Gender Studies - Dual-Subject Bachelor's Programme

'Is it a boy or a girl?' This is one of the first questions when a baby is born. But what does the division of human beings into two genders mean? How does this affect the perception of the self and others, identity, and circumstances of individuals? In what ways do gender constructions permeate the social and cultural order of societies? What role do other categories such as age, ethnicity, sexuality or social position play? What mechanisms of domination or power apply in these cases? 
Gender Studies addresses these questions. This programme at the University of Oldenburg is oriented towards cultural studies. Accordingly, students learn the basics of gender research in combination with cultural theory. The methods and techniques of several disciplines are integrated into Gender Studies. In this programme, privilege and marginalisation are investigated on the basis of gender concepts from different cultural, national and global contexts. Equality and anti-descrimination policies also come into the picture, as do the goals and meanings of social movements. International perspectives and close cooperation with experts and academics from across Europe and further afield form an integral part of the programme. 
The development of analytical and intercultural competencies enables students to work with transdisciplinary issues concerning gender perspectives fields of cultural activity. Such fields are introduced in this programme, and students have the opportunity to test their newly acquired competencies in an internship. 
In this degree programme in Gender Studies at the University of Oldenburg, students work in small groups with plenty of individual attention. Central perspectives are:


 

• the inter and transdisciplinary investigation of the politics of representation;
• processes of transculturalism and cultural transfer (migration of people and things);
• queer theory applied to the understanding of societal processes of normalisation in the field of sexuality;
• gender-specific education processes;
• the connection of theoretical and practical fields in the development of gender competence.

Gender Studies is coordinated by the Study Group for Gender Studies (AG Gender Studies) in Faculty III, as well as the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Research (ZFG), the central contact point for gender research for lecturers, researchers, and students.