SVH-8003 Feminist theories, methodologies and epistemologies in research processes - 5 stp

The course may be taken as a single course.

Students who hold 5 ECTS from SVF-8055 Evoking Gender can only obtain 3 ECTS due to overlap in literature and course content.

We welcome applications from PhD-students who wish to expand their understanding of feminist and gender epistemologies, theories and methodologies. By exploring the genealogies of and current discussions within these fields the students will be encouraged to think in innovative and critical ways about the materials they are investigating. Thus, they will gain the competence to advance the critical originality, profoundness and innovating potential of their thesis.

The aim of the course is to develop the students’ ability to theorize and analyze their material, to apply advancing methods and to discuss challenges and pitfalls that occur when doing feminist and gender research. The research process and the research design of each thesis will be discussed. The course will have a special focus on theorizing gender and power in their intersections with class, race, ethnicity, age etc. in relation to politics, artefacts and societies. The course highlights the inter- and cross-disciplinary character of gender studies. Accordingly, students from a wide variety of backgrounds and interest are welcomed to apply and benefit from the group discussions beyond disciplines. The course is divided into two kinds of sessions: The students will present their topics and open up to group discussions. The lecturers will provide presentations with examples of their own research and approach to materials from their respective points of expertise.

PhD students apply by registering in Studentweb by September 1th.

Other applicants apply in Søknadsweb by application deadline June 1th.

Application code 9301, singular courses PhD level. Please write the course code you wish to apply for in the comment field of the application.

If there are less than 5 qualified applicants, the course will not be offered.

PhD students or holders of a Norwegian Master´s Degree of five years or 3+2 years (or equivalent) may be admitted. PhD students must upload a document from their university stating that they are registered PhD students.

Holders of a Master´s Degree must upload a Master´s Diploma with Diploma Supplement / English translation of the diploma. Applicants from listed countries must document proficiency in English. To find out if this applies to you see the following list: http://www.nokut.no/Documents/NOKUT/Artikkelbibliotek/Utenlandsk_utdanning/GSUlista/2016/GSU_list_English_14112016.pdf

For more information on accepted English proficiency tests and scores, as well as exemptions from the English proficiency tests, please see the following document: https://uit.no/Content/254419/PhD_EnglishProficiency_100913.pdf

The course has 20 seats. If the number of applicants exceeds the number of places available on the PhD course, applicants will be ranked from category 1 to 5.

Category 1: Doctoral students from UiT or other Norwegian universities who follow the national research school in gender research

Category 2: Students admitted to any PhD Programme at UiT

Category 3: Participants in the Associate Professor Programme that fulfil the educational requirements

Category 4: Doctoral students from other universities

Category 5: People with a minimum of a Master´s Degree (or equivalent). (A Norwegian Master´s Degree of 5 years or 3 (Bachelor Degree) + 2 years (Master’s Degree).

If there are more than 20 PhD students from HSL who apply. The students who have studied the longest will be given preferance.

The students have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The student has profound insights in fundamental and current feminist/queer theories. They have a deep and thorough understanding of perspectives, subjects and terminologies within feminist and gender epistemologies, theories and methodologies.

Skills

The student is able to theorize and analyze independently, both orally and written, their material according to relevant discourses within feminist and gender research, to apply advancing methods and to discuss challenges and pitfalls that occur when doing feminist and gender research. The student is able to analyze gender and power in relation to politics, artefacts and societies.

Competence

Through understanding and approaching research with feminist methodologies, the student will be able to think in new and critical ways about the materials they are investigating. Thus, they will gain the competence to advance the critical originality and profoundness of their thesis and deepen their social and scientific relevance.

It and will provide students with the opportunity of focusing on one of these in the course assignment. The 3-day course meeting will consist of lectures and group discussion seminars where the students both will discuss assigned course readings, as well as their own research projects.

Lectures, seminars, student presentations, group assignments.

All courses will be evaluated once during the period of the study program. The board of the program decides which courses will be evaluated by students and teacher each year. 

The following coursework requirements must be completed and approved in order to take the final exam:

Before you attend the course, you must prepare and send 500 words regarding your planned or conducted research and its feminist methodological angles and applications. You must also comment on the strengths of using feminist methodology in your work, and the challenges it poses.  

The exam is a final paper of about 10 to 15 pages, referring the course literature. The students will have 2 weeks to write the exam.  

The exam will be assessed as Pass/Fail.

Retake is offered in in the beginning of the following semester in cases of Fail. Deferred examination is offered in the beginning of the following semester if the student is unable to take the final exam due to illness or other exceptional circumstances. Registration deadline for retake is January 15 for autumn semester exams and August 15 for spring semester exams.

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.