Study programme

The research Master's programme Gender Studies comprises two years (120 EC). Each year is divided into two semesters, running from September until January and from February until June. A semester is divided into two study periods. 

Curriculum

The programme consists of compulsory courses, electives, an internship or study abroad and a thesis. Check the study schedule (PDF). 

Year 1 | Compulsory courses

In the first year you follow 25 EC of compulsory courses and 15 EC of interdisciplinary training and introduction to the field of gender research. You begin with a general course that familiarises you with the foundations of the humanities, and two courses on theoretical and methodological foundations of Gender Studies. Throughout the first year the compulsory course trajectory offers you in-depth engagements with the broad field of gender and postcolonial studies.

Year 1 | Academic specialisation (electives)

Focusing on your interests and ambitions, you can also take 15-40 EC of seminars and tutorials that will train you for research in a specialised topic or theme.

Year 2 | Study abroad or internship

In the first semester of your second year you can choose for a period of studying abroad (at UU partner universities or universities that are partners of the Graduate Gender Programme’s network). An internship can be of maximum 15 EC, studying abroad can be up to 30 EC.

The National Research School of Gender Studies (NOG) will offer courses throughout the year, in which you can take part according to your interests (10 EC).

Year 2 | Thesis

In the last semester you will complete your studies with a research thesis (30 EC). In this work you will contribute, on the basis of original and independent research, to a debate on gender, race, sexuality, religion and other socio-historical categories within your discipline. Examples of thesis titles are (you can find more thesis titles here): 

• Frustrating Queer's Antinormativity: Encounters With the Paedophile and the Child (by Marco Borkent)
• Narrative Selection: On the Potentials of Alternative Evolutionary Theories for Refiguring the Human in Feminist Ecocritical Discourse (by Ines James) 
• Thinking/doing the (im)possible: Examples of crack-making practices grounded in Medellín, Colombia (by Isabella Giraldo Vega) 
• Can the Farmer Speak? The History, Class Politics, and Discourse of Dutch Agriculture and the Nitrogen Crisis (by Jesse Krebbers) 

Thesis Award

During the 2025 Graduation Ceremony of the Research Master's in Gender Studies, the Hélène Phoa Gender Studies Research Thesis Prize of 2025 was awarded to Priscilla Akomprah for her thesis Marriage, Faith, and Harm: A Feminist Analysis of Domestic Violence in Ghana.

Educational methods

• seminars 
• group work 
• self study 
• lectures
• internship (optional)

Examinations

• written assignments (academic papers, book reviews, research proposals)
• presentations
• oral exams
• creative assignments (elective)
• internship (optional)
• Master’s thesis