 Hi Sophie, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Yeah, not too bad. We'll just wait a couple minutes, the students are just in the waiting room now. That's totally fine. I'm just, I was running a little late, so I'm just pulling up my stuff anyway. No worries, you can try out your presentation or anything if you need to before the session starts. Yeah, maybe let me see. I can share my screen. Let me just open the present. You can see that right? Yeah. How many students are in the waiting room? Six so far, or seven now. I'll just give it like one or two more minutes and then I'll let them in. Sure. All right, I'm just going to let them all in now. Hi to everyone that's joined. Welcome to the gender study session. My name is Amani. I'm part of the recruitment team and I'll just be helping facilitate this session. We are joined by Sophie who is the academic in the gender studies department who's just going to take you through a little presentation about the program. If you would like to ask any questions you can do so. There is a couple of ways to do that. We have the chat function which you can find at the bottom of your screen. And you can put a question in throughout the presentation or at the end, there is a dedicated Q&A session. If you would also like to, you can raise your hand and unmute yourself, turn on your camera if you wish. If you'd like to ask any questions, just know that this presentation is being recorded. So if you do want to do that, just know that you will be recorded as well. So without further ado, I'm going to hand over to Sophie. Thanks so much Amani. Welcome everybody. My name is Dr. Sophie Shamas and I'm a lecturer in gender studies within the School of Law, Gender and Media, and I'm going to be walking you through our degree offerings today. So let me start off by introducing our degree programs. So we've got a number of degrees on offer, the MA Gender Studies, MA Gender Studies Middle East Pathway, MA Transnational Queer Feminist Politics, MA Transnational Queer Feminist Politics Middle East Pathway, MA Gender Studies and Law, and we also have a distance learning or purely online program, the MA Gender Sexuality in Global Politics. You can do any of our master's programs with the exception of the distance learning one either full time or part time over the course of two or three years. Now our degree programs really in sort of, you know, the thing that connects all of them is that they allow students to draw on the expertise of staff across SOAS to develop a bespoke degree on the specialized study of gender in relation to Asian African and Middle Eastern cultures and societies. And in terms of who our programs will appeal to, they can really appeal to students with a variety of backgrounds and objectives. For example, women's women's studies or gender studies students who wish to engage more deeply with gender theory in relation to regional specialization. So especially but not exclusively the societies of Asia African Middle East, like I said. Those coming from Asian African or Middle Eastern studies who wish to incorporate the study of gender into their own areas of expertise would also benefit from our programs. Those who have previously trained in specific disciplines so anthropology, cultural and media studies, religious studies, complete history, politics, sociology, but are looking for, you know, to kind of really develop a gender angle or to kind of engage in a more interdisciplinary degree program this would be a good fit for you. And of course our program is also geared towards professionals who have been working in the field of gender and sexuality, but would like to acquire the critical thinking skills needed to work through the experiences they faced in these sectors. Now, to break down each of our degrees, they're essentially distinguished by the kinds of courses that you're required to take when enrolled onto them. So our most general degree is the MA in gender studies and it's also our most flexible degree. So it only you're only required to take two core modules when you're on this degree, and the rest of your modules you can choose from a list of professional modules that include both gender studies offerings but also a variety of courses from across the university. So this is really the degree that that kind of allows you to tailor, tailor it along the lines of what your own interests are so the core modules that you have to take and students across our degrees have to take our gender theory and the study of Asia Africa and the Middle East. This is a year long module. It's the module that really introduces you to the core theories that are relevant to the study of gender and sexuality at the intersection of post-colonial studies. And then the other required module you would take is dissertation methods for gender studies. This usually takes place in term two. It's the module that prepares you to write your dissertation. So that's the third requirement across all our degrees that you would have to write a 12,000 word dissertation. So in the case of this degree would have a total of 75 credits left to take from optional modules from across the university. So like I said quite flexible. In terms of what distinguishes the core teaching on this program, the MA gender studies moves attention away from Western gender theory by exposing students to scholarship from across the global south in order to help expand how you conceptualize gender. So really the objective is to broaden your understanding of gender relations in Asia Africa and the Middle East, and to encourage you to interrogate the power relations that shape how we understand gender and non-Western societies. Now, in terms of the MA and gender studies with special reference to the Middle East, as the name suggests this program comes with a regional