Graduate Diploma (PhD) in Gender and Social Justice
Graduate Diploma (PhD) in Gender and Social Justice
Enrich your PhD by adding the diploma in GSJ and join our vibrant and caring interdisciplinary community. The Graduate Diploma (Ph.D.) in Gender and Social Justice aims to enhance the intellectual development and training of students already enrolled in doctoral programs by allowing them to complement the disciplinary focus of their home program with interdisciplinary scholarship from the fields of Gender and Social Justice. The diploma option adds value to a stand-alone doctoral degree in a single discipline by providing concrete and sustained occasions for doctoral students to engage multiple scholarly and pedagogical approaches as these are taken up in seminar meetings and coursework, research symposia and thesis work.
About the program
The Graduate Diploma option is available to students already enrolled in Ph.D. programs in McMaster’s Departments of:
- Anthropology
- Communication Studies & Media Arts
- English and Cultural Studies
- French
- Greek & Roman Studies
- History
- Philosophy
- Religious Studies
- Social Work
- Sociology
If you are enrolled in a PhD program in another McMaster department and would like to add the Graduate Diploma in GSJ to your degree, contact the Program Director to discuss the matter.
Students completing the diploma will receive the notation Completed Graduate Diploma in Gender and Social Justice on their academic transcript in addition to the doctorate degree from their home graduate unit.
Application for the GSJ Graduate Diploma is normally made during the first year of doctoral study for entry into the program during the student’s second year of PhD study. Occasionally, students may be allowed to begin the Graduate Diploma in their third year of the Ph.D., but no later.
Students already enrolled in a McMaster PhD program are eligible to apply.
Submit your application through the Graduate Studies site by May 15, 2024. In addition to the required information, your application should also include the following, uploaded as PDF attachments to the application portal.
Statement of Interest
Briefly (maximum 1000 words) outline your academic background and other qualifications that prepare you for doctoral level work in Gender and Social Justice. Describe your subfield(s) of interest in GSJ and how conceptual and theoretical frameworks drawn from feminist and/or gender theories will inform your dissertation work.
Writing sample
A sample of graduate-level work that demonstrates engagement with research relevant to your home program and to the GSJ Diploma.
Curriculum vitae
A brief CV listing education, awards, scholarships, publications and presentations, and any other relevant experience.
Supervisor’s recommendation
Enter the email address of your PhD supervisor with your application. They will receive a link to submit their recommendation.
Transcripts
A copy of your McMaster grade report from Mosaic.
Requirements for the GSJ Graduate Diploma are in addition to those of the student’s home PhD program, including:
- Two one-semester courses, one required and one elective
- A thesis on a topic related to Gender and Social Justice
- Participation in the GSJ Research Symposium
Courses
Courses cannot be counted towards both the Ph.D. degree and the GSJ Ph.D. diploma. Students will normally complete the diploma coursework during the second year of their PhD studies. In order to ensure timely degree completion, diploma students are encouraged to choose an elective course likely to directly enhance and move forward their thesis research.
Required: Gender Studies 700 Theorizing Gender and Social Justice
Elective: a one-semester course in gender and social justice. Elective courses, usually from the Faculties of Humanities or Social Science, should be of relevance to gender and social justice. Approved electives for 2023-24. If you find a course not on the pre-approved list that you think is relevant to your studies, contact the Program Director to ask if the course can count as your GSJ elective.
Thesis
Students in the GSJ Graduate Diploma must write a doctoral thesis on a topic related to the broad fields of Gender and Social Justice. After the thesis is formally approved by the home department, according to that department’s regular schedule for doctoral thesis submission and approval, the student submits their thesis proposal to the GSJ program. The GSJ Director, with support from the PhD Diploma Committee, will approve the dissertation topic’s relevance to the program’s interdisciplinary focus in gender and social justice and provide comments designed to strengthen the research as a contribution to this broad field. After this point, thesis evaluation for Ph.D. students is entirely at the discretion of the home department, i.e. the supervisor and thesis committee members appointed by that department. Faculty members in the Gender and Social Justice program may sit on doctoral thesis supervisory committees, or serve as external examiners of doctoral theses, but such arrangements are entirely at the discretion of the home department.
Research Symposium Participation and Presentation
Regular attendance at Symposium events is a vital component of the PhD Diploma. The Symposium is a key means of fostering intellectual community throughout a program with students from many different disciplines. If regular attendance at Symposium events is challenging for you (because of a schedule conflict or some other reason), please contact the Director to discuss the question. After each Symposium event, you are encouraged to engage in discussion with your fellow students and with GSJ faculty members in the GSJ Symposium Teams channel. We encourage you to read your peers’ posts and respond to them respectfully with an aim of sharing knowledges and building an equitable and engaged intellectual community.
One requirement of the PhD Diploma is to present your thesis research-in-progress in the Symposium. One common way this presentation happens is as a conference-length talk as part of a research panel, or via participation in a roundtable discussion. Your symposium presentation ordinarily happens in your third or fourth year. This requirement enhances your dissertation work by providing a useful forum for sharing preliminary research results and receiving feedback from interested students and faculty members across a range of disciplines.
Visit Graduate Studies to learn more about tuition, supplementary fees and everything you need to know about being paid as a Teaching or Research Assistant. Tuition fees are assessed on a term by term basis, depending on the number of courses a student takes or if they are paying by term.
The McMaster Graduate Scholarship (MGS) is the most common form of scholarship support available to graduate students in our program. The MGS ensures that students receive a guaranteed minimum level of scholarship support. Adjustments to the MGS will depend on other available scholarships.
The Faculty of Humanities Adjustments guidelines policy is available for review.
Supplemental Information
Term 1 Core Courses (September – December)
- GS 701 Doing Anti-Oppressive Research | Dr. Catherine Anderson
- GS 700 Theorizing Gender and Social Justice | Dr. Allauren Forbes
Term 2 Core Course (January – April)
- GS 700 Theorizing Gender and Social Justice | Dr. Aytak Akbari-Dibavar
The following courses have been approved to count towards the MA or the Graduate Diploma in Gender and Social Justice. For courses outside of GSJ, contact the relevant department to seek permission to register. If you find a course not on the pre-approved list that you think is relevant to your studies, contact the Program Director to ask if the course can count as an elective.
Typically, an offer of admission to the full-time MA in Gender and Social Justice includes a funding package consisting of a Scholarship and a 260-hour Teaching Assistant position. The typical total funding offered for the 12-month program is about $14,000.
All eligible students are also encouraged to apply for external scholarships such as the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and Canada Graduate Scholarships.
Learn more about:
Find a Humanities Expert
Research-focused and student-centered. Humanities researchers promote interdisciplinary approaches to local and global leadership. Learn more about our researchers by searching by name or keyword.