ANTH 469AJanelle Taylor
Fall 2002Office: Denny M39
University of Washington Phone: 543-4793
Tue & Thu 1:30 – 3:20 pm Office hours: Thu 3:30-5:00
Parrington
Social Difference and Medical Knowledge
Course Syllabus
About the Course
This course explores the ways in which social and medical classifications form and inform each other, and considers the social and health consequences that follow from this intertwining of difference and pathology.
Through readings drawn from the fields of anthropology, history, women’s studies, disability studies, and science studies, along with guest speakers and documentary films, we shall explore several related processes: 1) how certain kinds of differences come to be medicalized, such that people who do not conform to the norm are understood to be “diseased” ; 2) how particular pathologies come to be identified with particular stigmatized social groups; and 3) how medical categories to which people find themselves assigned can become a source of identity, often stigmatized, but sometimes also serving as a basis for collective political action. As we consider these processes, we shall remain attentive to the ways in which they contribute as well to the formation, by contrast, of the implicit category of “normal people.”
Within this broad rubric, we shall consider many specific kinds of “other-ness,” from the perspective of how each has shaped and/or been shaped by medical science and practice. Specific topics addressed include: epidemics and the politics of blame, sickle-cell anemia and the politics of race, medicalization of homosexuality, disability issues, prenatal diagnosis and the specter of eugenics, diagnosis and its consequences in American prisons, intersex infants and the question of surgical “correction,” and cosmetic surgery.
My goals for students in this course are: 1) to reflect on processes of categorization, stigmatization, and identity formation common to the situation of different groups; 2) to think critically about the common tendency to ascribe social differences to an ultimate grounding in biology, nature, and the body; 3) to gain a critical appreciation of social and cultural dimensions of medical science and practice; 4) to develop skills of critical thinking and self-expression that will help us address issues of social difference and medical knowledge, as we encounter them in our lives and in our world.
Requirements
Class participation: Your classmates are a community of people with whom and from whom you will learn. You owe it to yourselves and each other (and I will expect you) to come to class, to be prepared, to participate actively, and to treat all with respect. In addition to formal writing assignments described below, you may be asked to write short assignments in class or to participate in group discussions or exercises in class. Persistent absence from class will result in a lower grade for the course.
Analytic Papers: You will be asked to write two analytic papers, ~5 double-spaced typed pages each, due at the beginning of class on October 29 and November 26, in response to questions which will be distributed in advance. These will ask you to apply theoretical concepts encountered in course readings, to the analysis of other materials.
Evaluation: In evaluating your papers and other written work, I care primarily about discovering if you understand the course readings well and can effectively use them to make sense of materials from elsewhere. Careful attention to the texts, well-constructed arguments, and clarity of writing are encouraged. You must of course also attend to details of grammar, punctuation, spelling, format, and so forth. If you need help with writing, please make use of the anthropology writing center, 415 Smith Hall. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with 1-inch margins, and stapled; include a bibliography with full citations of all works and sources that you reference in your paper (bibliographic information is available in the “course reader contents” list attached to this syllabus), and please proofread carefully.
Archive: We will, as a group, work to assemble an “archive” which I hope to make publicly available on the internet. Each student is to provide at least one item. As you write, keep in mind that the eventual audience for this archive might include a quite broad public. Here are some options: A) Provide a link to a website of interest, together with an annotation (1 page) that explains how you think it illuminates questions of social difference and medical knowledge. You will need to request permission from the website’s owner to link to it, and please provide documentation (such as an e-mail message). B) Write a short (1 page) review of a work of fiction, documentary or feature film, museum exhibit etc., evaluating it in terms of how it addresses questions we have considered in the course. C) If you wish to contribute another sort of item, such as for example an artwork or a poem, please consult with me, as this might raise trickier copyright and technical questions. Due via e-mail before class begins on Oct. 22nd.Evaluation: Your archive contribution will be assigned a grade based primarily on your written annotation, in increments of .25 (i.e., 4.0, 3.75, 3.5 etc.)
Letter-to-the-Editor: Write a “letter to the editor” concerning a topic related to social difference and medical knowledge. You may choose the specific topic you would like to discuss, and the publication that you would like to address – it could be a newspaper, a medical journal, or another publication whose audience you feel could benefit from a nudge in the direction of critical thinking and greater awareness of the kinds of issues explored in the class. Submit copies enough for all of your classmates as well as me, as we will be reading these letters and discussing them in class. (You are not required actually to send these letters to the parties to whom they are addressed, though of course I hope you will consider doing so). Due Nov. 19th. Evaluation: This assignment will not be graded, though I will note with a “+” (or a “-“) exceptionally strong (or weak) work.
