Gender, Sexuality, and Health (332-0-21)

Topic

Reproductive Health/Justice/Politics

Instructors

Amy Ruth Partridge
847.491.5872

Meeting Info

University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

As feminist scholar Michelle Murphy points out, "reproduction is not self-evidently a capacity located in sexed bodies"; it is instead a site (or formation) that joins, "cells, protocols, bodies, nations, capital, economics, freedom, and affect as much as sex and women into its sprawl." Thus, she reminds us, "how we constitute reproduction shapes how it can be imagined, altered and politicized." In this seminar we will explore the changing contours of "reproductive politics" from the 1960s to the present (or from the period immediately pre-Roe v Wade through the recent 2022 decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization) through an in-depth investigation of a range of projects and organizations that conceptually reimagine what we mean by "reproduction," the scope and content of "reproductive politics," and the kinds of demands that can be made in the name of reproductive health, rights, freedom and justice.

Course Assignments:

Research Assignments: Each student will research a key piece of recent legislation, contemporaneous news coverage of a key event, and select 2-3 primary source documents working with pre-selected materials in NU Special Collections to contribute to a Fall Quarter 2024 exhibition.

Written Assignments
• 1 brief (1-2-page) gloss of a key piece of recent legislation
• 1 report-back of an RJ event OR gloss of a current RJ organization/effort
• 2 short (2-3-page) papers
• Final Position Paper

Teaching Method

lecture/seminar discussion

Evaluation Method

small weekly assignments, 2 short papers, 1 final paper

Class Materials (Required)

BOOK: ISBN-10 ‏: ‎0520299949/ ISBN-13 : 978-0520299948---Laura Briggs, How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump (2017)

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area