Body Politics: Women and Health

3 units · Undergraduate

Intermittent: 3 units This course variation is ONLY offered at Carnegie Mellon's campus in Qatar. This course explores the fraught, often shameful, often triumphant, and sometimes deadly cultural ideas and expectations around cis-gendered women's bodies. We want to explore what the stories we attach to female bodies mean, who they serve, and whether they are changeable. Are our ideas derived from science or culture? And why might it matter? Built from a popular U.S. based-course on the Pittsburgh campus, this course aims to bring feminist analysis around American cis-gendered women's bodies to an audience in Doha, and asks you to build, through class discussion and assignments, your own analyses of how these ideas and concepts work in your own culture. You will no doubt come to different conclusions, which is the goal: for you to think independently and analytically, to build your own ideas. The course is organized topically. We will learn some reproductive anatomy and biology (including the menstrual cycle), and also survey reproductive politics, sexuality, gender-based violence, and a topic of your choice. It will be heavily discussion based. No prerequisites or prior experience with this material needed—open to all.