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GEOG3161: GEOGRAPHY, GENDER AND CHANGE

Please ensure you check the module availability box for each module outline, as not all modules will run in each academic year. Each module description relates to the year indicated in the module availability box, and this may change from year to year, due to, for example: changing staff expertise, disciplinary developments, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback. Current modules are subject to change in light of the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19.

Type Open
Level 3
Credits 20
Availability Not available in 2023/24
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Geography

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To offer final year Geographers and others an opportunity to engage with advanced thinking on geography, gender and change as it has been developed around the world
  • To develop skills in both the rigorous selection of detailed case study material and an awareness of the range of dynamic, plural and contested theoretical approaches
  • To introduce students to the reflexive practices of scholarship required for advanced study in the field

Content

  • Geography, gender and change will be explored at a range of scales, from the bodily to the global, using bodies and places around the world for students to explore themselves, the familiar and the other
  • The body
  • The home
  • Work
  • Cities
  • Global dimensions of gender

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • On successful completion of the module students are expected to be able to:
  • Explore selected issues in Geography, Gender and Change around the world, in depth, with an awareness of the wider complexities and contests over theoretical / empirical approaches
  • Be able to address gendered geographies at a variety of scales, locations and periods to assess the continued remaking of places through social processes
  • Reflect on how difference in terms of gender and sexuality are affected by and affect ideas of place, space and time
  • Understand basic concepts of discourse, representation of gender, critical thinking, the nature of gender and its variations over time and space, and of feminism, feminist methods and ethics in geography
  • Express a more advanced understanding of topics selected from the course, and be able to write an informed opinion and utilise detailed case studies for each topic
  • Reflect on gender and geography not only as something out there but also consider how geographers produce a diversity of geographical knowledges about gender

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Developing skills in the visual and written presentation of geographical knowledges through poster planning and design
  • In doing so, experience the combining and interpreting different types of geographical evidence (eg texts, imagery, archival data, maps, digitised and laboratory data)
  • And recognising the moral and ethical issues involved in debates and enquiries

Key Skills:

  • Assessing the merits of contrasting theories, explanations and policies; critically judging and evaluating evidence
  • Critically interpreting data and text
  • Abstracting and synthesising information
  • Developing a reasoned argument
  • Taking responsibility for their own learning, and developing habits of reflection upon that learning

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • The core of the material is developed through 21 two-hour teaching sessions of two hours duration (plus breaks)
  • Teaching sessions will normally include a presentation of at least one hour by staff, but will also use video clips, brainstorming, buzz groups and open discussion, with one poster session
  • The group can be large, but because students have prior knowledge and strong opinions on many of the topics, it is profitable to encourage small group reflection and exposition in sessions to develop both scholarship and understanding
  • Formative group work on posters will take themes into depth
  • The diary will require students to explore their own experience and positionality over the whole period of the course
  • The takeaway examination paper will provide the incentive for students to work on a wide spread of themes.
  • Selected reading lists will be provided, including websites
  • Optional videos will be screened as an alternative to some reading
  • Videos will also be available for loan
  • The module strongly encourages students to develop a broad grasp at a basic level and to follow their own interests in some depth, thus capitalising on the availability of a wide range of material accessible to Level 3 students to promote the development of individual choice, judgement and application

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures18Weekly2 hours (lecture and discussion)36 
Tutorials12 hours2Yes
Seminar12 hours2Yes
Seminar (prior viewing of posters)12 hours2Yes
Preparation and Reading158 
Total200 

Summative Assessment

Component: DiaryComponent Weighting: 50%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Individual gender diary  100 
Component: Take away examinationComponent Weighting: 50%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Take away examination, students have one week from the issue of exam paper to submit ONE 5 x A4 pages answer5 x A4 pages100 

Formative Assessment

Posters to be displayed in groups and evaluated by peers. Staff will give formative assessment and feedback.

More information

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