Gender and Social Justice Graduate Diploma (Ph.D)

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 combine disciplinary research with interdisciplinary scholarship from the fields of Gender and Social Justice.

The Graduate Diploma option is available to incoming and in-course Ph.D. students in McMaster’s Departments of Anthropology, Communication new Media and Cultural Studies, English and Cultural Studies, French, History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Social Work and Sociology.

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.

Admission

The primary requirement for admission to the Graduate Diploma program (beyond admission to the home department’s stand-alone Ph.D. program) is distinction in a Master’s degree with sufficient academic background and preparation (at the undergraduate and/or Master’s level) in women’s, gender, and/or feminist studies, critical race studies, sexuality studies, disability studies, and/or equity studies. The University requires that applicants’ previous graduate work be equivalent to at least a McMaster B+ (77-79%), but higher standards may be set in practice by the diploma student’s home department.

The Statement of Interest should clarify what elements in the applicant’s academic background prepare them for graduate level work in the field of gender and social justice.

For a full description of application materials and procedures see the Gender and Social Justice website https://gsj.humanities.mcmaster.ca.

Part-time Studies

Doctoral students who wish to pursue a doctorate in their home department together with the Gender and Social Justice Graduate Diploma will normally be admitted full-time to both. In the occasional instance when the home department and the GSJ program admits, or converts a student, to part-time studies, the requirements for the diploma program (as for the home department) will remain the same but will be spread out over a longer time period.

Program Requirements

Program requirements for the Graduate Diploma (Ph.D.), in addition to those of the student’s home department, are:

one compulsory core course (GENDR ST 700 / Theorizing Gender and Social Justice ) (3 units) (also required for Master’s students)
one additional elective course in gender and social justice (3 units) (from an approved list).
participation in the Program’s Research Symposium, including
- attending at least two symposium events per year;
- an oral presentation based on the doctoral student’s own research; and
a doctoral thesis on a topic related to Gender and Social Justice.

Students will normally complete the 6 units of diploma coursework during their second year. In order to ensure timely degree completion, diploma students will be encouraged to choose an elective course likely to directly enhance and move forward their thesis research.

Please note that the 6 units of Graduate Diploma coursework are in addition to coursework required for the Ph.D. from the home department. Courses cannot be counted towards both the Ph.D. degree and the GSJ Ph.D. diploma.

Diploma students will normally give their Research Symposium presentation during their third or fourth year.

Language Requirements

To be determined by individual home departments.

Thesis Evaluation Procedures

Students in the Graduate Diploma program must have their thesis topics approved by both the home department and the program in Gender and Social Justice. The thesis must be on a topic related to the broad fields of Gender and Social Justice. Approval is granted by the Gender and Social Justice program’s Graduate Committee and occurs in conjunction with the home department’s regular schedule for doctoral thesis proposal submission and approval. Members of the Gender and Social Justice program may sit on doctoral thesis supervisory committees, or serve as external examiners of doctoral theses. Such arrangements are at the discretion of the home department.