Gender and Sexuality Studies

Overview

Gender and Sexuality Studies provides an analytical approach to the significance of sex, gender and sexuality in many parts of our lives and the important roles they often play in how we understand ourselves and the structures we live in.  

In art and literature, popular culture and the media, politics and the law, marketing and advertising, health and wellbeing, the economics of family life and work, our public identities and intimate lives, sex, gender and sexuality are prominent features of contemporary and historical life. 

Through an integrated study of local experiences and transnational  flows of knowledge and influences, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Deakin provides students with an understanding of key forces which shape our understandings and lived experiences of gender and sexuality, both as cultural phenomena and as embodied practices.  

In particular, the Gender and Sexuality Studies at Deakin University emphasizes the intersectional dimensions of gender and sexuality, addressing questions of class, citizenship, ethnicity, race, religion, ability and geographical location.  

Career 

The prominence of sex, gender and sexuality in our lives means that developing a strong historical and critical understanding of sex, gender and sexuality will be of use for people working in a wide variety of vocations, especially those which focus on working with and understanding people and the complex social structures that we live in. 

Gender and Sexuality Studies helps prepare students to work as researchers, writers and creative practitioners. The Major will help people working within many different areas such as the law, criminology, social policy, community development, archives and museums, social work, education, psychology, marketing and healthcare to develop specialist knowledge of sex, gender and sexuality which they can apply within their specific vocational settings.