Gender and globalisation: Theoretical and methodological challenges

University of Bergen, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK); University of Bergen, Faculty of Psychology, Research Centre for Health Promotion (HEMIL) (Master Programme on Gender and Development (GAD))

Course leader:

• Professor Ellen Mortensen, University of Bergen, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK) (home page)

Deputy course leaders:

• Postdoctoral fellow Gaudencia Mutema, University of Bergen, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK)
• Associate professor Marit Tjomsland, University of Bergen, Faculty of Psychology, Research Centre for Health Promotion (HEMIL) (Master Programme on Gender and Development (GAD)) (home page)

In collaboration with:

• Postdoctoral fellow Kari Jegerstedt, University of Bergen, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK)
• Postdoctoral fellow Cecile Ødegaard, University of Bergen, Faculty of Psychology, Research Centre for Health Promotion (HEMIL) (Master Programme on Gender and Development (GAD))
• Postdoctoral fellow Synnøve Bendixsen, University of Bergen, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK)
• Adminstrative deputy: Marianne Eskeland, University of Bergen, Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK)

Invited guest lecturers:

• Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo, Department of Public and International Law, Institute of Women’s Law (home page)
• Professor David L. Eng, University of Pennsylvania, Department of English, USA (home page)
• Professor Teemu Ruskola, Emory Law, Emory University, USA (home page)

Short Course description

This interdisciplinary course will explore how globalization processes affect how we conceive of gender today. Concepts of gendered, sexual, ethnic and religious identity, which traditionally have been understood within the context of the nation-state, are now being subject to radical redefinitions due to the global spread of finance capital, new technologies, and the transnational migration of people, cultures and customs. This course will address issues of gender and identity from the perspective of citizenship, migration, democracy, human rights, armed conflict and military intervention and the reproduction of uneven power relations between the North and the South. The course will also address issues related to women’s right to use, access and control of natural resources, by approaching development from a gendered and rights-based perspective. Students will be introduced to both theoretical and methodological challenges involved in gender-related research on these issues, from theoretical/philosophical, juridical, anthropological and sociological perspectives, using various feminist/gender and postcolonial theories.

For full course description and syllabus: click here (PDF)