Universidad Veracruzana

Foundation

Gender Studies in the Social Sciences is part of a contemporary paradigm that allows for a complex and critical understanding of social reality. Epistemologically, they distance themselves from positivist, biological, cultural and psychological approaches, focusing more on hermeneutical, constructivist and pragmatic approaches to language. This allows us to think of women and men as social subjects that produce meanings about themselves from their bodies, their sexuality and their life experience. This way of approaching the social reality of subjects has become relevant for social scientists in the last decades of the 20th century, without forgetting that feminism has accompanied the constitution of these disciplines.

Feminism produced an important epistemological rupture by making evident the prevailing sexism in the standardized ways of producing knowledge. With the gender category, the analysis of the social construction of sexed bodies highlights the historical, relational, contextual and psychic dimensions for the understanding of subjects and the generation of instances of social transformation.

Currently, the field of social sciences is increasingly nourished by the contributions generated from the different aspects of feminism, studies on women, gender studies and the queer perspective. In general, a transformation of cultural life is proposed that is marked by the model of male domination which is androcentric, heteronormative, sexist, misogynistic and homophobic. It is recognized that these are culturally constructed issues and that it is through changes in the different orders of our lives that progress can be made in generating conditions of equity and equality for men and women.

This exposed complexity interweaves the accumulation of our experiences. Such experiences have been expressed and redirected, for example, by women’s, feminist or gay pride movements, which in turn have specific social and political demands.

For the understanding of this new way of conceiving our experiences in society, with corresponding epistemological vigilance, a variety of disciplines have been used: philosophy, anthropology, sociology, history, law, politics, psychology, psychoanalysis, biology, medicine, linguistics, pedagogy and the arts, among others. Thus, it is an eminently transdisciplinary task.

In this way, a wide and varied series of investigations has been produced on topics such as women’s history, anthropology of women, women’s rights, feminist thought, gender and queer perspective in education, art with a gender perspective, empowerment of women, construction of gender roles, gender identity processes, exercise and construction of sexuality, new masculinities, violence against women, violence and masculinity, sexual and reproductive health, identity / difference policies, among many others. This range of contributions allows the current generation of research to examine our own social reality and address particular problems that are being presented in this context.

In this sense, the transdisciplinary approach of The Center for Gender Studies of the University of Veracruz is one of their greatest assets. The faculty of the Masters of Gender Studies is formed from different disciplines: philosophy, anthropology, sociology, medicine, psychology, law, arts and pedagogy. From the experience of their own academic careers, they generate collective work and distribute knowledge about feminism and a gender and queer perspective.

The Center for Gender Studies of the University of Veracruz recognizes that research work must extend towards training, awareness, professionalization and the generation of knowledge that affects the processes of cultural transformation that help generate equity and equality among women and men. Hence the need for this expertise.

This postgraduate program also proposes the possibility of national and international mobility of the students through the relationships with other postgraduates in gender studies in the country and abroad, as well as the possibility of studying in academic institutions that have centers or programs for gender studies.

Collaboration, exchange and mobility with government institutions and civil society organizations will also be promoted to develop intervention processes.

Mission

Vision