WMNST565 Spring 2015
Monday 7-9:40 pm
Professor Susan E. Cayleff
This course provides historical and contemporary contexts for understanding multi-cultural women’s experiences with health and healing through an intersectional approach.
Topics include:
 How do diverse racial/ethnic/regional cultures create their own beliefs about health in a given historical era?
 What are the specific issues and concerns of lesbians, queer, and trans people?
 How do women who inhabit multiple communities negotiate ideas about health and healing?
 What role do experts and social institutions (religion, allopathic medicine, law and psychology) play in defining what is health and/or illness for women at any given time?
 How are women healers empowered or limited within their own cultures-and by biotechnical medicine?
 In what ways do folk healing beliefs work in harmony with larger community-based values?
 How has sectarian medicine and its female practitioners been marginalized and devalued?
 How have definitions of women’s illnesses and infirmities benefited medical professionalism and consumer culture?
 How have women in male-dominated healing venues (allopathic medicine, nurses and so on) negotiated gender and their own expertise?
Learning Outcomes:
As a result of taking this course you will gain: be able to demonstrate an understanding of the social construction of gender and sexuality; demonstrate an understanding of the intersectionality of different dimensions of social organization (gender, race, class, culture, etc.) as concepts and as lived experience; Identify mechanisms of oppression and resistance; analyze the role of social location and power in the production of ideas, theories, and representations (including your own); understand and appreciate multiple perspectives; make connections between abstract knowledge and social activism; write a focused and coherent essay that makes an argument; and demonstrate critical thinking skills.
Specifically:
 The ability to critically analyze ways in which women’s health and healing have been conceptualized across diverse cultures in America in specific historical eras
 A knowledge of the impact of cultural institutions on perceptions of/and limitations imposed upon women’s health and abilities to heal
 An understanding of major cultural shifts in healing ideologies
 The ability to critically recognize and analyze how gender(s), sexual expressions, different abilities, regional location, race and social class inform diverse women’s experiences with health and healing

 Tools to critically analyze how heteronormativity, middle-class status and able-bodiness are presumed by most to be centered
 Strengthened critical skills in: reading and scholarly writing
An understanding of how “proper” and “improper” bodies are constructed in relation to age, race, physical ability, size, sexual identities and so on.
Academic Misconduct: Cheating
Cheating is not tolerated in this class. Claiming that you “did not know” is not a reasonable response.
Section 41301 of Title V of the California Code of Regulations defines academic misconduct as
“Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a campus.” According to the SDSU Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities, “Examples of cheating would include using unauthorized notes or study guides during an exam, unauthorized collaboration on coursework, stealing course examinations or materials, falsifying records or data, and intentionally assisting another individual in any of the above.” Some examples of plagiarism include submitting work that was written by someone else or using someone else’s ideas (verbal or written) without referencing that source in a footnote or bibliography. When using exact quotes, be sure put these quotes within quotation marks.
SDSU Writing Center
The Writing Center is a free resource open to any SDSU faculty, staff, or student. The Writing
Center staff consists of peer (student) tutors who assist students in understanding writing assignments and criteria and can help students with any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming topics to revision of rough drafts. The Writing Center’s purpose is to teach writers strategies to navigate complex situations for writing, both in and outside of the University. To make an appointment, please visit the Writing Center’s webpage, www.writingcenter.sdsu.edu.
By accessing the webpage, students can schedule tutoring appointments online at their convenience, or they can simply stop by for a drop-in appointment. The Writing Center is located in the Dome, LLA 1103, next to the circulation desk.
Students with Disabilities: If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at
(619) 594-6473 . To avoid any delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact
Student Disability Services as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that I cannot provide accommodations based upon disability until I have received an accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
RESOURCES
Seeking Healing Resources
•SDSU’s Counseling and Psychological Services: 619-594-5220
•Family Justice Center: 619-533-6000
•San Diego Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault 24-hour Hotline: 1-888-DVLINKS or 1-888-385-
4657

REQUIRED TEXTS (all books are for sale at KB Books-as is the hard copy of the
READER)
Alvord and Cohen Van Pelt (1999) The Scalpel and the Silver Bear
Bair/Cayleff (1993)
Health and
Wings of Gauze: Women of Color and the Experience of
Gevitz (1988)
Leavitt (1999)
Other Healers: Unorthodox Medicine in America.
Women and Health in America, SECOND EDITION
Perrone (1989) Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors

Assorted authors: Two issues of the Journal of Lesbian Studies will provide articles.
These are marked JLS on the syllabus and are posted on Blackboard

