PhD in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies

It has been a real pleasure conducting my PhD research at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. The Centre’s vision of multi-disciplinarity on top of its commitment to academic excellence allowed me to explore insights coming from a range of different disciplines and perspectives within the wider University. Operating as a hub for inquiries into gender and sexuality research, the Centre provided a space for my research to receive challenging, productive, and rewarding feedback, which shaped my PhD work in the best possible way. In my time as a PhD student, I had the chance to attend seminars and discuss my work with leading scholars like Professor Seyla Benhabib, Professor Judith Butler and Professor Jack Halberstam, as they visited the Centre thanks to the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship. The other PhD and MPhil students at the Centre also contributed immensely to my scholarly development, and created a supportive environment.

In addition to my PhD research, the innovative research environment at the Centre for Gender Studies encouraged me to start my own series and blog on methods and methodologies employed in gender and sexuality studies with a focus on social justice: Methods in Question: Epistemologies of Gender and Sexuality. Commended by the Outstanding Student Contribution to Education Awards, the seminar series brought together researchers and students at the University of Cambridge, as well as reaching a global audience through its online blog. This experience showed me that in a supportive academic setting, departments influence students and scholars, but also that the reverse is also true: students and early career scholars can dynamically shape and contribute to the scholarly environment as active members of the research community.

Hakan Sandal-Wilson (April 2021)

The PhD in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies programme was a nurturing and challenging environment in which to grow as a scholar. In addition to providing me with training and mentorship to conduct feminist ethnographic research for my PhD topic, the programme offered valuable professional development activities that helped me improve my teaching and publication record. I also learned so much from being part of an amazing international cohort who were all doing excellent research and engaged in important political work within the University and in their own communities.

Sharmila Parmanand (April 2021)

As someone who completed the MPhil and is currently in the PhD programme at the Centre for Gender Studies, I am honoured to be part of a community that is not only intellectually stimulating but also incredibly supportive. The PhD programme thus far has been an especially enriching experience, as the Centre’s unique multi-disciplinary approach allows students to weave our individual disciplinary interests with a critical feminist perspective, taking our work to the forefront of innovative gender research. Most of all, I am grateful for the constant academic and administrative guidance. Doing a PhD can be overwhelming and stressful at times; however, encouragement from faculty/members of the Centre and my supervisor throughout this rigorous process has been empowering and confidence-boosting.

Farhana Rahman (September 2019)