SGIA2411: Gender and Politics

• Any Level 1 SGIA module

• None

• None

• This module challenges assumptions of traditional theories within politics and international relations through engagement with a range of feminist and gender perspectives.
• This module aims to introduce students to debates between different feminist approaches - (this may include liberal, marxist, intersectional, poststructuralist, postcolonial, queer and posthuman) - and their application to empirical cases across the Global North and Global South.
• Furthermore, this course provides an understanding of the gendered underpinnings of knowledge within traditional spaces of academia, and asks, what new insights do we meet when we consider knowledge that is traditionally considered informal or irrational.

• This course will explore the merits of different feminist theories and the application of different theoretical approaches to empirical cases within Politics and International Relations across the Global North and Global South.
• This course will also look to more informal sites which may include emotions, art, poetry, zines, and oral history as a means to rethink traditional conceptualisations of theory and knowledge.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Through the module students will gain an understanding of:
• The ways that feminist approaches challenge traditional and conventional politics;
• The characteristics of different feminist theories;
• Feminist contestations of various empirical cases in politics and IR.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students will also develop some subject specific skills, such as:
• The ability to understand and critically evaluate different feminist theories and their relationship with concepts in politics and international relations;
• The ability to apply feminist theories to issues in politics and international relations;
• The ability to explain the value of creative and non-traditional praxis.

Key Skills:

• Students will also develop some important key skills, suitable for underpinning study at this and subsequent levels, such as: The ability to deploy appropriate scholarly material and resources in support of reasoned, analytical argument;
• The ability to link theoretical concepts to empirical evidence and political practice;
• The ability to work to tight time deadlines.
• The ability to reflect upon ethical issues relating to academic research.

• Teaching and learning are through a series of 1-hour lectures and an associated series of 1-hour seminars;
• The lectures will provide formal instruction and will draw attention to the contested nature of key concepts;
• Seminars will allow students, under guidance, to test their own evaluation and understanding of both the context of debates and the appropriate concepts;
• Students are expected to deploy research skills in preparation for seminars and to be able to analyse complex theoretical issues, requiring recourse to interdisciplinary sources, and to defend their assessment of highly contentious practical and normative choices.
• Formative assessment is a 1,500-word written assignment. This formative will provide students with an opportunity to engage in depth with key theoretical approaches. This, in turn, enables students to reflect on their learning and prepares them for both summative assessments.
• Summative assessment by a 1,500-word written assignment that could be in the form of an essay or a more creative engagement. This will encourage students to think critically and imaginatively about feminist approaches to international politics.
• Summative assessment by a 2,000-word essay will give students the opportunity to develop a grasp of the course material through specific engagement with key texts, and general knowledge of the subject scope. It will test students' ability to form a coherent and sustained argument and their ability to support their argumentation through evidence and through consideration of counterarguments.

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