Graduate Diploma in Gender and Development

The aim of the graduate diploma is to offer a structured program of study in the field of gender and development to students with little or no previous knowledge or academic training in either the principal subject area or in gender studies. The course will introduce students to a comprehensive set of topics dealing with the principal issues in the area of gender and development and will be multidisciplinary. The program aims to introduce students to the theoretical and empirical analysis of a wide range of issues and will focus on the development of skills relevant to the following educational aims:

• To meet the requisite academic standards and skills for advanced entry to the MA (Women’s Studies)
• To provide students with the basic skills and specialist knowledge which can be applied in the gender and development field or associated areas of employment and /or research

The program

The program is a 36-unit package and articulates to the Masters program. Candidates should consult the Director of Studies in the Women’s Studies Department for the list of topics offered in any one year. The diploma comprises of the following:

Core topics [compulsory]

The core topics are designed to provide a foundation for further study in the area of gender and development and women’s studies.

WMST 8001 Introduction to Gender and Development
WMST 8002 Introduction to Feminist Issues

The elective topics cover a wide range of issues within specialist areas of study to encourage students to both engage in problem solving directly related to contemporary issues in gender and development and acquire basic skills in the area of qualitative research methods.

Electives

WMST 8045 A Walk on the Wild Side: Gender and International Politics
WMST 8046 Engendering Justice, Rights & Representation
WMST 8043 Researching Women’s Lives in a Post-colonial Context
WMST 8041 Indigenous Women's Voices: Negotiating Differences
WMST 7012 Gender Rules: Sex, Gender and the Law
WMST 8044 Gender and Politics in Latin America
WMST8048 Women in World Religions
WMST 8042 Gender Issues in Development Reading Topic
WMST 8047 Gender Issues in Development Reading Topic [B]
WMST 7014 Feminist Political Perspectives: The Challenges to Political Theory
DVST 9043 Gender Analysis
DVST 9044 Gender Mainstreaming
DVST 8021 Discourses on West and the Rest
DVST 8023 Development Problems, Policies and Programs

Full time students may complete this program over one calendar year commencing in March of each year and part time students will be expected to complete the program pro rata. Students wishing to enter the program mid year may be permitted to do so under special circumstances. This is a full fee paying program which is open to all students who qualify for entry to the program [see the Admission Criteria].

Academic staff

Yvonne Corcoran-Nantes, Program Convenor (Politics and Women’s Studies)
Gender studies, gender and politics, gender and international relations, gender and development, development and underdevelopment, women in ex-soviet/socialist republics of Central Asia and Mongolia, gender and class struggle in the developing world (especially Latin America).

Jane Haggis (Department of Sociology)
Gender and colonialism (with special focus on white women), missionaries in India, development and culture and the construction of whiteness in Australia.

Susanne Schech (Centre for Development Studies, School of Geography, Population & Environmental Management)
Theories of development (including post-modern and post-colonial critiques, social movements based in ethnic and national identities, gender and development policies particularly those of AusAID and the construction of whiteness in Australia

Heather Brook (Women's Studies)
The politics and government of ‘private life’; marriage and marriage-like relationships; intersections of race and sex in Australia; feminist theory; drug-use and policies relating to illicit drugs; feminism and the law.

Barbara Baird (Women's Studies)
The gender, race and sexual politics of citizenship and national identity; the politics and cultural formation of reproduction, in particular abortion; sexuality studies and queer theory; interdisciplinary approaches to history, including oral history; feminism and feminist theory; Australian history.

Admissions criteria

Applicants may be admitted as candidates for the Graduate Diploma in Gender and Development if they hold a degree from this or any other recognised university or institute of higher education or any other equivalent qualification deemed by the Board to provide an appropriate basis for admission to the program. International students will conform to the admission requirements, including the requisite English Language qualifications, managed by the International office.

Admission procedures

Academic inquiries regarding the program should be directed, in the first instance, to:

Dr Heather Brook (Semester 2, 2008)
Program Convenor
Women’s Studies Department
Faculty of Social Sciences
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5001
Telephone: +61 8 8201-2136
Fax: +61 8 8201-3350
email: Heather.Brook@flinders.edu.au
Website: http://www.socsci.flinders.edu.au/wmst/

For APPLICATION FORMS international students should contact the International Office:

International Office
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5001
Australia

Telephone: (61 8) 8201-2727
Fax: (61 8) 8201-3177
email: intl.office@flinders.edu.au
Website: http://www.flinders.edu.au/international/Office/