Testimonials

"Moreover, the interdisciplinary and international cohort of students, as well as the option to go on exchange (if there’s not a global pandemic going on), made it even more appealing. During my time in the programme I also had a lot of opportunities to get more involved in and around the university, such as joining the curriculum committee, being the managing editor for Junction (UU’s graduate journal for the humanities), and a student assistantship.

The programme offered amazing, challenging, and extremely rich forms of knowledge (production), and fully transformed and deepened my understanding of feminist and queer approaches to research. The program offers a very inclusive environment, and the fact that everyone comes from different educational backgrounds caused for interesting discussions and insights. The professors all have different areas of research expertises, which makes the content of the program varied and dynamic, and offers the opportunity to broaden your horizon but also specialise in whatever research interests you want to pursue.

I am currently working as the Coordinator for the Gender, Diversity & Global Justice Platform, which is an interfacultary research platform consisting of Humanities, Law, and Social Science scholars. I moreover work as the research assistant for Rosemarie Buikema and combine this with a managerial position in a restaurant here in Utrecht. The Master’s programme opened so many different doors for me that I am excited for all the things that will cross my path in the future." 

"In line with my expectations, the programme offered me a strong theoretical and empirical background to be able to look at society and its dynamics from a critical perspective. The programme, its professors, and my fellow students helped me develop the tools and skills to look beyond phenomena that might appear clear or determined, to eventually deal with their complexity on a more profound level. I also learned to combine academy with activism. The Master’s programme made me discover that it is possible to gain knowledge in an interdisciplinary, self-aware, and cooperative way.

After the Master’s I was awarded a PhD position in Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento (Italy). Even though my PhD is mainly focused on methodology and methods, the Gender Studies Master’s programme gave me the theoretical background to look at disciplinary perspectives and to bring them into generative dialogue. If you want to learn to look beyond the surface, this this Master’s is for you!"

"I gained loads of new insights and contacts through the programme’s extensive national and international network. For example, the Doing Gender lecture-series gave me the opportunity to get familiarized with cutting-edge feminist studies, arts, and activism.

I am currently working as a PhD-researcher at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis on a project called ‘Rural Imaginations’. I also teach in the Media and Literary Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam. The Gender Studies Master’s programme shaped me into the feminist scholar I am today, because it gave me the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of feminist, queer, critical race, and decolonial theory. I am particularly grateful to the community of students, teachers, and peers I got to know and interact with during the Master’s programme. This community of critical thinkers, artists, and activists emphasizes that the material in the Gender Studies programme is not merely theoretical; it is lived, experienced, and often personal, and thus all the more urgent and political."