specialization, and it requires that you take our Middle East focused modules, which essentially critically examine and discusses on gender and sexuality in the Middle East and provide an alternative approach to the study of gender and sexuality in a region that is quite misunderstood and maligned. So in addition to gender theory and dissertation methods, you would be required to take gender in the Middle East, as well as queer politics in Asia Africa and the Middle East. And the courses that are specific to this program draw on the rich and diverse body of work from from the Middle East, or about the Middle East that are invested in offering nuanced historical and contemporary accounts of gender and sexuality in the region. Now, in terms of our MA transnational queer feminist politics, the modules required for this program really focus on getting you to critically investigate the relationship between area studies and queer theory. So in addition to gender theory and dissertation methods, you would have the option of taking either transnational queer trans and disability studies or queer politics in Asia Africa and the Middle East. Of course, you can also take both of these courses if you want and they were just the second would fall under your optional module offerings. So the courses specific to this program, introduce you to the literature on transnational feminism, queer diasporas and queer of color critique, and the important theoretical and political interventions that they've made. Not only in the realms of women's and LGBT rights advocacy, but also more broadly in terms of how we imagine emancipatory politics on a larger scale. Now our MA transnational queer feminist politics with special reference to the Middle East. Again, this comes with a regional specialization. And this program applies the theoretical and methodological frameworks that distinguish the general TQFP degree to the study of the Middle East. So here again you're required to take our Middle East offerings, but with more of an emphasis on queer theory rather than just gender studies. So this is our least flexible degree. Again, in addition to gender theory and dissertation methods you would be required to take gender in the Middle East, queer politics in Asia Africa and the Middle East and transnationalizing queer trans and disability studies. You would be left with 30 credits from optional modules. So that would either mean 130 credit module or to 15 credit modules. You know, in terms of the specificity of the Middle East, the core modules on this program examine how gender and sexuality are lived and negotiated in the, in the Middle East and elsewhere with a particular emphasis on the ways in which people in or from the region grapple with how to live a non or an anti normative life. And importantly, these modules approach the Middle East as a transnational rather than a bounded space. So a space to which and from which discourses people and commodities move. And we invite students to think through what this might mean for the study of gender and sexuality in the region. Now, our MA gender studies and law and law offers a specialized study of gender and law in relation to the cultures of Asia Africa and the Middle East. So the program really focuses on enabling students to study gender issues in relation to a particular regional or disciplinary specialization, alongside the acquisition of knowledge of feminist legal theories and a study of a legal discipline. So in addition to the core modules, you would be required to take gender sexuality and law theories and methodologies. And the 60 credits of optional modules would come from a list provided by the law department. We have a background in law to take this particular program. The law department has an LLM gender and gender and law which is geared towards people who have a background in law for this one, you only really need an interest in law in order to take it. So as I mentioned, we also have a distance learning or online degree which we began running last year. The degree runs over two years and it can be done. It's meant to be done remotely, and it works really well both for people who have very heavy workloads in terms of their professional life and also people who are outside of the UK, and want a degree from a UK based university but either don't want to move here or don't have the capacity to move here. So the teaching takes place through an online discussion forum where students interact with each other and their teachers and are also given access to material that's uploaded onto a designated site for students to engage with. So readings and guiding questions and recorded lectures and that type of thing. Finally, we also have an MFIL and PhD and gender studies members of the of the Center and current research students who work, work on an exceptionally wide range of topics both theoretical and empirical. So if you're interested in a PhD here we really invite students with interest in researching gender or gender and sexuality in relation to the subspecialisms of security, law, migration and diasporas social movements, queer theory, transgender studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, queer or trans of color critique and decolonial epistemologies. Now what I want to do is move on to telling you in a bit more detail about what distinguishes us from other gender studies centers in the UK. I quite like this quote from a former graduates from a former graduate of ours, where she said, the Center for Gender Studies bridges academia and activism combines feminist theory with practice challenges the idea of knowledge production and encourages critical thinking all the while creating a safe, open and kind space. So the spirit in that quote I think really describes the, you know, the, the, the culture that animates our