University of Oxford
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies MSt
University of Oxford

Key Course Facts

Course Description

The MSt in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is a nine-month, interdisciplinary course designed to equip you with the critical and research tools needed for women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the humanities.

The course provides a systematic introduction to feminist theory and highlights women's contribution to culture and history alongside critical analysis and theorisation of the meanings assigned to the category 'woman' in philosophical, literary, socio-cultural and historical thought.

It also provides the practical equipment necessary to engage in original research into topics in the humanities relating to women, gender and sexuality, in a university with excellent facilities for both traditional and computer-age research. Teaching is delivered through close individual supervision, as well as a carefully designed programme of lectures and classes led by specialists from a wide variety of disciplines, promoting collaborative work as well as the development of independent and original scholarship.

You will follow an intensive core course, in the form of seminars combining introductions to feminist theory and to methodologies/methods of research. In addition to this, you will take two options, drawn from a list covering a very wide range of topics.

The options allow deepening of skills acquired in a first degree or the development of new skills under specialist teaching, which can be further practised in the third assessed element of the course, a closely supervised dissertation on a subject of your choice. Please note that not every optional subject may be on offer every year, depending in part on levels of student demand.

Five faculties within the Humanities Division contribute option choices and supervision expertise to the degree: the Faculties of English Language and Literature, History, Classics, Philosophy and Medieval and Modern Languages. The option courses available change from year to year, but the following list is indicative of the types of topics which may be offered:

  • Feminist Perspectives on the Body
  • Women’s Intellectual History from 1850 to the present
  • Postcolonial Perspectives: Race and Gender in Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal
  • Fiction in English, 1789 to the Present: Gender and Race
  • 20th and 21st Century Theatre
  • Feminism and/or Queer Theory
  • Feminism and Silence
  • Gender and Development
  • Feminist and Queer Theologies
  • Early “Feminisms”
  • Women and Classics
  • The Philosophy and Feminism of Simone de Beauvoir
  • Writing Women in the Middle Ages
  • Gendered Bodies in Visual Art and Culture
  • Crossing fiction and theory: African women writers and African feminism in conversation
  • Black Women in the Anglo-Atlantic World, 1600-1850
  • Philosophy of birth – When the uterus enters the door, reason goes out the window

‘- Friendship as a Way of life’: kinship and the nature of queerness

  • The Sound of Black Feminist Thought
  • Nahda: Literature, modernity and institution-building in the Arabic 19th Century
  • Transgender Theory and Writing
  • Writing Illness in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Literature.

The programme does not formally involve departments within the Social Sciences Division but draws on the expertise of social scientists.

Whilst you are pursuing the MSt in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies you are also encouraged to go to lectures and seminars organised by individual faculties, which might help you to frame your immediate or future projects.

Entry Requirements / Admissions

Requirements for international students / English requirements

IELTS academic test score (similar tests may be accepted as well)

    • 6.5
    • Graduate Degrees
    • 7.0
    • Undergraduate Degrees
    • (no subscore less than 6.0)
Get advice on which foundation courses are best for you to still study Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, MSt, if you do not meet the minimum requirements in terms of UCAS score, A levels, or English language requirements.

Costs

Average student cost of living in the UK

Rent £518
Water, gas electricity, internet (at home) £50
Supermarket shopping £81
Clothing £35
Eating out £33
Alcohol £27
Takeaways / food deliveries £30
Going out / entertainment (excl.alcohol, food) £24
Holidays and weekend trips £78
Transport within city £17
Self-care / sports £20
Stationary / books £13
Mobile phone / internet £13
Cable TV / streaming £7
Insurance £51
Other £95
  
Average student cost of living £1092

London costs approx 34% more than average, mainly due to rent being 67% higher than average of other cities. For students staying in student halls, costs of water, gas, electricity, wifi are generally included in the rental. Students in smaller cities where accommodation is in walking/biking distance transport costs tend to be significantly smaller.

University Rankings

Positions of University of Oxford in top UK and global rankings.

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About University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a prestigious research university located in Oxford, England, and is the oldest English language university in the world. It is made up of 39 partly autonomous constituent colleges, six private halls, and a variety of academic departments which are split into four divisions: Humanities, Mathematical, Physical & Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

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9785
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Where is this programme taught

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