Gender, Power and Violence, MA / PGDip

Exploring Current Debates in the Field of Gendered Harms

Visual Representation of Gender, Power and Violence

Course Overview

This master’s in Gender, Power and Violence explores current academic, policy and practice debates in the specific field of gendered harms, considering issues from multiple disciplinary lenses to understand how gendered violence and harms differentially affect gendered bodies and lives. The programme will combine theoretical, empirical and applied content to explore how gendered experiences of abuse can be explained, experienced, researched and challenged in local and global contexts.

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is an area of increasing policy and public concern, described by the World Health Organisation as a global public health pandemic. This programme’s content is at the forefront of current issues and debates in the field, such as tech-facilitated gendered harms, engaging men and boys, and debates around online misogyny.

Throughout your studies, you will develop an advanced understanding of critical feminist theories of gender, violence and harms, as well as methods for conducting research into gendered harms. The programme will grapple with debates about how we can develop effective, theory-led interventions and improve research capabilities in this field to produce higher-quality evidence about ‘what works’ to reduce and eliminate gendered harms.

Alongside this, you will learn about specific forms of gendered violence and harm, the key policy and practice responses to them in local and global contexts, and how to both develop interventions and evaluate what works (and what doesn’t) to address gendered harms in different contexts.

Why Gender, Power and Violence at Swansea?

You will benefit from having access to interdisciplinary teaching that is based on active research being undertaken by award-winning colleagues in Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy. The result of this is a distinctive and unique programme that is based on innovative research, delivered by experienced academics that are recognised for their ground-breaking research at local, national and international levels.

You will be encouraged to immerse yourself in this contemporary research environment from the outset, with the programme linking in with existing research networks such as The Centre for Research into Gender and Culture in Society (GENCAS) and The Centre for Social Change.

Our programme puts a strong emphasis on co-production as a means of academics, practitioners, policy-makers and survivors working together to improve how we can better respond to gendered harms and trauma. As such, the central ethos of our teaching will include involving you in unique, cutting-edge research developments.

An example would be the development of pioneering immersive Virtual Reality training techniques to be used to train Violence Against Women Domestic and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) first responders, using scenarios that are too dangerous or complex to create in real life settings. As a student on this programme, you will have the opportunity to experience and be involved in the evaluation of these pioneering tools, and will also be encouraged to apply your learning to explore how to address GBV in your own communities.

Throughout the programme, you will also learn to:

  • Design, implement, and evaluate your own interventions focused on gendered violence prevention, survivor support, or public education, with skills in setting objectives, intervention development and monitoring outcomes.
  • Build effective partnerships and collaborate with a range of community organisations, government agencies and survivors.
  • Conduct research and practice in a way that is sensitive to trauma, ensuring ethical engagement and minimising harm when working with those who experience gendered harms.

Your Gender, Power and Violence Experience

Our programme philosophy is grounded in feminist principles, emphasising inclusivity, empowerment, critical thinking, and transformative learning, encouraging the exploration of gendered harms through multiple lenses. It prioritises intersectionality to understand the diverse nature of gendered harms, exploring the multiple, interlocking layers of oppression and how these shape experiences of gendered harms.

Our learning environment is a safe space, led by inspirational and experienced staff, who will cultivate a sense of belonging and community, and embed approaches that enable us to learn from one another in pursuit of our shared goal of reducing gendered harms. In line with the feminist standpoint of the programme, assessments will be inclusive, reflective, and encourage creative and diverse ways of thinking about gendered harms.

You will be able to meet with Module Co-ordinators, one-to-one, on a weekly basis via their published ‘office hours’. We work hard to provide student-centred learning opportunities that deliver a high quality and flexible learning environment.

By embedding these feminist principles and elements into our programme, we strive to cultivate cohorts of informed, compassionate, and proactive individuals committed to eradicating gendered harms and advancing gender justice in their future careers.

Our learning aims and outcomes allow you to be well-equipped with the knowledge, skills, and ethical grounding necessary to contribute safely and effectively to the prevention and response to gendered harms, and to promote gender equity and social justice in your professional and personal life.

Our learning and teaching methods also encourage the integration of practice and theory. Throughout this programme, you will experience both tutor-led learning, peer and group-learning, and self-directed methods of learning. This increases independence, autonomy and reflection, encouraging you to develop a positive attitude toward lifelong learning, as well as increasing skills around team-working, collaboration, decision-making and leadership.

Gender, Power and Violence Employment Opportunities

In its diverse forms, Gender Based Violence (GBV) poses current issues of pressing concern that Governments, both at home and internationally, are committed to addressing, leading to strong employment prospects in a range of fields.

Importantly, GBV is increasingly framed as a ‘multi-agency’ issue that requires a ‘whole system response’, meaning that it is not just the responsibility of criminal justice agencies, but also health, education, social care, housing and voluntary sector organisations. With an increasingly wide array of sectors forming part of this vital multi-agency response, as a graduate you will be well placed to lead the response to GBV through a wide variety of roles where GBV is a significant aspect of your work.

The programme is optimally positioned to address the ‘implementation gap’ between the ambitious policy strategy and direction, and improving the capacity and capability in the sector, in terms of knowledge and research skills, to adequately respond to these policy objectives. As a result, this master’s will help you to develop skills that will equip you effectively for work, supporting your career ambitions and development in a range of sectors such as:

  • Public Sector/National and Local Government, NGO/Charity Work, Further Study, Research and Academic, International and Regional Institutions, or Equalities and Diversity Work within Organisations.

Modules

The programme consists of 180 credits, made up of 6 20-credit modules, and a 60-credit dissertation.

Two compulsory modules and one optional module are taken in semester one, and three compulsory modules are taken in semester two, with the dissertation completed throughout the summer period.