center as a whole and that links our diverse programs together. So each of our programs offer something specific as I mentioned, but now I want to talk to you about their commonalities and what it means to be a member of the Center for Gender Studies rather than just a student enrolled on one of our degree programs. So if I break down the quote that I shared the student had said that cgs bridges academia and activism and combines feminist theory and practice. So what does this mean and how do we achieve this. These cgs programs and curricula will introduce you to alternative feminisms. So to decolonial intersectional and transnational feminisms that really can help us to imagine how to cultivate solidarity with all who are exploited and oppressed. And that don't dissolve the experiences of people inhabiting diverse parts of the world into one another, but embrace and attempt to learn from these differences. So if you're taking a critical approach to knowledge production. So as the strength and particularity derives from combining traditional academic disciplines with a focus on the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In line with this at cgs, you will not only learn gender and queer theory, but you will learn about these bodies of knowledge in relation to these geographic regions. And in the end, you will think about what it means to adopt a decolonial approach to knowledge acquisition and production when it comes to gender and sexuality. So really looking beyond the Western canon for theories and methodologies. You learn then to contextualize the region, country, city and community whose gendered relations you are analyzing. You learn to approach gender not in isolation but intersectionally examining the numerous other dynamics that intersect with it, and that shape it and which it shapes. cgs is also a place for taking people seriously on their own terms for listening to what they say about themselves and their lives, and for thinking critically about encountering the silencing of people in the non Western world within the academy more broadly. We look at ourselves on looking into what activists are doing on the ground in the regions we study for example, you know when we're studying feminist movements in different contexts, and really more than just learning to represent particular parts of the world. At cgs we encourage you to treat Asia Africa and the Middle East as zones of theoretical production as well. So as spaces that can help us theorize about the world we live in. The study of gender and feminist theory we're also we're committed to approaching queerness as a mode of critique. So the term queer as it was originally reimagined is meant to signify an oppositional stance to whatever is considered normative at a given point in time. And so political orientation and an action, and to queer or to engage in queering as it relates to knowledge production is to radically question established assumptions, and the ways of thinking that we take for granted. And that's a key part of what we do here at cgs. Lastly, the quote I shared with you mentioned cgs is a space for cultivating community. We like to think of ourselves as a brave space which is a term that I borrow from from a from a number of feminist activists. So it's space for questioning for rethinking for moving beyond the taken for granted and leading into unknown territory with people who have committed to cultivating inclusivity to calling each other in rather than out to educating one another, and to approaching difficult topics with respect and sensitivity for one another. So we try to do this, not only in our classrooms, but through the public seminars we organize, which provide platforms, not only for academics, doing important work around questions of gender and sexuality, but to activists and artists as well. We try to maintain our brave space by also offering our students. I'm just admitting someone from the meeting. And we try to maintain a brief space by offering our students the opportunity to cultivate their own feminist praxis outside the classroom. So inviting them to take the lead and organizing their own radical self care events, for example, and offering them the space and the funding needed to do that. In terms of career opportunities after completing such a degree gender studies is widely regarded by a range of employers as an excellent training, excellent training space. So really equipping holders of the degree with a range of relevant employable skills. And I mean, you can, you know, the knowledge that you gain on such degrees can be applied to work in public policy, the NGO sector think tanks research organizations, journalism and the media more broadly the cultural sphere, government ministries and programs, advocacy, you know, in the end, all aspects of our life are touched by gender, and, you know, gender is something that needs to be factored in when we're thinking about politics when we're thinking about the economy when we're thinking about a variety of spheres and so there are multiple ways in which you can imagine these types of degrees essentially being relevant to a variety of fields. Yeah, so I'll leave it there and open it up to questions. Amazing. Thank you so much, Sophie. Like I've said before, if you have any questions, whether it be about the program life and life as a loss in general, or sort of about the admissions process. It's great to put it in the chat box, or if you'd like to raise your hand and unmute yourself to ask the question. We've got one person that's raised their hand. So I'd like to ask you if you want to ask your question. Hello, hi. Yeah, I was wondering about requirements, because I come from an art background, and I've never done any theory based courses. So I'm just wondering how that would work. Yeah, so we have, you know, our