The MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies provides rigorous advanced training in the multi-disciplinary study of gender. The course is designed for those students who wish to prepare for PhD or further research and also for those who want to enhance their understanding of "gender" by undertaking the MPhil only.

The primary objective of the course is to introduce students from a wide variety of academic, business and policy backgrounds to the traditions, methods and front-line research that shape an advanced gender analysis of human society. Up to 25 different departments within the University of Cambridge come together on this course to address a range of topics such as:

• Conflict
• Globalisation
• Labour Market inequality
• Public Policy
• Bio-medical advances
• Experimental Psychology
• Human Rights and Justice
• Literature and the Arts
• Culture and Antiquity

A key theme of the MPhil programme is 'intersectional' approaches to gender inequality. Systems of gender inequality cannot be properly understood, analysed or addressed without taking into consideration specific histories of the ways in which issues of sexuality, race, colonialism, class, disability and more inflect gender analysis.

Graduates from this MPhil should emerge as highly desirable candidates for a wide range of careers including those specialising in government, policy, business, NGO, journalistic and academic careers. Former students have gone on to work with the Centres for Migration and Labour Solutions, The European Commission, for Policy Research in India, with the UN Development Programme and UN Women.

The course aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to:

1. use a range of methods for gathering, analysing and interpreting research material;
2. apply normative theories to substantive research topics;
3. frame research questions, to construct appropriate research designs, and develop a thorough grasp of a wide range of methodological approaches;
4. interpret complex research publications effectively;
5. independently manage primary research, including data management and the writing up of research as well as understanding codes of research practice and research ethics; and
6. present research and also to make use of constructive criticism.

Learning Outcomes

The MPhil programme is designed to enable students to conduct independent research in the field of gender studies. The outcomes of the programme are achieved both through a focused study of a wide range of selected specialised aspects of gender analysis, and through development of more general research skills and methods that enable the student to produce original, independent work. The course aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to:

1. use a range of methods for gathering, analysing and interpreting research material;
2. apply normative theories to substantive research topics;
3. frame research questions, to construct appropriate research designs, and develop a thorough grasp of a wide range of methodological approaches;
4. interpret complex research publications effectively;
5. independently manage primary research, including data management and the writing up of research as well as understanding codes of research practice and research ethics; and
6. present research and make use of constructive criticism.

Continuing

70 per cent or more overall and 70 per cent in the dissertation element.

Open Days

The University of Cambridge will be hosting its Cambridge Postgraduate Open Day on Friday 1 November 2019. Visit the Postgraduate Open Day page for more details.

Departments

This course is advertised in the following departments: