Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Social Work - Gender Studies

The University of Sydney

This five-year degree offers a comprehensive and flexible combined degree program that qualifies you as an accredited social worker, while also allowing you to enhance your qualification with majors and minors that complement the Bachelor of Social Work. While this combined degree requires a major or minor in Sociology, or a minor in Social Policy, you can choose another major or minor in various interest areas such as diversity studies, gender studies, Aboriginal Studies, or philosophy. You'll undertake integrated studies in social sciences, social policy and social work theory and practice, with a strong emphasis on Australian and comparative social welfare studies. In the last two years of the degree all students undertake the professional social work program, which includes two fieldwork placements supervised by highly skilled and experienced practitioners in a variety of settings. We develop field education learning expectations across the program and aim to develop values, skills and knowledge for levels from beginner to a practitioner capable of meeting the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Practice Standards.The Gender Studies major offers you a unique interdisciplinary perspective on how gender shapes both formal knowledge and everyday experience. It encourages you to think beyond common-sense ideas about what it means to be male or female, and to recognise instead the many different ways that people embody and experience gender. The study of gender is one of the most intellectually challenging and socially important areas of enquiry in the Humanities and Social Sciences. A major in Gender Studies will enrich your knowledge and understandings of masculinity, femininity, sexuality and identity and will provide an important framework for considering social issues, ranging from debates about marriage equality and new forms of intimacy to gendered forms of labour, violence and representational practices. This major equips you with critical and conceptual skills, as well as research and writing skills that provide an important complement to degrees in Arts and Social Sciences, Law, Psychology, Nursing and Medicine and will assist in enhancing career prospects in these disciplines and fields.

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