MA in Global Gender Studies

GGSs students at the Albright Knox Art Gallery.

A master’s degree in Global Gender Studies prepares students with the theoretical and practical foundations for advanced graduate work and careers in diverse fields, including teaching, government, and community and non-governmental organizations. 

About the MA Program

President Tripathia and Shantese Wilkinson, 2018 Grad Commencement Ceremony.

President Tripathi congratulates MA student Shantese Wilkinson at the 2018 Graduate Commencement Ceremony.

The strength of our master's program lies in our commitment to an interdisciplinary curriculum that bridges multiple fields: literary studies, visual studies, history, sociology, political science and anthropology. Our program’s global dimension attracts students from across the United States as well as internationally.

About Applying

All of our graduate programs' applications require a personal statement, which is both a life narrative and a statement of research interests.  On our application, you will be asked to respond to this essay prompt:

Please tell us about yourself, your history, and your academic interests. Describe your motivations and preparation for pursuing this graduate degree. Outline the questions, areas of specialization, and/or methodologies that you intend to pursue. How would our department help you to achieve your goals?

Your statement should describe how your education (both inside and outside of the classroom) has prepared you to undertake this graduate degree, and the kinds of questions, subjects, and angles of approach you would like to focus on in your graduate studies.  You should also give your reasons for applying to UB and to this department; what resources are here that would support your scholarly and professional goals?

This statement of your academic interests does not commit you to this specific project or specialization in any way; rather, it should give a sense of your intellectual trajectory--where you're coming from, and where you intend to go next.  We want to see that you can articulate a field (or fields) of academic inquiry, and how you situate yourself within and among the different disciplinary methdologies that make up the diverse inter-discpline of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies.

Degree Requirements

The MA in Global Gender Studies degree is based on graduate coursework and original scholarship in the form of a master’s paper or creative project written under the supervision of at least two faculty. 

Coursework
 A total of 32 credits are required for the MA degree in Global Gender Studies, out of which at least 21 credits must be taken in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Core Requirements

  • One theory course (Readings in Feminist Theory)
  • One methods course (Quantitative Research Methods or Ethnographic Methods)
  • Five additional graduate seminars 
  • Master's thesis or project and an oral defense

MA Thesis or Project
 The Master’s Thesis or project is written under the direction of at minimum two faculty members: one serves as the committee chair (major professor) or first reader, the other serves as a committee member or second reader. If the student chooses the thesis option, the thesis should be based on original research and analysis. If the student chooses the project option, the project should be a new creative endeavor. Either has to be cogently defended to the satisfaction of the student’s MA committee.

Thesis/Project Defense
When completed, Master’s Theses/Projects is defended orally by the student at a forum open to the public. For further details, please see the graduate student handbook.

Meet Our Students

  • Elizabeth DiPaola
    3/15/21
    Elizabeth DiPaola is an MA student with an interest in the relationships between gender, sexuality, power, race, and class.
  • Soe Win
    9/29/23
    Soe is currently a PhD candidate. Her research interest includes gender-based violence, violence against minorities, and the women's movement in Burma (Myanmar).
  • Gabriella Nassif
    6/30/21
    Gabriella Nassif focuses on issues of labor, gender and development in the Arab region with a specific focus on Lebanon. She has spent the last few years living between Buffalo, N.Y. and Beirut, Lebanon.
  • Maria Amir
    9/13/19
    Maria Amir’s work focuses on South Asian queer Sufi practices and postcolonial feminist identities, specifically with regards to contemporary Human Rights and Nationalism discourse in South Asia.
  • Kit Lam
    9/29/23
    Kit is a PhD student, and their research interests surround issues of interracial solidarity in social movements, with a particular interest in Asian-Black solidarity in the COVID era and its aftermath.
  • Jessica Lowell Mason
    2/7/22
    Situated in disABILITY theory, feminist theory, and queer theory, Jessica strives to use the written contributions of maligned, misunderstood, and heretical women (those dubbed 'madwomen' and 'witches') on the subject of consciousness to "talk back" to norm-enforcing modern-day sanist institutional and social practices.
  • Jenna Woodcock
    9/29/23
    Jenna Woodcock is pursuing her Master of Arts in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo. Her research interests include: Memoir as a therapeutic and social justice praxis, Disability studies, Food writing, Memory studies, Queering the archive.
  • Sam King-Shaw
    9/29/23
    Sam King-Shaw is a PhD student and Schomburg Fellow at UB. Sam’s research explores questions of relationality, desire, (freedom) dreams, and genealogy in twentieth-century Black queer cultural production.
  • Kailey McDonald
    3/9/21
    Kailey is a PhD student interested in the interplay between the political imaginary and the transformative power of language. Her research focuses on imagining political alternatives to neoliberal, neocolonial capitalism.
  • Lisa Martin
    8/19/21
    Lisa Marie Martin is currently an MA student at the University at Buffalo in Global Gender Studies.
  • Deanna Buley
    3/9/21
    Deanna Buley's research focuses on abortion access and support systems in highly restrictive locations such as Northern Ireland and parts of the U.S.
  • Xingyu Chen
    6/12/18
    Xingu Chen joined the Global Gender and Sexuality Studies department as an MA student, then decided to stay for her PhD, focusing on war and fertility patterns, conflict-induced exposomes and women’s reproductive health in Asian countries after WWII.
  • Lee Kagiavas
    4/17/24
    Their dissertation work is a pessimist, History of Consciousness--abortion-style-- examination of aesthetic personhood through BIPOC queer/trans art and anti-abortion imagery. In her free time, she likes spending time outside with family, cooking, teaching classes, and of course, reading.
How to Apply
Financial Support
Student Voices

I got into the PhD program of my dreams after completing my MA, with much gratitude to the professors in the GGSs program who supported me through the application process.

Contact Us

With questions about the MA program, please contact: