PhD in English and Film Studies - Gender and Genre in Waterloo Canada | Wilfrid Laurier University

The focus on gender and genre arises from the convergence of two expansive conceptual domains in literature and film analysis. Building upon feminist theory, performance studies, masculinity research, cultural analysis, and queer theory, gender has become acknowledged as a pivotal element in creating, distributing, and engaging with literary, cinematic, and broader cultural narratives. Genres, as culturally established frameworks, function to structure, categorize, and clarify societal narratives and otherwise vague depictions. By examining genre through literary, filmic, historical, performative, psychological, and political lenses, this discipline encompasses diverse investigations and approaches that position gendered and sexual identities as culturally formed in connection to the genres where they manifest.