Other articles are also designated BB
EVALUATION METHODS: total 1000 points
Attendance and Discussion: 150
One-time weekly discussion leader (students will choose their own weeks) 150
Primary source analysis (due when you co-facilitate discussion) 100
Midterm essay: 6 pages: 250
Film reflection due one week after we view the film—no exceptions. 100
Group Healing Ritual 250
DISCUSSION LEADER AND WEEKLY PARTICIPATION (15% is 150 points plus primary source analysis 10% which is 100 points) Each student will be a discussion leader once. Each week we will have (number to be determined) discussion co-facilitators. These students will be responsible for preparing questions and strategies for our discussion ****Primary source analysis****: 10% is 100 points
PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS FORMAT: directions forthcoming
Midterm essay: 6 pages with citations and bibliography additional (20% is 200 points)
***One of your sources must focus on disability issues
You will be asked to compare healing methods within two distinct cultures. This means you must discuss each one and compare it with the other. One of the values of a page limitation is that one must decide: how do I organize it effectively and address all important points.
CREATE A GROUP HEALING RITUAL:
This is worth 25% of your grade which is 250 points.

*** Two of your group’s sources must focus on disability issues
A drawing will be held to determine presentation dates.
This group collaboration requires each student to locate two primary and 2 secondary sources; meet with your group members (inside and outside of class); and compose the ritual itself. Each student hands in her own sources and analyses of them to the professor. Decide which traditions you are drawing from, and what the goal is of your ritual. YOU HAVE 35-
40 minutes for the entire group to present—so please plan accordingly and don’t take more than your share of time.
Please note, since the goal is for you do original thinking, please remember that this is original research so please do not repeat material covered in class. You need to bring original insights to the topic.
FOR THE GROUP HEALING RITUAL PROJECT:
Place your topic within its historical context (do this by noting era, location, and relevant information for that era, etc.).
1) Note which women are included in your study and those who are not.
2) Note how their social class, race/ethnicity, regional location, able-bodiness and sexualities help shape definitions and ideals of health and healing.
3) Analyze which “experts” and social institutions are vying for power to define what is healthy, normal and desirable (e.g.: heteronormativity and able-bodiness and so on). How are community-based beliefs and/or hierarchical privilege upheld through these systems? 4) Analyze ways in which women have co-created, resisted, rebelled against or coped with these systems of oppression
5) Provide content/specific information
6) Provide your own original analysis
DUE DATES FOR WRITTEN WORK:

To be determined: co-discussion leader ; primary source analysis due that same day
2/23 Midterm essay’s bibliography due
3/2 Professor returns midterm bibliographies with feedback
3/16 Midterm Essay due
Film reflection (can be done throughout the semester and must be turned in within one week of viewing the film. No exceptions, please).

To be determined Healing rituals (dates will be drawn or chosen by the groups).).
They will be presented on the following dates: April 6, 20, 27 and May 4 and 11.

April 13: graduate students lead discussion on the film Pink Ribbons
COURSE SYLLABUS (Note: students are expected to come to class having completed the readings that appear for that date and ready to participate productively in discussion).
January 26: Introduction to key concepts and gendered methodology:

What is health?
What makes for effective healing?
How have ideas about health changed over time? E.g.: what do we now consider healthy that was once not thought so? What is now considered unhealthy?
How do lgbt identities, race/ethnicity and social class, effect the health care one receives?
What specific health needs do LGBTQ people have?
What is meant by heteronormativity and able bodiness being presumed?
What is the value of touch in healing?
How does spirit/spiritual wellbeing coincide with health and healing?
What “items” can be used to heal?
February 2: Theoretical Background: The Cultural Construction of Ideal Womanhood,
Beliefs and “Truths”
Smith-Rosenberg/Rosenberg, “The Female Animal: Medical and Biological Views of Woman and Her Role in Nineteenth-Century American,” in LEAVITT
Welle, et.al. “The Invisible Body of Queer Youth, “ JLS Bb
February 9: Women’s Health in the 17 th and 18 th Centuries: Folk Beliefs, Abortion,
Childbirth Practices, and Surgery
Hufford, “Contemporary Folk Medicine,” in
GEVITZ
In LEAVITT:
Plane, “Childbirth Practices Among Native American Women of New England and Canada,
1600-1800”
Perrone, “Talking and Listening,” in
PERRONE
FILM: “A Midwives Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary” (60 mins).
February 16: LGBT Health: Honoring Health Needs
Top 10 Things Lesbians Should Discuss with their health care practitioner www.glma.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=691 . Accessed 1-16-2014 BB
Harbin, Beagan, Goldberg “Discomfort, Judgment and Health Care for Queers Journal of
Biomedical Inquiry 9, 2 (June 2012): 149-160.
BB
February 23: Botanical Medicines and Women’s Self-Help
“Las Curanderas: “Introduction” and Sabinita Herrera”
in PERRONE
Rothstein, “The Botanical Movements and Orthodox Medicine” in
GEVITZ
Whorton, “Patient, Heal Thyself: Popular Health Reform Movements as Unorthodox Medicine,” in GEVITZ
Saran, “My Guardian Spirits,” in
BAIR/CAYLEFF
March 2 Nineteenth-Century Healing: How Culture Constructs Female Illness

