Introduction to gender studies

This unit shows how gender is the primary analytical category across multidisciplinary fields of study in Asian and global contexts. These fields of study include but are not limited to: culture or the Arts, media and communications, business or economy, education or pedagogy, sociology, politics, psychology or sports, sciences or health and religion or theology. Gender Studies as a specialised discipline as such, foregrounds or privileges a gendered perspective and analysis across these multiple sites of study. Other analytical categories such as class, ethnicity, nationality and sexualities that intersect with gender are also considered.

The topics in this unit are highly revelatory, gender-sensitised and often, thought-provoking, as they set out to challenge assumptions, biases even prejudices that students have in making visible how constructed rather than naturalised gendered and sexual identities are, beginning with one's own.

The unit aims to enable students to realise how relevant, contemporary and intersectional the study of gender is across disciplines, social-cultural contexts and their own lived realities. The unit also aims to impress upon students how integral a gendered perspective is to understanding and transforming human relations and micro-macro structures towards realising a more sustainable, just and equitable existence for all.