Course Description
Reproductive Justice is a human right to maintain bodily autonomy while choosing to reproduce, choosing not to reproduce, and parenting with dignity. This course introduces these concepts and explores ongoing efforts to define, medicalize, technologize, and/or constrain reproductive bodies. It examines representations of reproductive bodies in North American and global political, social, and cultural contexts, and takes an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to narratives, issues, practices, and arguments regarding reproductive justice. Topics may include contraception, abortion, fertility, normative kinship, childbirth, child rearing, loss, age, familial environment, forced/coerced sterilization, and access. Multi-media representations and portrayals of reproduction are researched and investigated with an intersectional approach to the social determinants of health, paying close attention to age, gender identity, gender expression, race, Indigeneity, colonization, class, and immigration status.
Course Content
A sample course outline may include the following topics.
Note: Content may vary according to the instructor’s selection of topics.
- Introduction to Reproductive Justice
- Reproductive Histories
- Theories of Reproduction
- Social Determinants of Health
- Colonization and Eugenics
- Reproductive Loss
- Birth
- Parenting and Normativity
- Opting Out
- Reproduction and [Dis]ability
- Reproduction in Science Fiction
- Age
- Post-Reproductive Life
- Geographies of Reproduction
- Reproductive Activism
Learning Activities
The course will employ a number of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some or all of the following:
- Small and large group discussions
- Audio-visual materials
- Internet exploration
- Interviews
- Seminar presentations
- Workshopping research processes and results
- Lectures (including guest lectures)
Means of Assessment
Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy and will include both formative and summative components. Evaluation will be based on some or all of the following:
- Journal reflection
- Participating in class discussion
- Essays
- Research papers
- Oral presentations (individual and/or group)
- Community life research
- Collaborative creative projects
- Exams
A sample evaluation scheme may include:
- Course contribution 20%
- Oral presentation 15%
- Research Proposal 15%
- Term Paper 30%
- Final exam 20%
- TOTAL: 100%
Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.
Learning Outcomes
During this course successful students will develop and further their ability to:
- Engage in critical debates in reproductive health from intersectional, queer, and feminist theoretical perspectives;
- Interpret social, cultural, economic, and political changes within reproductive justice movements;
- Analyse structural barriers to health and wellness in relation to reproduction;
- Locate, examine, and engage in intersections of age, gender, race, Indigeneity, and [dis]ability in health-related social activism; locally and across the globe;
- Apply interdisciplinary approaches to research in issues of reproductive health.
Textbook Materials
A list of required texts and materials is provided on the instructor’s Course Syllabus, which is available to students at the beginning of each semester. An instructor’s course reader may be required.
Textbooks may include:
Tanya Saroj Bakhru, Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights: Transnational Perspectives (UK: Routledge 2019).
Dana-Ain Davis, Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth (New York: NYU Press, 2019).
Martha Paynter, Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada (Nova Scotia: Fernwood, 2022).
Loretta J Ross and Rickie Solinger. Reproductive Justice: An Introduction. (Oakland: University of California Press, 2017).