Joint Graduate Program in Women and Gender Studies

The Joint Master of Arts in Women & Gender Studies (MAWGS), offered cooperatively by Mount Saint Vincent and Saint Mary's Universities, emphasizes the interdisciplinary basis of Women and Gender Studies, its community linkages, and its grounding in feminist theories and methods. MAWGS allows graduate students access to a diverse and large faculty with strong research profiles in the study of women, gender, and sexuality in a range of areas, including: cultural and media studies; literary studies; social history; feminist, political, and queer theory; education and knowledge production; health and body studies, religion and spirituality; urban and rural studies; law, regulation, human rights, and social justice; masculinity; race, ethnicity, and class; paid and unpaid labour; the creative arts; migration, citizenship, and formal politics; youth, children, and girlhood studies; and community activism. Faculty and students are trained in and work through multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary frameworks, and our program offers the exceptional graduate opportunity for extensive individual attention. Consider these numbers: MAWGS has over 50 permanent faculty members and approximately 40 students. The program is enriched by its location in Halifax as Atlantic Canada's cultural and educational capital, access to a variety of library collections and faculty at multiple universities in the city and province, by the presence at MSVU of the Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies and the Canada Research Chair in Gender, and by the Joint Program's links with active local, national, and international feminist communities.

The Joint MA in Women & Gender Studies offered cooperatively by MSVU and SMU sends hearty CONGRATULATIONS to our 2008-2009 WS-WGSMA GRADUATES!

SPRING 2009 Recipients of the Degree of Master of Arts in Women's Studies or Degree of Master of Arts in Women and Gender Studies offered jointly by MSVU & SMU:

MSVU

Leah McKeen (supervisor R. Warne)

Momoko Migita (supervisor S. Brigham)

Lyndsay Pearson (supervisor M. Byers)

Lori Root (supervisor E. Tastoglou)

Sharon Woodill (supervisor S. Walsh)*

* Sharon is winner of the 2008-09 MSVU Senate Medal for the Graduate Student with the Highest Aggregate & the Governor General's Medal for the University's top graduating MA student

SMU

Nanok Cha (supervisor E. Tastoglou)

Momoko, Lyndsay, Lori, Sharon, Leah, and Nanok join FALL 2008 graduates from the Joint Master of Arts:

SMU

Kristen Haase (supervisor A. MacNevin)

Awatef Rasheed (supervisor L. Christiansen-Ruffman)

Congratulations to our wonderful students for their accomplishments in 2008-2009 and the years leading up to their convocation!

REGISTRATION FGSR 9000—FOR SMU WGST STUDENTS:

*** Students entering the program after 2004 MUST register in FGSR 9000 in every semester until program completion.
*** Registering for FGSR 9000 will ensure the maintenance of your status in the program.
*** Students must register for FGSR 9000 in every semester as well as for their course work. This isn't a "course" it's a program registration code that maintains your status. This has implications for the release of your funding as well as for the repayment of your student loans AND if you don't register for this course you'll owe money for the missed semester when you come back the next semester.
*** Students will register ONCE for their WGST thesis courses, after which they roll over as IPs.
*** During the time you're writing your thesis you CONTINUE to register for FGSR 9000 in every semester.

Saint Mary's University Women and Gender Studies Undergraduate Program

The Saint Mary’s Women and Gender Studies undergraduate program is designed to facilitate cooperation with other universities in the Halifax area. The program offers an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree in Women and Gender Studies and an Honors degree as well as a minor in Women and Gender Studies for students majoring in other disciplines.

Courses in Women and Gender Studies lead to a fuller understanding of women’s lives, culture, ways of knowing, struggles for social justice and change, and feminist theories and methodologies. Students in the program learn about the forms and structures of discrimination that prevent women from participating equally in society. They learn how many of the personal problems that confront women are generated by society rather than being particular to the individual. They study the process by which women’s issues become public and lead to social change.

Women and Gender Studies programs and departments have now become established throughout Canada and internationally. They are widely recognized as playing an important role in broadening our definition of knowledge and helping amend the bias and narrowness of many disciplines and courses.

Governments and large institutions are now acknowledging the need to work towards sexual equality; consequently graduates who can demonstrate their expertise in this area can expect opportunities to find practical uses for their knowledge.