Health and Science

Instructor

Barbara Campbell

Course Description

This course will examine representations of disability in American culture in the 20th and 21st centuries through literary texts, film, art, music, and dance. Our class will use disability studies theory to analyze how artists with disabilities critique ableism and complicate conventional narratives of disability. Stereotypical depictions of the disabled figure in literature, art, and popular culture reinforce, sometimes inadvertently, discrimination towards people with physical, intellectual, and psychiatric disabilities. The disabled subject is often represented as the object of pity, scorn, or as heroic inspiration for ableist culture. Works by artists with disabilities tend to challenge these depictions in content and form in unconventional and radical ways. We will engage with a variety of texts to discuss how artists draw attention to inclusivity, access, and social justice.

Instructor(s)

Brent Hege

Daniel Meyers

Course Description

Through reading and critical discussion around theological, philosophical, and sacred texts, students will be able to explore the meaning of faith, doubt, and reason and ask big implicated questions, such as: what is faith, how do you know what you know, can divinity be proven, and what is the relationship of science to faith? The first semester of Faith, Doubt, and Reason focuses on developing writing skills. The second semester of Faith, Doubt, and Reason will provide an opportunity for students to write and present on issues in need of action in our world.

Instructor(s)

JD Amick

Course Description

TBA

Instructor

LuAnne McNulty

Course Description

Food. Food is essential for the survival of all living things. But, it’s more than just a source of sustenance; the idea of food is interwoven with our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. We celebrate with food, mourn with food, and covet food. From family gatherings to food blogs, the way we talk about food and culture has changed with the rise in social media. How does food nourish our bodies? What should we know about nutrition? What should we know about taste and flavor? How does food impact health, behavior, and communities? How do we reconcile the food culture propagated by social media with the understanding that many live in food deserts and go to bed hungry? We will consider all these things and more in this course. 

Instructor

Julie Johnson Searcy

Course Description

In this FYS on Global Perspectives on Health, our big questions will center around health and illness. We will be thinking about people’s experiences of health and illness across cultures. We are going to be asking questions about health, illness and equality. Consider this quote from the World Health Organization:

The social conditions in which people are born, live and work are the single, most important determinants of good health or ill health, of a long and productive life or a short and miserable one.

What does account for differences in health? Why are there such differences in social conditions? How does power and culture play a role in health and illness? What helps us explain and understand these health differences? As we discover the kinds of gaps and varied access to health resources people experience we will be seeking to understand the nature of this inequality through the lens of medical anthropology which focuses on the human experience.

Instructor

Susanna Scott

Course Description

In this class, we will explore such topics as mental illness, birth, death, the AIDS epidemic and addiction by reading works that offer ethical, historical, cultural and scientific perspectives. By reading patient and physician memoirs and literary works, we will gain an understanding of how the experience of illness as well as the experience of treating illness can be influenced by socio-economic and cultural factors. We will learn about the ethical, economic, and political dilemmas facing patients, doctors, and communities. Suffering comes not only from medical condition itself but from injustices, unequal access to care, stigma, neglect, and isolation. As patients and perhaps future health care providers, we need a fuller understanding of these dimensions of illness and health care.

This course fulfills an Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) credit.

Instructor

Tonya Bergeson

Course Description

Is music the universal language? Is music independent of language? This class will examine the relationship between music and language from the perspective of philosophy, psychology, communication science, and neuroscience. We will explore the relevant data and theories from various perspectives such as linguistics and music cognition, and we will investigate music and language across the lifespan and in different populations, such as aphasia and amusia.

Instructor

Karly Keiper

Course Description

Many people do not realize that the laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability are younger than most of our grandparents. In this course, we will explore the life of the “mother of the disability rights movement”, Judy Heumann. We will analyze how her unique personal story, life experiences, and fierce advocacy have shaped the law-making around disability and civil rights. We will discuss the evolution of the movement beyond Judy’s “birth” of it, exploring what accessibility meant, currently means, and what Judy (and many, many others) hope for it to one day mean.

Content warning: abuse, neglect, and violence against people with disabilities