WELCOME

The programme builds on a long-established tradition of Women's Studies at NUIG. It also complements existing strengths of the School of Political Science and Sociology in development, environmental politics, feminist and gender analyses, globalisation, human rights, international relations, post-colonial studies as well as expertise in the sociology and politics of particular countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. 

We live in a rapidly changing world characterised by intensive globalisation across cultural, economic, political and social arenas.  Under conditions of inequality, this poses new challenges for how we rethink and seek to realise democracy, development, equality, human rights, the rule of law, and social inclusion especially in women's lives. The Global Women's Studies Programme recognises that globalisation and related global issues are always simultaneously women's issues and local issues.  Armed conflict, environmental destruction, disease pandemics, economic globalisation, fundamentalisms, global governance, organised transnational crime, and migration, for example, are not gender-neutral.  They are experienced by women and men differently in context-specific ways.  Understanding and challenging the inequalities and exclusions that arise around these and other global issues, therefore, calls for critical scrutiny of the interplay of local realities and global forces in women's lives in different national and regional contexts, including Ireland and Europe, and transnationally. 

Toward this end, the Global Women's Studies programme at NUIG is committed to the development of undergraduate and postgraduate education, advanced research, and other activities that build cross-disciplinary knowledge and understanding of gender and global issues through a critical human rights lens.