General provisions

Responsible for the course is Centre for Gender Research. The course is part of the two-year Master programme given by Centre for Gender Research.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course students will have acquired advanced insight into different feminist theoretical perspectives on the body. Students will have gained a deeper level of understanding regarding the constitution of bodies, their boundaries, and possibilities in relation to their spatio-temporal context.

Students will be able to trace historical conceptualisations of bodies and to recognise social, cultural, and political dimensions of how bodily limits of normality and abnormality have been constituted. Further, students will enhance their capacity to critical thinking, problem identification an solving, as well as developing their communication skills, research and knowledge positioning, and concern for quality.

Content

The aim of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview of the vast field of theory of the body within gender and feminist research. Looking at various different ways in which the body and embodiment are approached and conceptualised, we will discuss issues concerning both the stability and the fluidity of bodies, focusing on the force of the sexually marked body for the stabilisation of conventional gender identities as well as the body as a subversive force and the carrier of changing temporal and spatial inscriptions.

Instruction

The course is concentrated around seminars.

Assessment

Examination forms include an active participation in the seminars and writing a paper based on the theme of the course.