students come from a, you know, a variety of backgrounds in terms of what they've studied or what they've worked in we have a lot of people have no background in the humanities and social sciences who come into these programs, and we factor that into how we teach so we don't usually assume knowledge on the part of our students in gender studies or in critical theory. What I would say is in terms of applying. We really want to focus your energy on that personal statement. So really telling us why this program is the right fit for you, really personalizing it so taking the personal and personal statement seriously you know why is this the right fit for you. What are the courses that excite you what do you imagine you can get out of them, you know be specific who do you want to study under who you're looking forward to getting to know as a lecturer, and what also do you bring to this program right in terms of your arts background, and the work that you've you've done, or the things that you've studied that can really allow you to thrive. And to contribute to these degrees if that makes sense so it's really just about making the case rather than, you know, you know, sort of ticking boxes just really making the case in your personal statement for why this is the right program for you, and not being kind of a general about, I'm interested in gender studies but really telling us why you're interested in this gender studies program. Thank you that's really helpful. We've had a question come in, and the chat box that says roughly how much time is spent on campus versus self study for the full time and part time, two and three year programs. So it's somewhat of a difficult question to answer, given that we're currently in a blended learning environment because of COVID. I mean I would say that on a, you know, part people on part time degrees take less courses per term than people on full time degrees right so people on full time degrees will have a number of contact hours with lectures during the week so sometimes you have people taking three courses a term sometimes you have people taking five courses a term. So there is a lot of time spent for people in full time degrees in lectures or in tutorials or in seminars, less so for part time students who tend to take one to two classes a term for example. In terms of being on campus. Again, somewhat difficult to answer right now. It depends how the pandemic goes along right now all of our lectures are online, large seminars are online, but smaller classes and tutorials have been in many cases running on campus. So, you know, yeah, so I can't really say much more about that but I can just say that you do have I will be taking a lot of classes. You know your classes can be in the morning or they can be around. There are classes that run from five to 7pm. Not much not later than that though. I actually don't know what the limit for the personal statement is Amani do you know. Yeah, so it's 1000 words is the limit. I believe there's a sort of guide on our website. Let me see if I can find it for you about what we look for in a personal statement. Let me see if I can send you the link for that. I've just popped that in there so it's no more than 1000 words and in general we look for sort of the reasons why you're interested in the program and then sort of highlight your relevant experience and suitability for the program as well as mentioned if you've got any future plans as to what you want to use your degree for in the future and what career you want to go into then I would suggest including that as well. Yeah, that's a really good point. I think talking about what you want to do with this experience and this degree. If you do have any more questions feel free to pop them in the chat box or raise your hand if you'd like to unmute yourself as well. Yep. Okay, so I had a question because I'm, I'm applying for a session next year, hopefully fall and I'm also an applicant for the shoving scholarships. So I was wondering. Currently I'm having an issue with my passport. I mean I just need to renew it. But if I have to if I attach my passport the photocopy. It will expire next year February. However, I'll get it renewed this year. So will that be a problem like if I attach the one with the expiring date. The expiring date is next year. That should be fine if you're making an application now you can put in your, your passport that's expiring in February and then once you do receive your new one. All you have to do is just email it to our admissions office a scan of it, and they can just update that in your file. In terms of the question in the chat are cohort. I don't, to my knowledge I don't think we have a cap on how many we admit but our cohort is usually around 50 students. That's usually what we're the numbers that we we we get in gender studies in terms of how many we end up with. But how many we admit will depend on how many people apply and the quality of those applications in the end. Yes, across all degrees and gender studies. But again this is just an average of the numbers we've had in the last couple of years rather than a limit. We have a lot of international students it's a real mix I'd say between between home and international but we get a significant number of international students. So just a personal statement. I would recommend keeping it to 1000 words, just for our, it's just our guidelines that our admissions team have set. So if you are able to just get it down to 1000 words, then that's good. I had another question. How much time do we get to complete the dissertation. So that's a bit of time so you would start working on your dissertation in term three. That's around April and then it's it's due in September. So the entirety of term three, and then the summer, really. Okay. So till fall till till