Research Proposal (Group Project): This assignment asks you to work with a few of your classmates, and think together creatively about what kind of research you would like to see happen next, on issues of social difference and medical knowledge, and how it might be carried out. 1) Groups of 3-5 students will be organized, insofar as possible around common interests, no later than Oct. 31. You should talk to each other soon after this (e-mail might work well) to generate an initial set of ideas to discuss. 2)Time will be set aside for you to meet with your group, to discuss and brainstorm, during a portion of the class period on Nov. 12. 3) Based on this discussion -- and subsequent conversations among yourselves, as needed -- you will collaboratively write up a short (3-5 pages) written proposal, which must include the following elements: a title, a description of the broad objectives and specific aims of the research, a discussion of theoretical framework and methods, a description of what you would want the research to produce, and what audience(s) you would hope to address. Please also attach a brief summary of who in the group has done what parts of this collective work. These are due on December 3. 4) On the final class meeting, December 10, we will hold a “Proposal Party,” at which each group presents their proposals and we all eat goodies, concluding our ten weeks of exploration in a festive and forward-looking way. Evaluation: Each proposal will be assigned a grade, based on both the written proposal and the oral presentation. Every member of the group will receive the same grade.
Discussion Responsibility: Each student will assume responsibility for leading discussion during one class session; a sign-up sheet will be circulated at the second class meeting. Please use the following format as the basis for your remarks to the class: 1)Pick two short passages from the readings: one which excites you, and one which stumps or frustrates you. 2) Copy out each passage, rewrite it in your own words, then describe the argument the author provides for it. 3) Propose one or more questions suggested by the passages you have selected, that you would like to raise for discussion. Please turn in to me a copy of your notes (including the passages selected, your rewrites, argument descriptions, and proposed questions). Evaluation: Your performance as a discussion leader will be assigned a grade in increments of .25 (i.e., 4.0, 3.75, 3.5 etc.) based on both your written notes and your presentation.
Grading: The two analytic paper assignments will count for 60% of your grade for the course; 40% of your grade will come from the other assignments (archive contribution, letter-to-the-editor, proposal) and from participation in class, including any writing exercises that may be assigned in-class. Please note that late papers will receive a lower grade, and incompletes will be given only in accordance with UW policy as described in the catalogue. NB: All writing assignments must be completed in order to earn a passing grade for the course.
Ad-Hoc Honors Option: Students who wish to earn honors credit for this class will be asked to select a topic or scholar not included among the course readings from a list that I will provide (or you may propose one), to investigate independently over the course of the quarter. I would like to meet with all of the honors students as a group for discussion, during my office hours if possible, several times over the quarter. Toward the end of the quarter, honors students will be asked to present this independent work to the rest of the class. An annotated bibliography on your chosen subject will be due on Dec. 15th(or consult with me if you would like to propose a different kind of writing assignment to turn in on that date).
Course Texts
Required books, available for purchase at the University Bookstore, are Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla, eds., Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, and Melbourne Tapper, In the Blood: Sickle-Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race. All other assigned readings are included in a course reader packet, available for purchase at RAMS on University Ave. (Some other books from which course readings have been excerpted are also available at the University Bookstore, for those who might be interested, but you are not required to purchase them).
Guest Speakers
I am delighted to welcome three guest speakers to our class this quarter. Jason Cromwell is an anthropologist and activist in Seattle’s transgender community and the author of Transmen & FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders & Sexualities (University of Illinois Press). Dennis Lang is Director of Disability Studies at the University of Washington, and will be offering a new course next quarter (co-taught with Sherrie Brown) on “Disability and Society: Introduction to Disability Studies” through the Law & Society Program and CHID. Kelly Fryer-Edwards teaches in the Department of Medical History & Ethics at UW, with a special interest in ethics education.
Class Schedule and Assignments
(DB) denotes that this selection is contained in Deviant Bodies
Introduction: Social Difference & Medical Knowledge
10/1 First class meeting: no readings assigned
10/3 (DB) Jacqueline Urla and Jennifer Terry, “Introduction: Mapping
Embodied Deviance”
Rob Crawford, “The Boundaries of the Self and the Unhealthy Other”
Making the Difference: Locating Sex and Race in the Body
10/8Thomas Laqueur, “Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive
Biology”
Nelly Oudshoorn, “Introduction” and “The Birth of Sex Hormones”
10/10 (DB) Jennifer Terry, “Anxious Slippages between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: A
Brief History of the Scientific Search for Homosexual Bodies”
(DB) Anne Fausto-Sterling, “Gender, Race and Nation: The Comparative
Anatomy of ‘Hottentot’ Women in Europe, 1815-1817”
10/15 (DB) Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee, “The Media-ted Gene: Stories
of Gender and Race”
(DB) Janice Irvine, “Regulated Passions: The Invention of Inhibited
Sexual Desire and Sexual Addiction”
10/17 no class (instructor attending conference)
work on your archive contribution.
