Presentation

WHAT ARE GENDER STUDIES?

Gender Studies are an innovative and thriving field of research and academic exchange. Gender Studies offer the possibility of studying the social world by examining gendered power relations: these relations constitute a central dimension of all societies and are therefore a crucial frame of analysis in social sciences and the humanities. Because socially constructed gender diffe- rences are inscribed in social practices and daily arran- gements as well as in normative systems, ideologies and representations one needs to mobilise the resources and insights from a range of fields, including Sociology, His- tory, Economy, Law, Political Science, Art and Literature when working from a gender perspective. The Institute for Gender Studies aims to bring together and develop a large body of research on gender-related issues at the University of Geneva. In doing so, it pursues a double goal of scientific rigour and excellence, and openness towards the city of Geneva. It offers a diversity of courses (Bachelor and Master’s teachings, PhD and Doctoral School, Life-long learning) taught by renowned specialists in the field of Gender Studies. We see the future of Gender Studies at the University of Geneva as continuing to promote a gender pers- pective and its heuristic benefits in different areas of research, as contributing to various disciplines, including reflexions on their circumstances of production, and as promoting an empirically and theoretically autonomous body of knowledge.