Ravenshaw starts MPhil in Women’s Studies

PNS | Cuttack

Ravenshaw University has decided to start regular MPhil course in Women’s Studies from this academic year.

The eligibility criterion for the course is post graduate degree in any discipline with at least 50 per cent marks. While the total number of seats for the course is only eight. Selection will be done on the basis of the performance in the post graduate examination. The course fee is Rs 5,000 and application forms are available in the university.

Asima Sahu, Reader in Political Science, Ravenshaw University, and coordinator of the M Phil Programme, pointed out in a meeting that the need for the incorporation of women’s studies in the university curriculum was felt by academics in the early 1980s.

Sahu mentioned that the topics covered under this inter-disciplinary course in women’s studies are the women’s movement and feminism; feminist critiques of disciplines; caste, class and patriarchy; women, colonialism and nationalism; women and development; and politics of representation. The core areas of study are generating awareness towards women’s issues, gender sensitivity, women’s empowerment, expression of the women’s voice, socio-cultural factors and marginalisation, legal rights of /for women, restructuring women’s role in history and critical analysis of stereotyping, she informed further.

Many Indian universities offer women’s studies or gender studies as part of their under-graduate programme in social sciences and at the post-graduate level, the scope for in-depth studies is limited to specialisation in specific gender issues. We hope the new programme will help in overcoming these limitations and creating avenues for research in the subject, said Vice-Chancellor of Ravenshaw University Devdas Chhotray.