Advice for student in gender studies & ethnic studies?

[mxaveryeverhart]

Hi. So...I graduate with my BA's in May. I did disciplinary honors in religious studies and women's & gender studies and used samples from my religion thesis to apply to ethnic studies and american studies programs, and used my WGS sample to apply to gender studies and media/cultural studies programs. I'm 95% certain I'll be attending a Canadian university for an MA in gender studies. But I'm already thinking ahead.

 

I can't really untether the two in my mind, though my degrees will all say something about gender studies (I did an African-American studies and Sociology minors as well and both overlapped a lot with gender studies). So I'm wondering if, after this master's program, I will actually have a snowball's chance in hell in applying to ethnic studies PhD programs? I wouldn't necessarily mind being in women's and gender studies still, but I just would like some realistic perspective on whether or not I'd have a chance applying to PhD programs that weren't gender studies after completing an MA in the "field". I thought it might be a bit different because these are interdisciplinary and ever-changing and all that. So any advice y'all could offer me would be hella appreciated. And if research interests (As they are now) would help or anything just ask!

 

Hope everyone's doing well. And if you're making tough choices, good luck! Remember it's a good position to be in to have programs competing for you! And if you didn't get into your top choices, chin up, they don't know what they're missing

 

-Avery

[beekay]

I feel like ethnic studies and gender studies often have a lot of intersections and that you shouldn't have a problem in your future application process.  Both are invested in examining these larger axes of power and marginalization that, as you said, are often difficult to delink.  Also, because both are very interdisciplinary in nature, it would probably only be a strength to have a gender studies lens.

 

Being in an ethnic studies-based MA right now, a lot of the projects of my peers definitely also closely look at gender, sexuality, class, ect.  I think as long as you can situate your proposed project within an ethnic studies framework and explain why you're approaching your project through that dept. and how it would help you reach your goals, you shouldn't be discouraged from applying!