Master of Development Studies (Gender & Development)
ObjectivesStudents who complete the Masters of Development Studies (Gender and Development) will:• demonstrate a sound understanding of recent developments in feminist theory and the literature in gender and development;• understand the issues involved in debates about the relationships between gender and the development process;• develop an understanding of contemporary feminist debates about gender and development and the relationship of these debates to other areas of social enquiry;• know and be able to use some of the techniques employed in development planning.
Academic titleMaster of Development Studies (Gender & Development)
Course description2 Year (200 Point) program:
Duration: 2 years full-time / up to 4 years part-time.
First 100 points
* one compulsory subject (12.5 points)
* one core subject (12.5 points)
* elective subjects totalling 75 points
Second 100 points
* thesis 15,000 words (50 points)
* two core subject (25 points)
* two elective subjects (25 points)
Total 200 points - subjects are 12.5 points each, unless indicated otherwise
1.5 Year (150 Point) program:
Duration: 1.5 years full-time / up to 3 years part-time.
* thesis 15,000 words (50 points)
* one compulsory subject (12.5 points)
* at least two core subjects (25 points)
* electives to total 150 points
- refer to 200 point program for subjects
Total 150 points - subjects are 12.5 points each, unless indicated otherwise.
1 Year (100 Point) program:
Duration: 1 years full-time / up to 2 years part-time.
- refer to the second 100 points of the 200 point program above for structure and subjects
Total 100 points - subjects are 12.5 points each, unless indicated otherwise.
First 100 points Compulsory subject
Subject Semester Credit Points
131-432 Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective
This subject surveys recent developments in feminist theory and feminist methodology within a cross-cultural context. It explores issues involved in present-day debates about feminist epistemology and knowledge, including debates surrounding the rela... Semester 1 12.50
Core Subjects
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-545 Understanding Development
This subject forms an introduction to the main past and current theories of development, involving the approaches of several social science disciplines. It also considers many of the major issues in development, including the environment, gender, hum... Semester 1 12.50
131-434 Reading Course
This subject involves a study of theoretical, empirical or historiographical issues broadly related to the thesis topic and conducted through extensive reading, decided by the student in conjunction with the supervisor. The subject should enhance the... Semester 1, Semester 2 12.50
121-461 Gender Issues in Development
This subject will focus on feminist engagements with development theory. Case studies will consider the place of women and men in rural social orders, the relationship between gender, the environment and ethnicity, the gendered dimensions of governan... Semester 2 12.50
Elective subjects
Gender studies
Subject Semester Credit Points
131-434 Reading Course
This subject involves a study of theoretical, empirical or historiographical issues broadly related to the thesis topic and conducted through extensive reading, decided by the student in conjunction with the supervisor. The subject should enhance the... Semester 1, Semester 2 12.50
Asia Institute
Subject Semester Credit Points
110-486 Researching Islam and Muslim Societies
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
110-499 Asian Health and Development
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
110-553 Human Rights in Southeast Asia
This seminar will focus on human rights and its critics from a historical and comparative perspective. We will explore the factors that have given rise to radically different conception of rights and justice (i.e. political, economic, cultural, relig... Semester 2 12.50
English/Cultural Studies
Subject Semester Credit Points
106-428 Media, Politics and Cultural Diaspora
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
Political Science
Subject Semester Credit Points
166-416 Justice, Democracy and Difference
This subject provides a critical examination of contemporary debates about ideas of justice, democracy and the politics of difference. The subject critically explores both the major liberal approaches to justice alongside critiques of liberal approac... Semester 1 12.50
166-498 Women in Global Politics
This subject will examine feminist contributions to the theorising of international politics. It will consider the ways in which feminist theorists have 'gendered' international relations theory. The subject engages with the work of theoris... Semester 1 12.50
166-442 Rights and Public Policy
This subject aims to assist students with the development of skills relevant in the policy-making process. This is carried out by familiarising students with legal and political developments within a variety of rights fields and by requiring them to ... Semester 2 12.50
School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry/Melbourne School of Land and Environment
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-408 Civil Society, NGOs and the State
In the nearly two decades since the end of the Cold War, the world has witnessed a remarkable rejection of the big plans and projects that characterized the period of high-modernization that existed between the Bretton Woods pact of 1944 and the end ... Semester 1 12.50
121-436 The Geopolitics of Peace and Development
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
