Week 7: Women and Disease

• Reminder: Some of this week’s readings are hosted on MSU Google Drive. These are only accessible using your MSU Google Apps account. When you open the link, you’ll be prompted to select which google account you want to open them with – use your MSU Google Apps account (which requires your regular MSU Net ID and password). If you choose your non-MSU google account, you won’t be able to open the file. Do not request access to the files with your non-MSU Google account.

COURSE MATERIALS

• Lecture: 7.1. The “patient” role, authoritative knowledge, and patient “non-compliance” (15 min)
• Lecture: 7.2. Revisiting our five theories applied to disease (15 minutes)
• PDF: 7.1. Ley, Barbara. Chapter 5 – “The Cultural Politics of Sisterhood”. In From Pink to Green
• Link: 7.1. The Lancet Editorial Staff. “Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell”
• Film: 7.1 Léa Pool – “Pink Ribbons, Inc.” (24:39)

ASSESSMENTS

THE LAST TWO ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 11:59PM EST THURSDAY, AUGUST 16th (last day of class). There will be  no exceptions.

**Please note that the weekly blog posts are due earlier than normal because of the shorter week!**  

• Activity post (15 points): 250-500 words, Due **Tuesday, August 14th** by 11:59 PM EST

  Please write a short post about what you learned from the class; what you enjoyed; and what you feel could be done better in the future.

• Blog post (15 points): 500-700 words, Due **Tuesday, August 14th** by 11:59 PM EST

  Please write about the strengths and weaknesses of the “mainstream breast cancer culture” and compare/contrast with the eco-feminist views that Ley describes in her article.

• Blog comment (15 points): 150-200 words, Due **Thursday, August 16th** by 11:59 PM EST

  Comment on another class member’s blog post. Your comment should contain 3-4 of the following: questions, another point of view, evidence from outside sources, insights from the weekly readings.

• Final project blog post  (35 points): 2000-3000 words, Due Thursday, August 16th by 11:59 PM EST

  Final Project Description:

  The objective of this course has been to analyze how gender intersects with cultural models of medicine, sickness, health and the human body across the world. The Western, biomedical model has been placed alongside other models of health (such as Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine from India). You have also learned about different gendered health issues from an evolutionary, critical, interpretive, and feminist anthropological theoretical perspective.In your final blog post, you will use one of the five theoretical models which you learned about in Week 1 to critically investigate the health topic and country you have chosen. Using this theoretical model, you will delve more deeply into the social, cultural, political (including global politics), and economic determinants of the particular health issue you have chosen. Cite any sources that you use with the author,the title of the source, the date, pages, and, if a website, the link.

  Use the work you did for your activity posts that relates to your health problem or your country, including the weeks four, five and six activities to write your final post. There is no need to start from scratch.  Do not copy-paste, however, but rework what you wrote with the new information you have to create a more sophisticated discussion. 

  An example of an appropriate final blog post is as follows: perhaps you want to examine the effects of educating girls in reducing infant mortality in Senegal. You will create a final post (with the sources cited) on the effects of educating girls in reducing infant mortality in Senegal. You might identify the cultural determinants that impede educating girls, such as, for example, the emphasis a family puts on educating boys over girls. You might use a feminist theory approach to critique this emphasis on boy babies over girls and how this emphasis leads to a higher infant mortality rate.

  Foundational sources and other resources:

  UNICEF
  World Health Organization
  UN Women
  UN Millennium Development Goals 2015 Final Report
  Google Scholar
  MSU Library and MSU Librarian Live Chat/Email Service

  Final Post Grading Rubric:

  Your essay will be graded as follows. You must include these items to receive full points:

  • Your essay must be between 2000 and 3000 words—5 points

  •You must clearly identify your health topic, your country, the social, political, economic, or cultural determinants that influence your health topic AND the anthropological theory from the Week 1  Lectures and Readings that you will be using in the introductory paragraph of your post–5 points

  • Your post must have an introduction and a conclusion—5 points

  • You must use at least 7 total sources including 4  sources as support for your health issue and 3  sources as support for your anthropological theory. You may use any of the sources from over the course of the class that might apply. The sources must be reputable academic sources—5 points

  
  • You must cite your sources in the body of your post using the author’s name and date, such as: (Claiborne 2015) anytime you introduce new information from a source. AND  you must list your sources at the end of your post: Author Last Name, First Name. (Date of publication). Title of source. Pages. Website if applicable—5 points

  
  • You must use the anthropological theory you select to explain, from an anthropological perspective, the causes of the health issue OR the solution to the health issue you are studying in your country. So, for example, one might use a feminist anthropological theory to explain an increase in violence against women on college campuses in the United States–10 points