Why Study Feminism?
As a Men’s Rights Activist myself, there is no doubt that ‘’gender studies” will be on top of my agenda. And when we talk about gender studies the first thing that comes to our mind is ‘feminism’. The UK is a hub of feminism and there is no better place to learn feminism than a UK University.
Working for Men’s Rights which is synonymous to Human Rights today, I feel it is my duty to learn about feminism in-depth first so that I can show why those theories of feminism have become outdated today. No wonder why UK Universities have decided to end graduation level studies on feminism in 2008 (see this) and I need to get my study completed before the postgraduate level study also ends there. Because as this BBC article explains feminism is still a BIG topic of discussion in India and because –
Universities To Choose From
Even though the graduate level study did end in the UK, Universities do offer various Post–Graduate level studies on Feminism today. Some of the Universities that are coming on top of my mind are –
Bunch of courses to choose from
Even though there are many courses that are offered by these Universities, some of my initial choices are –
1. Ph.D. in Gender and International Development (GID) at 
2. MA in Gender, Media, and Culture from 
3. Gender Studies (Applied) at 
4. Feminist Media Studies (Ph.D. / MPhil) from 
5. MST in Women Studies from 
Discussion About The Courses
(from respective websites)
1. Ph.D. in Gender and International Development (GID) at 
They offer two courses – Interdisciplinary Gender Studies and Gender and International Development. Under the Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, they teach different social research techniques and qualitative and quantitative methods of social research. This specialization also includes specialist modules like contemporary feminist theory and feminist epistemology in action.
Under Gender and International Development, the only change in curriculum is in specialist modules where the emphasis is more on gender analysis and development.
2. MA in Gender, Media, and Culture from 
Here the feminist research is concentrated around these core areas –
- Intersectionality, gender, and class; feminist of color scholarship and activism; queer feminism
- Feminist genealogies, new feminism, post-feminism.
- Feminist cultural theory (including feminist engagements with visual culture, new media, screen culture, and technology)
- Feminist work on embodiment, affect and emotion
My interest will be focused on feminist cultural theory as this is the most debated topic in India’s context.
3. Gender Studies (Applied) at
In this course the core modules include –
- Understanding Gender
- Feminist Research
- Key Feminist Thinkers
- Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
Apart from this, they have optional modules like
- Gender and Film Market
- Advanced readings in gender studies etc.
4. Feminist Media Studies (Ph.D. / MPhil) from 
Even though the course title Media Studies lure me as I wanted to understand their media policy, I could not get more details from their website or even after contacting them over email. Probably I will have no option but to give it a miss while comparing different options.
5. MST in Women Studies from 
Five Oxford Faculties contribute to the teachings of this course i.e. Philosophy, History, English, Classics and Modern Languages.
Oxford as always revered for their unique curriculum also offers an opportunity for its students to engage in various international class lectures, seminars, workshops and annual Oxford International Women’s Festival.
Conclusion And Final Choice
As a practitioner who believes in practical knowledge and wants to see the use of knowledge in daily life, I would like to see how feminist theories which started as gaining equal rights for women has turned into a movement of gaining supremacy over the male gender. I would like to check their global media strategy and want to understand how they control media to propagate their vision with skewed views and anti-male strategies. As a Human Rights Activist and an MRA, I can only learn about feminism in depth before I show why the feminist theories have become outdated today even in India.
From the initial choice of five courses from five UK universities, as shown above, it is found that only Oxford university gives its students great chance in terms of attending world-class seminars, lectures, and workshops and also gives a chance to attend their International Women’s Festival to develop my practical understanding about feminism.
So my choice of the study of feminism is MST in Women Studies from Oxford University.
References
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2008/03/080326_womens_studies.shtml
2. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/pg/prospect/programmes/
3. http://www.gold.ac.uk/centre-for-feminist-research/
4. http://www.stir.ac.uk/postgraduate/programme-information/prospectus/slcr/gender-studies/
5. http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/postgraduate/course/detail/p114.html
6. http://grad.mml.ox.ac.uk/women-mst
- Logos from respective University web pages
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