10/22 Guest Speaker: Jason Cromwell
Anne Fausto-Sterling, “Of Gender and Genitals: The Use and Abuse of
the Modern Intersexual” and “Should There Be Only Two Sexes?”
Archive contribution due (please submit via e-mail)
Disease, Blame, and Race
10/24 Melbourne Tapper, In the Blood, through p. 54
10/29Melbourne Tapper, In the Blood, p. 54 to the end
First Paper due
10/31 Nayan Shah, “Plague and Managing the CommercialCity”
Paul Farmer, “AIDS and Racism: Accusation in the Center,” and “AIDS
and Empire: Accusation in the Periphery”
Proposal groups to be decided
The Mad and the Bad
11/5 Sander Gilman, “Stereotypes of Race,” “On the Nexus of Blackness and
Madness,” and “The Madness of the Jews”
11/7 Ian Hacking, “The Looping Effects of Human Kinds”
Lorna Rhodes, “Utilitarians with Words: ‘Psychopathy’ and the
Supermaximum Prison”
Disability
11/12 (DB) Proctor, “The Destruction of Lives Not Worth Living”
Mark O’Brien, “A High Quad Defends Quality of Life”
Proposal brainstorming session
11/14 Erving Goffman, “Stigma and Social Identity”
Lisa Blumberg, “Public Stripping”
Eli Clare, “Sex, Celebration, and Justice”
film: “Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back”
11/19 Guest Speaker: Dennis Lang
Susan Wendell, “The Social Construction of Disability”
Simon Brisenden, “Independent Living and the Medical Model of
Disability”
Letters-to-the-Editor due
11/21 no class (instructor attending conference)
film: “Refrigerator Mothers” (on reserve at OUGLMediaCenter)
Medical Solutions to Social Problems?
11/26Rayna Rapp, “Culturing Chromosomes, or, What’s In the Soup,”
and “An Error in Cell Division, or, The Power of Positive Diagnosis”
film: “Burden of Knowledge”
Second Paper due
11/28Thanksgiving break – enjoy!
12/3 Sander Gilman, “Judging by Appearances,” “Victory over Disease,” and “The Racial Nose”
Proposals due
Bodies of Knowledge
12/5 Guest speaker: Kelly Fryer-Edwards
James Jones, “The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment”
Phillida Bunkle, “Calling the Shots? International Politics of Depo-Provera”
12/10Proposal Presentations & Farewell Bash
ANTH 469 “Social Difference and Medical Knowledge”
Course Reader Contents & Bibliographic Information
Terry, Jennifer and Jacqueline Urla, eds. 1995. Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press.
Crawford, Robert. 1994. The Boundaries of the Self and the Unhealthy Other. Social Science and Medicine 38(10):1347-1365.
Laqueur, Thomas. 1987. Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology. In The Making of the Modern Body: Sexuality and Society in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Catherine Gallagher and Thomas Laqueur. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Oudshoorn, Nelly. 1994. Beyond the Natural Body: An Archeology of Sex Hormones. New York: Routledge.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2000. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.
Tapper, Melbourne. 1999. In the Blood: Sickle-Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Shah, Nayan. 2001. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Farmer, Paul. 1992. AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gilman, Sander. 1985. Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race, and Madness. Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press.
Hacking, Ian. 1995. The Looping Effects of Human Kinds. In Causal Cognition: A Multidisciplinary Debate, ed. Dan Sperber, David Premack, and Ann James Premack. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rhodes, Lorna A. 2003. Utilitarians with Words: ‘Psychopathy’ and the Supermaximum Prison. Forthcoming in Ethnography.
Mark O’Brien. 1996. A High Quad Defends Quality of Life – Kevorkian Argues I Would Be Better Off Dead Than Alive. Pacific News Service,
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Blumberg, Lisa. 1994. Public Stripping. In The Ragged Edge: The Disability Experience from the Pages of the First Fifteen years of the Disability Rag, ed. Barrett Shaw. Louisville, KY: The Avocado Press.
Clare, Eli. 2002. Sex, Celebration, and Justice. Bent.
Wendell, Susan. 1996. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability.New York: Routledge.
Brisenden, Simon. 1998. Independent Living and the Medical Model of Disability. In The Disability Reader: Social Science Perspectives, ed. Tom Shakespeare. London and New York: Cassell.
Rapp, Rayna. 1999. Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis. New York: Routledge.
Gilman, Sander. 1999. Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press.
Jones, James. 1993. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: ‘A Moral Astigmatism’. In The ‘Racial’ Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future, ed. Sandra Harding. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press.
Phillida Bunkle. 1993. Calling the Shots? International Politics of Depo-Provera. In The ‘Racial’ Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future, ed. Sandra Harding. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press.
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