121-462 Health and Development
This subject examines the relationship between health and political economic development in the world system, particularly in developing countries. It draws upon medical anthropology and health sociology in addressing issues such as the social origin... Semester 1 12.50
121-525 The Political Ecology of Development
The subject provides postgraduate and honours students with a critical understanding of the institutions that regulate the interactions between society and the natural environment, using a political ecology perspective. The topics explored in this su... Semester 1 12.50
136-430 Theories of Modernity
In this subject images of the "city", "progress", "the public" and "the nation" will be used to establish some of the features of modernity. The way modernity is understood will also be explored through various... Semester 1 12.50
121-545 Understanding Development
This subject forms an introduction to the main past and current theories of development, involving the approaches of several social science disciplines. It also considers many of the major issues in development, including the environment, gender, hum... Semester 1 12.50
121-460 Field Methods for Development
The subject will focus on ethnographic or qualitative methods, particularly as they apply to development work. It includes a discussion of varying notions of ethnographic or qualitative research, including the notion of praxis the merger of theory an... Semester 2 12.50
121-461 Gender Issues in Development
This subject will focus on feminist engagements with development theory. Case studies will consider the place of women and men in rural social orders, the relationship between gender, the environment and ethnicity, the gendered dimensions of governan... Semester 2 12.50
136-528 Medicine and Culture
Over the ages people have deployed various methods - metaphysical, magical or the pure empirical - to combat the ravages of disease. Bloodletting, cupping, leaching, doses of highly poisonous chemicals, blisters, copious draughts of mineral water, hy... Semester 2 12.50
136-431 Imagined Societies
This subject critically engages with questions regarding the place of subjectivity in the constitution and organisation of social and political relations, at both the theoretical and empirical levels. It involves the study of political subjectivities... Semester 2 12.50
Key Centre for Women's Health
Subject Semester Credit Points
505-522 Women's Sexual & Reproductive Health
This subject takes as a starting point a consideration of what constitutes sexual and reproductive health over the life course. It provides an overview of key sexual and reproductive health issues in a variety of geographic locations and considers t... Semester 1 12.50
505-523 Gender and Health: Critical Perspectives
This subject examines the way Gender and Health, and particularly Women's Health have been examined within and across the disciplinary fields of Public Health, Biomedicine, Epidemiology, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology. We will examine th... Semester 1 12.50
505-524 Research Methodology in Women's Health
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
505-525 Women and Global Health
Developing and newly-industrialised countries experience wide variation in terms of history, politics, demographic transition, development and epidemiology. This subject situates women and their health in a dynamic context of development, globalizati... Semester 2 12.50
Second 100 points Thesis
Subject Semester Credit Points
131-520 Minor Thesis - Gender and Development
Topics covered will include theories of development, feminist critiques of development theory, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, statistical analysis, interviewing and survey techniques, environmental and social impact analysis, ge... Semester 1, Semester 2 50
Core subjects
Subject Semester Credit Points
131-540 Reading Course
This subject involves a supervised study of an area of scholarship chosen by the student in consultation with an appointed supervisor. A READING list will be agreed upon and discussed regularly during the semester as the READING proceeds. The subject... Semester 1, Semester 2 12.50
131-546 Gender, Globalisation and Development
This subject examines the relationships between gender, globalisation and development in selected regions of Asia and the Pacific, drawing on the theoretical perspectives and insights of a number of social science and humanities disciplines. On compl... Semester 1 12.50
131-547 Rethinking Rights and Global Development
This subject explores the theoretical and political issues surrounding ideas of rights and human rights, with special reference to the development process within the contemporary globalising order. It draws on recent critical, feminist and other (re)... Semester 2 12.50
Elective subjects:
Gender studies
Subject Semester Credit Points
131-540 Reading Course
This subject involves a supervised study of an area of scholarship chosen by the student in consultation with an appointed supervisor. A READING list will be agreed upon and discussed regularly during the semester as the READING proceeds. The subject... Semester 1, Semester 2 12.50
131-546 Gender, Globalisation and Development
This subject examines the relationships between gender, globalisation and development in selected regions of Asia and the Pacific, drawing on the theoretical perspectives and insights of a number of social science and humanities disciplines. On compl... Semester 1 12.50
131-547 Rethinking Rights and Global Development
