary issues;
+ to synthesise feminist and malestream theoretical frameworks to produce
a coherent explanation of gender relations;
+ to engage in both independent and cooperative work towards the framing
of knowledge about gendered experience;
+ to apply the knowledge gained in this subject to their own lives in a
reflexive way.
Subjects offered
Students should choose subjects so that they complete twelve points at first
level, sixteen points at second level, sixteen points at third level, including
the compulsory subject GSS3101, and a further eight points at second or third
level.
First level
+ GSC1201 Introduction to sociology A
+ GSC1202 Introduction to sociology B
+ GSC1301 Welfare issues
+ GSC1401 Introduction to culture and English
+ GSC1402 Media studies
+ GSC1504 Global and regional studies: modern world ideas
+ GSC1801 Introduction to Koorie society
+ GSC1901 Introduction to communication studies
Second and third level
+ GSC2203 Sociology of children
+ GSC2207/3207 Women's sociology
+ GSC2406/3406 Women's writing
+ GSC2409/3409 Narratives and representations
+ GSC2505 Courtesans, concubines and conquest
+ GSS3101 Borderworks: theorising gendered experience *
* compulsory for the major
Details of these subjects are listed under the entries for the appropriate
disciplines. Students should note that prerequisites may be required for
upper-level subjects.
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