A Year 3 recommended module: Gender and Development

Deciding which modules to take can always be a challenging process; certain features and elements of different modules naturally appeal to you for different reasons, and the factors to consider for deciding are endless. Regardless, a decision has to be made. 

Distinctly, Warwick – and specifically the Politics and International Studies department – provides students with an overview of all the possible modules they may choose in advance of the selection date. This enables us to research, compare, and ask questions about specific modules so that we can ensure our selections cater to our interests and abilities. 

When I first stumbled upon the module ‘Gender and Development’, I was naturally interested in the content; it was a contemporary mix of international development, gender studies, and international security. Moreover, I found the balance between social, political, and economic factors of women’s development explored very fascinating and inviting. 

Accordingly, I choose this module as one of my 4 modules for my final year. This blog will provide an honest review of the module for those of you considering it and will also help answer many of the questions you may have regarding it. Indeed, this module is not restricted to only Politics and International Studies students, students from PPE or PPL and Politics and Sociology have also found this module interesting and have studied it in their final year. 

Please do also note that the information I will provide will be based on the 2021/22 academic year and therefore slight changes may be made for the 2022/23 year. Structurally, I will begin with some basic information about the module before giving my personal feedback and advice:  

Module Title: 

• Gender and Development 

Module Director: 

• Dr Mouzayian Khalil-Babatunde

Cats: 

• 30 Cats – meaning it will run across 2 terms as opposed to 15 Cats that are for 1 term

Assessment Options: 

1. One 3 hour open book examination in term 3 for which you should answer 4 questions. 
2. One 3,000 word essay and a 1.5-hour open book examination (the 50/50 option).
3. Two 3,000 word essays. The submission date for these essays can be found in the Undergraduate Handbook.

I will now provide an honest overview of the different features of the module; for the purpose of evaluation, each element will be ranked out of 10 (please note that these are based on my personal feedback and therefore are not to be taken as fact but rather to read through and lightly reflect on):

Lecture Quality: 8 

The first half of lectures were online and once switched to in person, I found them much more engaging, I like the addition of guest lecturers as it provides another perspective on gender issues, the module directer also made changes to lectures according to our feedback which was very nice to see.

Seminar Quality: 9 

Seminars were not extremely formal or structured in a certain way, they gave students the opportunity to reflect on readings, the lecture, and engage in debates with each other. I enjoyed the diversity among students as it brought a range of ideas and perspectives to the discussion. 

Readings Provided: 8

I found the readings interesting and distinct but a lot of the content I ended up using in essays did come from my own research as opposed to directly from the reading list which is not a big problem. I think the readings did range to cover many interesting empirical case studies from all around the world and from different scholars which provided for diverse and interesting debates in class. 

Essays / Exams Questions Provided: 7.5

Truthfully, I found the essay questions phrased in a way that was difficult to comprehend as they were longer and used more complex words than I believe was required. However, the actual questions and focus of the essays were directly related to the content taught which made it easier to answer. 

Overall: 8.5/9 

I certainly recommend this module if you are interested in gender studies and development, the module is diverse, interesting, and stimulating and can be related to many other third-year modules. The module challenged my critical thinking and allowed me to engage in some fantastic debates. 

I hope you found this review helpful, if there are any other modules you would like for me to review please let me know in the comments or through messaging me and if there are any additional questions or comments please do not hesitate to reach out!