The course will explore the contemporary discourse around menstruation in global and local contexts. The recent shift in public discourse around menstruation is crucial because efforts to support menstruators across the lifespan not only confer health benefits but also provide a key entry point for gender justice. Centering menstruation recognizes the body as foundational, urgent and politically relevant.
This is why menstruation matters: it unites the personal and the political, the intimate and the public, the physiological and the socio-cultural.
Students in the course will have an opportunity to engage with the Working Group on Menstrual Health and Gender Justice, they will develop a proposal for an interdisciplinary research project, and they will benefit from a workshop on public engagement with The OpEd Project.
The course will be taught by an interdisciplinary team of faculty members with backgrounds in human rights, law, epidemiology, anthropology, biomedical informatics, computer science, economics, and women’s and gender studies, who are fellows in the Working Group on Menstrual Health & Gender Justice. The lead instructor will be present throughout the course and will be joined by one or several co-instructors for individual sessions.
- Inga Winkler, Institute for the Study of Human Rights
- Noémie Elhadad, Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University Medical Center
- Lauren Houghton, Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
- Anja Benshaul-Tolonen, Economics, Barnard College (guest speaker)
- Chris Bobel, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, UMass Boston (guest speaker)
Menstrual Health & Gender Justice 