Course Schedule and Catalog
Course Schedule - Spring Semester 2025
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
MDHM 378 001 (CRN: 26750)
POLITICS OF REPRODUCTION
Long Title: POLITICS OF REPRODUCTION: SEX, ABORTION, AND MOTHERHOOD
Department: Medical Humanities
Instructor: Thomsen, Carly
Meeting: 2:00PM - 3:15PM MW (13-JAN-2025 - 25-APR-2025)
Part of Term: Full Term
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Method of Instruction: Face to Face
Credit Hours: 3
Course Syllabus:
Course Materials: Rice Campus Store
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Undergraduate Professional
Visiting Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Section Max Enrollment: 20
Section Enrolled: 0
Total Cross-list Max Enrollment: 20
Total Cross-list Enrolled: 0
Waitlisted: 0 (Max 198)
Current members of the waitlist have priority for available seats.
Enrollment data as of: 14-NOV-2024 8:12PM
Final Exam: No Final Exam
Description: Cultural ideas about reproduction shape how we experience and understand gender and sexuality and ideas about gender and sexuality influence how we view reproduction. As such, we cannot challenge dominant ideas about gender and sexuality without critical conversations about reproductive issues. Because requirements for being considered a “good” woman are so closely connected to what it means to be a “good” mother, any analysis of gender requires critical engagement with ideas about reproduction—even for those of us who plan to avoid parenthood or do not have heterosexual sex. This class focuses on the politics of reproduction in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the social and political relations that shape reproductive issues today. We will assess the ways that different women experience reproduction differently, considering throughout how the construction of gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and geography inform understandings and experiences of reproduction. Throughout the course, we will take on the paradoxes, horrors, complexities, and joys of reproduction. Cross-list: ENGL 378.