The department of Women & Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge offers a dynamic, inter-disciplinary and rigorous Master of Arts in Women & Gender Studies. Our faculty also teach and supervise students in the CSPT program (MA and PhD levels). We have expertise in the following areas:

• Gender and Global Migration
• Reproductive Justice
• Critical Race & Sexualities in Law & Culture
• Marriage & Kinship
• Feminist Constitutionalism
• Human Rights & Political Economies
• Indigenous Women & Settler Colonialism
• Women & Spirituality

Our faculty is united through common themes in their research agendas, most notably interrogating issues of power embedded in and exercised by national states within complex transnational relationships. Whether our research is conducted locally, nationally or globally, by ourselves on individual projects that are small scale, or in partnership with national and transnational projects, we consistently disseminate our work through networks of feminist and allied scholars, and build strong working relationships across disciplines.

Here is a sample of MA theses supervised by WGST faculty:

• Jacklyne Cheruiyot MA WGST, Masculinities and Young Men Involvement in Advocating for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights: A Case of Obstetric Fistula among Rural Women in Elgeyo Morakwet County, Kenya (Supervisor: Glenda Bonifacio)
• Anastasia Sereda, MA WGST, Gendered Obstacles and Opportunities for Women Seeking Positions of Prime Minister and president: The Case of Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine, 1999-2010 (Supervisor: Carol Williams)
• Jaisie Walker, MA WGST, Re-Imagining Narratives of Intimate Violence: Photovoice Inquiries with Queer Non/Monogamous Communities in Lethbridge, Alberta (Superrvisor: Suzanne Lenon)
• Diane McKenzie, MA CSPT, A History of Rural Women and the Intergenerational Transfer of the Family Farm (Supervisor: Carol Williams) (see here for more about Dianes research!)
• Mary Siever, MA WGST, The Responsible Advocate: Tracing the Student Subject in University of Lethbridge Policies (Supervisor: Suzanne Lenon)
• Jenn Prosser, MA CSPT, Movement Building in Practice: Building Knowledge and Community through regional Mutial Aid during the Covid-19 Pandemic (Supervisor: Caroline Hodes)
• Sara Al-Mahbshi, MA WGST, Yemen’s peace is female: yemeni women political participation in the peace process, 2014-2019 (Supervisor: Caroline Hodes)

Our department is connected with research institutes such as the Centre for Oral History & Tradition, Institute for Child & Youth Studies and the Prentice Institute, all of which provide mentorship, training and community workshops to build research and methodological skills.

Students develop their programs in consultation with their supervisor, and complete between three and six graduate-level courses and a thesis. Pursuing graduate studies in WGST offers numerous benefits including interdisciplinary course work; small class sizes; a cohort made up of both MA and PhD students; teaching & research assistantships; extensive professional development opportunities (offered through the CSPT program as well as the School of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Studies Association); networking opportunities; office space; pre-existing scholarly and volunteer networking opportunities with regional and local community organizations such as the YWCA, WomanSpace, OutReach Southern Alberta, Immigrant and Family Services Lethbridge, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, the Kainai Public Library, and the Galt Museum & Archives; and opportunities to learn from nationally and internationally renowned scholars regularly hosted by the Women’s Scholars Speakers Series and aforementioned research institutes.

Given this, graduate students are provided opportunities to develop skills in a number of areas such as diverse research methodologies (archival, discourse analysis, interviewing), public speaking, and grant writing (for students who apply for SSHRC, Parkland or other external scholarships).

Preferred academic background is a BA or MA (for PhD) in Women & Gender Studies, or related fields (Sociology, History, Anthropology, Political Science).