Week 4: Violence, Trauma, And Women’s Health

• 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: 4.1. Violence Against Women, Trauma, and Resilience As Health Issues – Guest Lecturer, Mickey Sperlich, PhD (20 min)
• PDF: 4.1. Seng, Julia and Mickey Sperlich. Chapter 2 – “Pregnancy” In Survivor Moms: Women’s Stories of Birthing, Mothering, and Healing after Sexual Abuse
• PDF: 4.2 Intimate Partner Violence (WHO 2012)
• PDF: 4.3. Bombay, et al. “Intergenerational Trauma: Convergence of Multiple Processes among First Nations People of Canada.” Pp. 6-30.
• Link: 4.1. “Women, War, and PTSD”
• Film: 4.1. “War on Women” (15:32 min)
  • NOTE: This film talks graphically about rape. If you know that this is triggering or too difficult for you, you may skip this video.
  • Online Resources:
    • MSU Counseling and Psychiatric Services
    • U-Lifeline (online mental health resource)
    • National Sexual Assault Hotline: 24-hour online and phone hotline – 1-800-656-HOPE (1-800-656-4673)
• Activity I: Spend time (about 45 minutes) investigating websites about Native American responses to domestic violence, rape, and other violence against women. Here are some starting websites:
  • Sacred Hoop Coalition
  • “The Facts on Violence Against American Indian/Alaskan Native Women”
  • Washington Post – “New law offers protection to abused Native American women”

ASSESSMENTS

• Activity post (500-700 words) Due by Friday July 27 :

  It is time to start thinking about your specific health topic in your selected country for your final project due on Week 7. The health topic should be related to women in some manner.

  For this week’s activity post:

  1. Set the context of your health topic with statistics and other sources. For this activity, I will only allow one news source. The rest of your sources (at least three) will need to be academic sources.
  2. Please explain why this is an important health issue to address from both a cultural standpoint and from a public health standpoint.

  For academic sources, you can use the MSU library’s electronic resources or you can use Google Scholar. If you cannot access an article from a site on Google Scholar, you can use MSU library’s electronic databases to locate it in most instances. If you have problems with accessing a source, let me know.

• Blog post (15 points): 700-900 words Due by July 27:

  Using your selected country as an example, and supporting your argument with statistics on violence against women there, answer the question below:

  Women’s experiences of violence across a variety of settings is an important part of their experiences of their bodies and health. How does reframing violence against women and trauma as health issues challenge or reinforce our understandings of health, illness, and medicine? How does intergenerational trauma challenge or reinforce biochemical, mechanical models of health?

  Use some of the readings from the previous weeks to help you answer this question. Especially consider the readings on biomedicine that you read in Week 1.

• Blog comment (15 points): 150-200 words Due by July 29:

  Comment on another class member’s blog post. Your comment can extend a classmate’s argument by adding to it (more evidence, another point of view, etc.) or respectfully challenge it. Your comment should contain 3-4 of the following: questions, another point of view, evidence from outside sources, insights from the weekly readings.