Reproductive Justice

Curriculum guideline

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Course
GSWS 3101
Discontinued
No
Course code
GSWS 3101
Descriptive
Reproductive Justice
Department
Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies
Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
Not Specified
PLAR
No
Semester length
15 Weeks
Max class size
35
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Contact hours

Lecture: 2 hours per week

Seminar: 2 hours per week

Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Learning activities

The course will employ a number of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some or all of the following:

  • Lecture
  • Seminar discussion and presentation
  • Small group discussions
  • Creative group engagement
  • Guest lectures
  • Film, podcasting, and/or other multimedia presentations
  • Literary analysis
  • Individual research projects with or without community involvement
  • Workshopping research processes and results
  • Walking tours or field trips
Course description
Reproductive Justice is a human right to maintain bodily autonomy while choosing to reproduce, choosing not to reproduce, and parenting with dignity. Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies 3101 introduces these concepts and explores ongoing efforts to define, medicalize, technologize, and/or constrain reproductive bodies. It examines multimedia 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 within the context of the social determinants of health. Topics are framed with attention to age, gender identity, gender expression, race, Indigeneity, colonization, class, and immigration status and may include contraception, abortion, fertility, normative kinship, childbirth, child rearing, loss, age, familial environment, forced/coerced sterilization, and access.
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, Indigeneity, and Eugenics
  • Reproductive Loss
  • Birth
  • Parenting and Normativity
  • Opting Out
  • Reproduction and [Dis]ability
  • Age
  • Perimenopause, Menopause, and Andropause
  • Geographies and Sustainability
  • Literary/Media Representations of Reproduction and Reproductive Rights

 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, successful students be able to:

 

  • Engage in critical debates in reproductive health from intersectional, queer, anti-colonial, 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
Means of assessment

Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation must be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline. 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.

 

Evaluation will be based on some or all of the following:

 

  • Course Engagement and/or Attendance
  • Group Projects and/or Presentations
  • Exams/Quizzes
  • Research Portfolio
  • Reading Responses
  • Term Papers or Creative Projects
  • Journal Reflection
  • Research Papers
  • Oral Presentations (individual and/or group)
  • Community Life Research
  • Collaborative Creative Projects

 

Textbook materials

A list of recommended textbooks and materials is provided on the Instructor’s Course Outline, which is available to students at the beginning of each semester.

Possible texts 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).

Prerequisites

Two GSWS courses (six credits) or permission of the instructor

Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None