Women and Gender Studies

The courses taken by our M.A. students provide them with an opportunity to undertake advanced feminist studies towards theorizing these questions. Our program aspires to strengthen students’ abilities to interrogate theories and methods, as well as to critique their application to lived practice. Students have the opportunity to undertake feminist studies in a variety of subjects in the Humanities, Social and Health Sciences.

MWGS offers a particular focus on feminist colonial, post-colonial, diasporic and transnational studies. The program supports diverse and multidisciplinary graduate research querying gendered, raced, sexed, and queered subjects as they are entangled in political economies and cultural formations. In particular, WGSI has distinctive strengths in the following four areas of study: (1) gender, sexuality and queer studies; (2) feminist cultural studies; (3) feminist studies of technology, science, environment and biomedicine; and (4) transnational political economy and critical development studies. Our core faculty brings transnational feminist commitments to the study of diverse sites and their interconnection with particular focus on Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia, and the United States.

• Feminist Theories, Histories, Movements I
• History and Biopolitics
• Master’s Research Paper
• Community Engagement (Practicum)
• Independent Research and Reading in Women and Gender Studies
• Gender and Cypberpolitics
• Black Feminist Thought
• Restructuring Work and Care: Family, State and Market in Times of Crisis
• Geographies of Violence and Security
• Gender and Globalization: Transnational Perspectives
• Black Diasporic Feminisms: Modernity, Freedom, Belonging
• Studies in Aesthetic Expression and Radical Hope
• Women and Revolution in the Middle East
• Indigenous Aesthetics: Hip Hop, Media an Futurities
• Race, Space and Citizenship
• Reproductive Health Law in Transnational Perspective
• Queer of Colour Critique
• Research Seminar

Requirements

• To be eligible for admission to the M.A. Program, applicants must normally have a four-year Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies or a related area, with courses broadly equivalent in number and distribution to the University of Toronto’s Major program in Women and Gender Studies. Applicants must have obtained an average grade equivalent to a University of Toronto B+ or better in their final year of undergraduate study, i.e., the courses that constitute the final quarter of a four-year program.
• SGS online application (submitted online – see link below)
• A statement (two pages maximum) of proposed study (submitted online – see link below).
• Two (2) letters of academic recommendation (submitted online – see link below). Your referees are required to fill out a web-based form via the online application system. When you (the applicant) fill out your online application form, you will provide the email addresses of two academic referees. After you have paid your online application fee (please do this no later than November 1, 2016), your referees will be sent an e-mail prompt asking them to submit their online reference by December 8, 2016. Please notify your academic referees in advance of the deadline specified above and follow up if necessary. If for some reason your referee(s) is unable to submit a reference online, please instruct them to send WGSI a hard copy of the form by December 8, 2016. The reference letter must be written on official university letterhead paper and contained in a signed and sealed university letterhead envelope.
• A brief academic curriculum vitae (CV), with details of education, awards, teaching and research experience, and other information of academic interest. (Submitted online – see link below).
• One sample of academic writing (under 30 pages) relevant to Women and Gender Studies, e.g. a course paper or conference paper (submitted online – see link below).
• Official copies of all post-secondary transcripts, submitted in BOTH ELECTRONIC AND HARD COPY FORM. All applicants, including UofT students, are required to submit official transcripts only.  WE DO NOT ACCEPT UNOFFICIAL ROSI (UofT) TRANSCRIPTS.  Please order official transcripts through your university transcript centre and have them mailed directly to the Women and Gender Studies Institute. Transcripts must be on official university letterhead and contained in sealed, university letterhead envelopes. When you are submitting transcripts electronically, please ensure that each transcript is legible and that you include the transcript legend or grading system. The transcript must show your course grades, and where applicable, the date of degree conferral. International students may include degree/diploma certificates IN ADDITION to their official transcripts & transcript legends.
• INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS should consult the “International Degree Equivalencies” chart to determine if they meet the minimum admission requirement at the University of Toronto. Go to http://portal.sgs.utoronto.ca/current/admission/intdegequiv.asp. Qualifications from a number of world-wide educational systems are listed.  The academic standings indicated are normally accepted as equivalent to a University of Toronto mid-B average if the degree has been awarded from an institution recognized by the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto.  Note that a mid-B average is the MINIMUM required for graduate study at the University of Toronto. Individual departments have their own admission requirements, which are normally higher than the minimum.  As stated above, applicants to the Master’s Program in Women and Gender Studies must have at least a B+ average (GPA 3.30–3.60) or better in their final year of study.  Applicants to the PhD Program in Women and Gender Studies must have an A- average (CGPA 3.70).  Direct-entry applicants to the PhD Program in Women and Gender Studies must have an A average (CGPA 4.00) and an A- average (GPA 3.70) in their final year of study.  Applicants who do not meet the minimum UofT requirement of a mid-B average (73% or GPA 3.00) need not apply.  Also, applicants who do not meet the minimum UofT English language requirement need not apply.  For details, consult the “How to Apply” section below.

Scholarships

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship