TRANS/SCENDING GENDER - 2024/5

Module Overview

This module develops students' advanced knowledge and skills in relation to gender studies and trans studies more specifically. Students will be supported in developing their knowledge and skills, by paying close attention to trans scholarship, trans histories and the key issues pertinent to trans people themselves. This module introduces students to trans studies as a distinct field of academic scholarship. Students will explore the historical and social contexts of this field of study, including intersections with other areas of sex, gender and sexuality studies such as feminism and queer theory. The module takes an expansive and affirmative approach to trans histories, lives and scholarship, considering multiple contexts including the legal, social, medical and psychological. With an inclusive approach to gender studies, this module will consider multiple contexts in which people do or are gender.

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

HUBBARD Katherine (Sociology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

This module will maintain an up-to-date perspective on the development/s in trans scholarship, paying particular attention to both classics in the field as well as materials from very recent cutting edge trans studies. Students will be supported to develop their critical understanding of gender studies, and more specifically to develop their engagement with the fields of trans studies. Because of the rapidly changing area of study exact content is likely to differ year to year and is at the discretion of the module leader as an experienced expert in the field. Nonetheless, key journals such as Transgender Studies Quarterly will likely be used as a key resource throughout the module. Indicative content includes: non-binary lives, experiences and subjectivities; cisgenderism and cisnormativity; trans health care; pathologisation and medicalization; trans histories; LGBTQIA activism; intersex and/or trans experience and narratives; and media representation.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes associated with this module.

 

The first assessment offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their developing knowledge of gender studies and trans studies more specifically. In this essay, students will show both in-depth knowledge, but also sophisticated skills in constructing and presenting academic arguments.

 

The second assessment allows students to develop more specialist skills, specifically report-writing for audiences other than academic. The report itself is imagined to be to a related third-party sector specialist providing the opportunity for a more authentic assessment style. For example, it may take the form of a public policy report, a recommendation report or a political report. More specifically, it could be, for example: a charity report, a report to an MP, or a report to the education sector. The exact report style is at the discretion of the module leader and optionality here would be important to allow students greater independence and resourcefulness in the development of their original work.

 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Essay, 50% (addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 5)


• Report, 50% (addresses learning outcomes 3, 4, 5 and 6)

 

Formative assessment and feedback:

Students will take part in group tasks in class throughout the module, during which they will receive formative feedback. Detailed guidance on how to complete the summative assessments is given in class and on SurreyLearn. The weekly seminars will include peer-to-peer learning, but also engagement with the module leader for multiple opportunities for feedback. This approach centres communication skills and teamwork, as appropriate for success at Master’s level. There will be dedicated assignment weeks to explore students’ plans for the assignments and allow for questions. Formal feedback from Assignment 1 will be provides well in advance of the deadline for Assignment 2.

Module aims

• Provide students with extensive and advanced knowledge of gender studies
• Facilitate students in exploring key debates in trans studies
• Enable students to explore how trans studies has developed historically alongside queer and feminist thinking
• Encourage students to select and analyse historical and contemporary figures, approaches and debates relevant to this field
• Provide students with advanced knowledge of understandings of gender from social, legal, medical, psychological and global contexts
• Facilitate independent thinking, reflection and scholarship alongside peer-to-peer learning opportunities

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to engage students through a variety of lecture and seminar based pedagogical approaches. Seminars are designed to be interactive and thus allow for greater peer-to-peer learning and independent contributions. The module is designed to de-center cisgender experience in such a way that allows for in depth, critical and contextually aware consideration of trans scholarship, studies and lives. This module is taught by an expert in trans studies and will be enriched by their own valuable knowledge of the field. Full engagement with small group and class-wide discussions will encourage students to become confident, adaptable and resourceful and mutually supportive learner-contributors. The module has a number of potential structures in order to allow greater creativity and flexibility in response to student interests, class dynamics and module leader focus.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOCM073

Other information

The Department of Sociology is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

 

Employability

The second assignment for this module is deliberately designed and positioned here in order to provide students with a more authentic (real world) assessment experience towards the end of their programme. Here, students will gain experience of report writing for specific audiences/stakeholders, and the assessment is therefore directly applicable to a wide range of sectors. Students will have clear demonstrative evidence of advance communication skills, professionalism, and initiative. This could be cited in interviews and applications to show students’ experience of applying scholarly knowledge to another sector.

 

Digital Capabilities

As with all modules there is a level of digital skill and ability that is expected and demonstrated through engagement with the content and learning materials. All teaching materials and key content will be made available in multimedia forms through the Virtual Learning Environment SurreyLearn. In addition, key online catalogues will also be explored in this module, for example the LGBT magazine archive. Engagement with other platforms such as relevant social medias, blogs, YouTube videos etc. are also likely to feature in the module given the wealth of online material pertinent to trans activism. Based on such engagement with digital landscapes, students will gain criticality and develop sophisticated navigation skills in regards to digital material. This includes recognition and reflection on types of media and discourses evident across scholarly and non-scholarly publications.

 

Global and Cultural Capabilities

Content from this module will be specifically looking at wider global and contextual culturally informed understandings of gender studies, paying particular attention to trans experiences and scholarship. Students will therefore be gaining substantial global and cultural knowledges and skill in this area. It is expected that students will become aware and critical of cisnormative approaches and gain a high level of sensitivity to the nuance of trans scholarship. In relation to the assessment, students will demonstrate such capabilities in particular in the report, as here they will demonstrate their ability to communicate and translate scholarship to other related sectors.

 

Sustainability

Students will complete this module with social, ethical and contextually aware knowledge. This module has gender inequality (in the broadest and most inclusive use of the term) at its core, aligned with the UN's gender equality sustainability goal. It also seeks to ensure community sustainability through the knowledge, skills and awareness students develop.

 

Resourcefulness and Resilience

Students will be highly resourceful throughout this module, building on previous modules. Here, students will engage with a range of materials across academic and non-academic publications. Throughout their learning key examples of resilience directly in relation to trans communities, scholarship and experience are also outlined. This will provide students with templates of forms of resourcefulness and resilience in the field. The module envisions group seminar work which will foster greater communication and collaboration skills, but also has assignments which seek to assess independent thinking. Students throughout this module will be demonstrating cognitive adaptability, applicable thinking, and self-efficacy in their own arguments.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2024/5 academic year.