Pioneering online Gender History Masters programme welcomes first students
Published: 8 March 2024
A pioneering UofG gender history Masters’ programme is being offered online to allow more students across the globe access to the largest concentration of gender historians in Britain.
A pioneering University of Glasgow gender history Masters’ programme is being offered online to allow more students across the globe access to the largest concentration of gender historians in Britain.
The online programme, which has been piloted for this academic year, offers students an unparalleled opportunity to work with historians at the Centre for Gender History combined with a great deal of flexibility.
The MSc Global Gender History (online distance learning) can be taken full or part-time from September or January, while its accessible digital learning environment allows students, especially those with pre-existing work and caring responsibilities, to fit studies around their lives.
The official announcement of the course moving from a pilot to a full-time offering is being made today on International Women’s Day.
One of the first online Global Gender History students Lara Kotwall said following her undergraduate programme she was anxious to find an online Master’s degree: “One of the most helpful opportunities that the University of Glasgow provides is a four-week online course for interested candidates. It is perfect to see if the course would be suitable, and for me, it was.
“My experience as a MSc Global Gender History Online student has been nothing short of enlightening. I first joined the course for my love of gender studies, and what I discovered was a delightful surprise. I have learnt invaluable information in both gender and women's history, I would recommend the course to others.”
Lara added: “As an online student there was always the worry of whether it would be the same as being in person. I would tell anyone looking into this course that the lecturers do not discriminate, they make sure to include every student, both in-person and online. The classes are hybrid and all students are given the opportunity to communicate in class group work, the lecturers work hard to integrate all students together.”
The online course will allow students to evaluate existing initiatives and propose new interventions to ‘gender’, ‘queer’ and ‘decolonise’ historical materials, interpretations, and narratives within key public history sites such as museums and galleries; archives and libraries; community history; and screen media.
Online learning resources will include tuition by a cross-disciplinary team of scholars; filmed case-studies; and talks by heritage, broadcasting and third sector professionals.
The programme’s unique features also include course contributions by historians and scholars from across the University of Glasgow including its Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies, The Hunterian and Film & TV Studies along with partner organisations such as the Glasgow’s Women’s Library, The National Library of Scotland, the Burrell Collection, Glasgow Zine Library, and the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum in the USA.
Dr Tanya Cheadle, Programme Convenor for both the in-person and online MSc in Gender History and Co-Director for the Centre for Gender History, said: “We are so excited to share the world-leading research expertise of the Centre for Gender History with a whole new cohort of students.
“Questions around gender and sexuality continually animate modern public discourse and our courses – which include historical approaches to reproductive rights and justice, the relationship between gender, care and capitalism, and women and power in Renaissance Italy – provide vital and fascinating historical dimensions to these contemporary debates.”
Dr Sam Rutherford, Lecturer in in LGBTQ+ History or the History of Sexuality, said: “'It has never been more important to introduce new audiences to the academic study of gender, and we're delighted that this new online offering will allow us to make the Centre's resources accessible to more students.
“The programme's variety and flexibility is designed to engage students with a variety of backgrounds and interests, and to highlight the range of ways that the history of gender and sexuality shapes the world that we inhabit today.”
A MSc Global Gender History (online distance learning)
The Masters in Global Gender History (online distance learning) offers online, vocationally orientated tuition in gendered analyses of the global past. Expert instruction is provided by world-leading scholars from the Centre for Gender History, working in partnership with heritage, media and third sector professionals. Together, they will provide you with the skills necessary to evaluate and propose initiatives to gender, queer and decolonise historical narratives. A key strength of the programme is its flexibility. It can be taken full or part-time from September or January, its accessible digital learning environment allowing you to fit your studies around your life. More here: Global Gender History
FutureLearn Massive Open Online Course
The Centre of Gender History have also created a free online short course via FutureLearn called “A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World”. The course allows learners, over four weeks, to have an initial look at how gender and sexuality transforms our understanding of modern, global history.
First published: 8 March 2024