This subject explores the theoretical and political issues surrounding ideas of rights and human rights, with special reference to the development process within the contemporary globalising order. It draws on recent critical, feminist and other (re)... Semester 2 12.50
Historical Studies
Subject Semester Credit Points
131-551 Gender: Representations and Histories
What is gender and why does it matter? In this seminar we will explore how this concept emerged and the multiple meanings it has taken on in academic inquiry and everyday life. Representations of gender will be examined in both theoretical and histor... Semester 1 12.50
121-508 Project Management & Design
An introduction to project management and design from an interdisciplinary and participatory perspective. The principal focus is the project cycle: identification, feasibility and design, appraisal, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Part... Semester 1 12.50
Criminology
Subject Semester Credit Points
191-537 Genocide, State Crime and the Law
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
Asia Institute
Subject Semester Credit Points
110-553 Human Rights in Southeast Asia
This seminar will focus on human rights and its critics from a historical and comparative perspective. We will explore the factors that have given rise to radically different conception of rights and justice (i.e. political, economic, cultural, relig... Semester 2 12.50
School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry/Melbourne School of Land and Environment
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-523 Internship in Development
INTERNSHIP IN DEVELOPMENT IS A CORE SUBJECT (12.5 CREDIT POINTS) AVAILABLE TO POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND VARIOUS COGNATE DISCIPLINES AND FIELDS OF STUDY. THE (LOCAL) INTERNSHIP SUBJECT AIMS TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WIT... Semester 1, Semester 2, Summer 12.50
121-544 International Internship
INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIP IS AN ELECTIVE (25 CREDIT POINTS) SUBJECT AVAILABLE TO MASTERS LEVEL STUDENTS IN DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND VARIOUS COGNATE DISCIPLINES AND FIELDS OF STUDY. IT PROVIDES STUDENTS WITH THE OPPORTUNITY TO GAIN EXPOSU... Semester 1, Semester 2, Summer 25
121-503 Research Methods and Design
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
121-508 Project Management & Design
An introduction to project management and design from an interdisciplinary and participatory perspective. The principal focus is the project cycle: identification, feasibility and design, appraisal, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Part... Semester 1 12.50
121-525 The Political Ecology of Development
The subject provides postgraduate and honours students with a critical understanding of the institutions that regulate the interactions between society and the natural environment, using a political ecology perspective. The topics explored in this su... Semester 1 12.50
ENST00003 Environmental Impact Assessment
This subject prepares students for environmental management roles by providing them with the principles of how human impacts on the environment might be detected and managed. The principles will be placed within the legal and social contexts of envir... Semester 1 12.50
121-529 Social Impact Assessment and Evaluation
This subject develops the skills to understand and assess the social impacts of development. The different actors involved in shaping and implementing development projects and programmes (the state, international development agencies, non-government ... Semester 2 12.50
121-537 Heritage and Cultural Environments
This subject provides students with advanced level analysis and interpretation of the range of issues associated with cultural resource management. The subject advances student knowledge of cross cultural issues as they relate to resource management ... Semester 2 12.50
136-528 Medicine and Culture
Over the ages people have deployed various methods - metaphysical, magical or the pure empirical - to combat the ravages of disease. Bloodletting, cupping, leaching, doses of highly poisonous chemicals, blisters, copious draughts of mineral water, hy... Semester 2 12.50
Social Work
Subject Semester Credit Points
196-519 Issues in Women's Mental Health
The focus of this subject is on exploring and understanding the clinical and social aspects of women´s mental health. Discussion will draw on theoretical perspectives and research findings from sociology, psychology and neuroscience, as w... Semester 1 12.50
Key Centre for Women's Health
Subject Semester Credit Points
505-522 Women's Sexual & Reproductive Health
This subject takes as a starting point a consideration of what constitutes sexual and reproductive health over the life course. It provides an overview of key sexual and reproductive health issues in a variety of geographic locations and considers t... Semester 1 12.50
505-523 Gender and Health: Critical Perspectives
This subject examines the way Gender and Health, and particularly Women's Health have been examined within and across the disciplinary fields of Public Health, Biomedicine, Epidemiology, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology. We will examine th... Semester 1 12.50
505-524 Research Methodology in Women's Health
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
505-525 Women and Global Health
Developing and newly-industrialised countries experience wide variation in terms of history, politics, demographic transition, development and epidemiology. This subject situates women and their health in a dynamic context of development, globalizati... Semester 2 12.50