Location:

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Program Type:

Full Degree

Degree Level:

Master

Specialty:

Sociology

Program Overview

Program Description:

Gender and sexuality studies are devoted to enhancing our understanding of the differences among certain groups of women and certain groups of men - as well as between women and men - in an era of globalisation and transnational migration. Regimes of gender relations and organisations of sexuality will be explored from a comparative, cross-cultural and/or transnational perspective. A range of social distinctions among and between women and men, and the particular forms of agency and sexual desire, are grounded in their ethnic and religious identities, age categories, class location, sexual orientation, or access to political power. These distinctions produce different experiences and entitlements in civil society and citizenship; they endow most human beings with contrasting perspectives on their options in the environment in which they live, work, and forge social and sexual bonds. This scholarly endeavour represents a systematic attempt to address structurally embedded prescriptions concerning gender relations and sexual behaviour on a par with other analytical variables such as class, ethnicity, religion, age, or political ideology. It is generally accepted that differences between rich and poor, between white-skinned and black or brown-skinned people, or between Christians and Muslims are undeniable factors in people's lives. Functioning as a woman or a man, with particular sexual dispositions, holds comparable significance. The intellectual initiative of gender and sexuality studies aims to integrate the social and cultural imperatives that shape gendered identities and sexual behaviour and relationships into the normal research repertoire of social scientists. Accordingly, in the MSc-programme students will learn how to incorporate a multi-disciplinary and transnational approach to the assessment of the shifting influences of ethnicity, class, age, nationality, and power structures on gender and sexual behaviour and vice versa.

Additional Program Information

Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Commission on Technical and Career Institutions