Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Zentrum für Transdisziplinäre Geschlechterstudien


About the BA Program in Gender Studies

Bachelor’s students have the opportunity to minor in Gender Studies. To complete the minor, students are required to gain 60 Gender Studies credit points, in addition to their major (core subject). On our German website, you’ll find a complete overview of all undergraduate majors offered at Humboldt University. A minor in Gender Studies can be completed in conjunction with any undergraduate major.

New students apply for a minor in Gender Studies during the winter semester. In the week leading up to the winter semester, gender studies offers an orientation program for new students.

It is also possible to transfer into the Gender Studies minor during the summer semester if you are a student applying for advanced standing. You can find more information at our the HU student portal.
 

The Gender Studies Minor

Students who minor in gender studies learn the fundamental skills they need to pursue an academic analysis of gender, not only as an identity but also as a category of knowledge. In our seminars, students critically discuss a range of questions, as examined through the lens of gender. The program guides students in developing a sensitivity to matters of gender equality and an awareness of the impact of social policy. Such knowledge is highly applicable beyond academia — in the corporate sector, public administration, politics, and the media.

The gender studies program at HU trains students to sophisticatedly analyze gender relations in a variety of social, political, historical, and cultural contexts. For this analysis to be successful, an intricate knowledge of the connection — or the “interdependencies” — between gender and other categories (such as race, sexuality, and age) is essential. It is equally important to develop a familiarity with the methodologies necessary to examine how various disciplines construct gender and systematize gender relations. By examining various disciplines in this way, students develop the transdisciplinary skills they need for success in their academic careers — as undergraduates and beyond.

Being able to work transdisciplinarily means being able to transcend a single discipline and pose specific, critical questions pertaining to many other fields of study. In viewing gender as unbound to any single category of knowledge, it is possible to locate it as an interdependent category within the traditional disciplines. By learning to work transdisciplinarily, students learn the skills and knowledge they need to intervene in other disciplines on the grounds of gender, and to test the success of their intervention. In the gender studies minor, students learn to sophisticatedly communicate their analyses to others through oral presentations, academic writing, and media-based presentation.

Students learn to communicate in any given context, whether to a specific target group or in practical application.

For these reasons, gender studies can be successfully combined with any other subject major to produce a foundation of knowledge and skills that will help students succeed as they advance their careers.
 

Program Structure

In the gender studies minor, students analyze the meaning and impact of gender in a variety of disciplines, from various disciplinary perspectives. The program is comprised of six modules.
 

  • Module 1: Transdisciplinary Gender Studies
  • Module 2: Gender as an Analytical Category    
  • Module 3: Interdependencies
  • Module 4: Gender Orders
  • Module 5: Interventions
  • Module 6: Free Choice

 

The specific regulations governing the gender studies program and grading policies can be found here.

The Academic Advising Office can also provide further help.