Gender Studies

The MA Gender Studies is our most popular programme and is unique not only in the UK but in the terrain of Gender Studies programmes across the Anglophone world. With a focus on the study of Gender that attends to the complex specificities of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and their diasporas, this programme creates a cutting edge pedagogical space where students grapple with the limits of ‘Western’ and elite feminisms and tackle the problems of class violence, racism, transmisogny, Islamophobia, ableism and queerphobia in contemporary feminist political projects. In addition to drawing on the interdisciplinary expertise of staff across all SOAS faculties, this MA in Gender Studies programme offers plenty of opportunities to participate in ongoing dialogues between various social justice movements and the University classroom. Drawing cohorts of students from Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as the Global North, this programme offers students a chance like no other to forge connections to feminist movements, activists and thinkers situated across the world.

The SOAS MA in Gender Studies will appeal to students with a variety of backgrounds and objectives:

-Those coming from Women's Studies or Gender Studies who wish to engage more deeply with gender theory in relation to regional specialisation, especially, but not exclusively, the societies of Asia, Africa and the Middle East;

-Those coming from Asian, African or Middle Eastern Studies who wish to incorporate the study of gender into their own areas of expertise; and

-Those having previously trained in particular disciplines, such as Cultural and Media Studies, Religious Studies, Comparative Literature, History, Anthropology, Politics, etc. who wish to deepen their training in feminist knowledge production.