Herndl, “The Invisible (Invalid) Woman: African-American Women, Illness, and Nineteenth-
Century Narrative,” in
LEAVITT
Smith-Rosenberg, “Puberty to Menopause…” BB
March 9: Daring Visions of Health: Health Reform as Rebellion and Cultural Critique
Rubick,
“The Women Who Took On the APA,”
The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 19, no.2
(Mar/Apr 2012): 16-18. BB
All in: Other Healers:
Cayleff, “Gender, Ideology, and the Water-Cure Movement”
Gevitz, “Three Perspectives on Unorthodox Medicine”
March 16: The Birthing Room: Maternity, Midwives, Infant Death and the Professional
Obstetrician
Jesusita Aragon, “Curandera y Partera,” in
PERRONE
Cherquit, “Lesbian co-mothers’experiences of maternity healthcare services,” Journal of
Advanced Nursing 69, 6 (June n2013): 1269-1278.
Davis and Ingram, “Empowered Caretakers: A Historical Perspective on the Roles of Granny
Midwives in Rural Alabama”
March 23: Race and Racism
Washington, “Medical Apartheid: The Black Stork”
Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Birth of HeLa”
Walters, et.al. “My Spirit in My Heart,” re: Two spirit women
JLS BB
IN BAIR/CAYLEFF :
“Mary Peterson: A Life of Healing and Renewal”
*****SPRING BREAK NO CLASS March 30- April 5*****
April 6: Fertility, Birth Control and Abortion
HEALING RITUAL GROUP 1
ALL IN LEAVITT:
Rodrique, “The Black Community and the Birth Control Movement”
Tone, “Contraceptive Consumers: Gender and the Political Economy of Birth Control in the
1930s”

Reagan, “’About to Meet Her Maker’: Women, Doctors, Dying Declarations, and the State’s
Investigation of Abortion, Chicago, 1867-1940,”
Fennelly, “Barriers to Birth Control Use among Hispanic Teenagers: Providers’ Perspectives,” in
BAIR/CAYLEFF
April 13:
Film: Pink Ribbons: Graduate students will lead a discussion on the film and present material on Women and Violence
April 20: Undoing the Binary: Merging Physical and Psychological Health
HEALING RITUAL GROUP 2
ALL IN BAIR/CAYLEFF
Fontenot, Madame Neau: The Practice of Ethno-Psychiatry in Rural Louisiana”
Cummings, Robinson, Lopez, “Perceptions of Discrimination, Psycho-social Functioning and
Physical Symptoms of African-American Women”
Isaac, “Lesbian Pass/ages: Invisible Lives and Issues of Community,”
JLS BB
April 27: Race, LGBT Identities and Gender: Communication in Health Care
HEALING RITUAL GROUP 3
White, “Room for Improvement,” re: Lesbians and primary care providers
JLS BB
Stevens, “The Experiences of Lesbians of Color in Health Care Encounters,”
JLS BB
Rubel, “The Epidemiology of a Folk Illness:
Susto
…”
BB
Annie Kahn, “The Flower That Speaks in a Pollen Way,” in
PERRONE
May 4: Traditional Folk Healing and Western Medicine
HEALING RITUAL GROUP 4
“Introduction” in
PERRONE pp. 123-131
Levin Morales, “The Historian as Curandera”
BB
Alvord, M.D. and Cohen Van Pelt, The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western
Medicine and Traditional Healing
May 11: Female Nurses and Physicians in Traditional Western Medicine
HEALING RITUAL GROUP 5
DeJoseph, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning Nurses' Experiences in the
Workplace Journal of professional nursing 27, 4 ( July 2011): 237-244
ALL IN LEAVITT:

Hine, “’They Shall Mount Up with Wings as Eagles’: Historical Images of Black Nurses, 1890-
1950”
Abel and Reifel, “Interactions Between Public Health Nurses and Clients on American Indian
Reservations During the 1930s”
DeJoseph, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning Nurses' Experiences in the
Workplace Journal of professional nursing 27, 4 ( July 2011): 237-244