September, September eighth usually is around the deadline. But yeah I guess fall. Yeah. Yes, if you're a part time student the dissertation will be written in your last year. So if we can't any more questions. We can probably wrap up the session I just want to say if you have any sort of admissions questions before applying. Oh we do have one more question that's coming. Do you need to have a degree in gender studies in order to apply for a PhD. No you don't. Of course it works in your favor to have a degree in gender studies, but it's not a requirement. And I wanted to ask another question was, let's say for instance if a student gets selected for disheveling scholarships. And at the same time they've also applied to us for to start the session in the next year. So how soon do you let the student know if they're if they're selected or not for the program. Particularly. But what I can do is, I will put my email in the chat box if you want to send me the just an email about it I can follow it up for you and get back to you with a response. Should I send my email. I put my email in if you want to send me an email about the two minutes scholarship then I will follow up and get back to you regarding that. Thank you so much. No problem. So for references references especially for PhD applications should be academic but they should also be academic for masters I'd say if you've been working for a while then and for it's for masters and you know maybe one professional one academic dissertation topics to be honest is very, very, very broad. So I'm, I hesitate to give an example, because I feel like that then, you know, makes it seem narrower than it is but, you know, we have had students, you know, work on and your dissertation we've had students write more experimental dissertations we've had students write dissertations based on their own experiences and putting that in conversation with theory. We've had interview based dissertations so really you know things on activism in a particular region, really a variety of variety of topics. Okay, I think if there are no more questions then. Oh, we do have a question that says come in. Matt, do you want to unmute yourself. Sorry. But I was wondering, so I, if I understood correctly, we can apply to two different programs at the same time right like put a preference and then a second preference. Is that correct. Yes, you can't have two separate applications in the same academic year but what you can do is put down your first choice program and your second choice program. And so you'd only be considered for your second choice if your first choice is unsuccessful. And can those two options be in two different departments. And if so, is the personal statement one for both or will it be one for each. Yeah, so you can put in so your first choice and your second choice can be from two different departments. I would write your personal statement for your first choice program. And if you are then going to be considered for your second choice program what it would be is that our admissions team would likely contact you to ask for a personal statement, or a source supporting statement for your second choice program. Okay, thank you so much. In terms of the questions in the chat. Yes, the the ages of our students do vary so we do get students who are fresh out of their undergrad we do have students who've been working for you know a number of years. We have mature students as well so it does definitely vary for the, you know I think money for the question on decisions that's. Yeah, so our team usually look for a sort of complete application they look to make a decision within around four weeks. But if there are missing parts of your application and they will get in contact with you for you to supply those pieces of information that are missing in your application and then make a decision on that. And in terms of Jitna's question. Yes, you can take language courses as part of your optional credits. You should be able to be the optional credits on the course pages yes. Just keep in mind that not all the courses listed there will necessarily be on offer. Following on from that all the optional modules for the ones that are sort of part of the department that you're in will be on the page but there is also another link that takes you to the open option modules. So if it's part of your course structure, you're able to take modules from other departments, and those will be listed and they're all on a PDF and there will be a link on the structure page that will take you to that as well. So if there's an optional module that you want to take that's not given as an option for your degree, you can speak to your program convener and they can, they can approve it for you basically if they feel like they understand the reason why you want to take that class so don't, don't worry too much if there's a module you really want to take that's not listed there. Often they're not we'd approve that sort of thing. I just wanted to ask before we sort of wrap up if you have any admissions questions. Before you make your application or while you're making your application. You can contact study at sas.ac.uk. And I've just put that in the chat and they will be able to get back to absorb the application process if you do have any questions on that. I think we can wrap up the session if there are no more questions. Like I've said before, if you want to contact study at sas or any academics as well if you have any questions regarding specific modules that they're the convener's on their details are all listed on the website. I want to say a big thank you to Sophie for the session today it's really insightful and I hope you will have a lovely rest of your day. I'm really very much hoping to see some of your applications come in and have a great day. Thanks so much. Thank you.