Women’s & Gender Studies

This course examines the latest theories, discussions, and relevant issues around gender that have emerged in the second half of the 20th century. Key concepts include: sex and gender; patriarchy; feminism; intersectionality; decolonial turn; post-secularism.

This course is part of the LM degree program. The course is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course aims at training students to apply gender studies’ key concepts and theoretical approaches to the analysis of a series of contemporary social challenges and transformations in the fields of culture, sexuality, work, technologies, and politics, amongst others. After completing the course, students can recognize gender as one of the basic principles organizing human society and culture, mobilize the gender studies’ concepts to produce critical knowledge, and apply a gender-sensitive perspective in imagining emancipatory strategies and policies. The course introduces students to the main analytical perspectives of gender studies by analyzing a series of key-concepts developed by literature in women's studies, men's studies, and queer studies. Lectures focus on key-concepts including gender order, intersectionality, heteronormativity, (positive) marginality, care, androcentrism, subjectivity, and performativity. These concepts are analyzed theoretically and, later, applied to the analysis of concrete social phenomena and contemporary social transformation. The course includes lectures, seminars, group readings/discussions, and movie screenings. Students who successfully complete the course, are better prepared to participate in and contribute effectively to the larger public conversation regarding the role of gender in society and are able to apply the critical tools of gender studies in their academic, personal, and work environment.

This course provides a study of the central issues and discussions regarding gender and sexuality as a specific field of inquiry. The course is organized around modules that cover the most relevant aspects of traditional feminist studies as well as recent theoretical contributions.

This course provides basic knowledge about gender, social change, and modernity in Sweden and Scandinavia, covering the period from the late 1800s up to the 1950s. It presents the development of some theoretical debates within this field. The course explores Scandinavian political, social, feminist, and literary texts about gender, ethnicity, and sexuality, and the development of women's rights in a historically changing society. Research regarding women's rights, Scandinavian cultural expressions, and the mechanisms of intolerance and xenophobia from the late 1800s to the 1950s are presented. Central issues about gender, ethnicity, sexuality, social change, and modernity in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia are compared with international development. The course is mainly intended for international students who wish to acquire knowledge of the Swedish and Scandinavian societies from a gender perspective but is also open to all other students at Lund University.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the academic year.

This course examines the silencing of women and their exclusion from the canon of universal literature. It introduces the wide spectrum of gender studies and feminist theory in English-speaking countries since the 1960s, in order to analyze, assess, and re-assess novels, short-stories, poems, and other artistic expressions created by women from the end of the 19th century to today. This course discusses female authors who have fallen into oblivion and those who enjoy scholarly prestige and popular recognition. It explores the interaction between gender and feminism, as well as sexuality, sexual orientation, gender roles, the female body and mind, trauma, mental health, motherhood, ethnicity, social class, and women's civil rights during the 20th century.

This course explores the history of clothing and fashion from a gender perspective. It emphasizes the way constructions and norms on gender identities and roles determine what we consider appropriate or inconvenient, in terms of appearances.

The course gives an introduction to gender equality in the Nordic context. It provides an overview of how the concept of gender equality has developed, and how it is implemented. The focus is on the period after the 1970s. Central themes in the course include: gender equality as a concept; work-life balance; Nordic masculinities; gender equality in an intersectional perspective; gender equality and the military; gender-based violence; gender equality as nation branding; gender and sustainability.

This lecture analyzes the three basic factors that have influenced modern Jewish identity: enlightenement, anti-Semitism, and Zionism. It examines the changes of how Jewish identity is understood. A special focus is placed on the differentiation of cultural or national and religious identity with an emphasis on feminism and queerness. Gender relations are examined within their respective religious, cultural, and social contexts. Social history and the history of the common man is discussed and a special focus is placed on the active participation of Jewish women in society as well as the intellectual and artistic life within European nation states.