THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
Explores the contemporary science and politics of reproductive health in North America. Taught from a reproductive justice (RJ) perspective, a framework for analysis and action developed by Black women health organizers and scholars. Examines several aspects and applications of the reproductive justice framework itself; RJ approaches to pregnancy and birth; RJ as a diagnosis and refusal of eugenics; and RJ and abortion. Engages with case studies, scholarship, and theory from a variety of literatures relevant to public health: epidemiology, feminist and queer theory, critical race studies, gender/sexuality studies, activist and policy analyses, and historical and contemporary primary sources. Explores a variety of experiences and meanings of reproductive health and illness, as well as the relationships between health/disease and racism, poverty, sexism, hetero- and cis- normativity, colonization, incarceration, and environmental degradation.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: Sophomore standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Social & Behavioral Science Breadth - Social Science Level - Intermediate L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Learning Outcomes: 1. Define and use a reproductive justice framework to analyze the power relations, historical factors, and current material realities that produce states of reproductive health and disease. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Understand how histories and ongoing realities of eugenics, racial, sexual, gender, economic, and colonial domination and resistance impact reproductive health Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Understand historical and contemporary research in the fields of public health, epidemiology, medicine, and health policy, reading appreciatively as well as critically Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Assess public health policies and programs aimed at improving reproductive health from a reproductive justice perspective Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Carry out an independent analysis of a contemporary problem related to reproductive health, survey existing public health, medical, and social science literature, and produce a research project Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Define and use a reproductive justice framework to analyze the power relations, historical factors, and current material realities that produce states of reproductive health and disease. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Understand how histories and ongoing realities of eugenics, racial, sexual, gender, economic, and colonial domination and resistance impact reproductive health Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Understand historical and contemporary research in the fields of public health, epidemiology, medicine, and health policy, reading appreciatively as well as critically Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Assess public health policies and programs aimed at improving reproductive health from a reproductive justice perspective Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Carry out an independent analysis of a contemporary problem related to reproductive health, survey existing public health, medical, and social science literature, and produce a research project Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027