Gender and sexuality studies

Gender and sexuality studies provides an analytical approach to the significance of sex, gender and sexuality in many parts of our lives and the important roles they often play in how we understand ourselves and the structures we live in.

Gender and sexuality studies provides a critical lens across a range of fields, including:

• art and literature
• popular culture and the media
• politics and the law
• marketing and advertising
• health and wellbeing
• the economics of family life and work.

Whether in our public identities or intimate lives, sex, gender and sexuality are prominent features of contemporary and historical life.

Gender and sexuality studies at Deakin provides a structured interdisciplinary program for studying sex, gender and sexuality, drawing on local knowledges and histories, while also situating these ideas in their global context. 

Through an integrated study of local experiences and transnational flows of knowledge and influences, Gender and sexuality studies at Deakin provides students with an understanding of key forces which shape our understandings and lived experiences of gender and sexuality, both as cultural phenomena and as embodied practices.

The program emphasises the intersectional dimensions of gender and sexuality, addressing questions of class, citizenship, ethnicity, race, religion, ability and geographical location. Throughout their studies, students are encouraged to develop skills to analytically reflect on, and contribute to, a range of important debates. These include discussions about how sex, gender and sexuality inform understandings of the self, and how we recognise and respond to difference.

As a single unit, or a major area of study, you can choose to study gender and sexuality studies within Deakin’s Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Arts (Honours), or depending on the course you choose, if you have free electives within your degree you may be able to use these to study a gender and sexuality studies unit or two.

 

THE DEAKIN GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES EXPERIENCE 

Hear what Deakin students Amy and Olivia have to say about their experiences studying gender and sexuality studies and meet our new lecturer, Dr Gilbert Caluya.