Gender Studies interrogates the relationships that impact all of us: in families, workplaces, friendships, schools, clubs, online and more. At a time when more people than ever are contesting deeply held notions of sex, gender and sexuality, it’s especially important to understand how gender intersects with other identities like class, ethnicity, and religious identity and then impacts our self-perceptions. Given this, Gender Studies examines the processes of being sexed and gendered, incorporating critical perspectives on, amongst others, the family, education, media, politics and the workplace while taking into account the impact of class and race, colonisation and coloniality. Our courses cover key issues and debates on women and femininity, men and masculinity, and LGBTQI+. Taught by leading scholars in the field, our courses address the latest developments in feminist, gender, queer and transgender theory and practice.

Students can take courses across multiple disciplines to develop an understanding of how the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities function in human society, how ideas about gender and sexuality change (and how they persist) across time, place and communities, and how this matters for all of us.

You will be supervised by our researchers and have access to a range of resources to assist you in your academic and professional development.

We welcome PhD research proposals in areas such as:

• Critical gender and development
• Critical mental health
• Feminist political theory
• Gender and culture
• Gender and Pacific development
• Gender and reproduction
• Gender and sexuality in comparative literature
• Gender and sexuality in writing and media
• Gender, sexuality and religion
• Intersectionality studies
• Queer ecologies
• Queer theoretical approaches to the study of religion
• Queer theory
• Sex work politics and policies
• Sexual violence
• US social movements and popular culture
• Women and politics