Taught by

In this program we will explore body image/placement by examining who controls the body through space and in historical time. Our research and participatory learning will center on the process of reclamation: reclaiming the social, economic and political bodies we all inhabit. We will examine systems of patriarchy and its cultural, socio-political, and legal constructs. We will also explore the reclamation of the body, with resilience as the lens through which students will examine historical and contemporary concepts of human rights.

What sort of negotiated spaces do our bodies inhabit, including those constructed by social media? What is the connection between human rights and individual control of our own bodies? How can imagining ourselves in someone else’s situation help us understand contemporary and historical experiences? Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and ended his life as a businessman and statesman. How he lived in his body changed as Douglass grew from field slave to mariner to abolitionist/activist to statesman and businessman. Before and during World War II “comfort Women” from many countries were enslaved by the Japanese military and subject to extreme sexual brutality, yet many survived into old age demanding reparations and justice. Incarceration in the United States is the lived experience of over 100 million people. How does inhabiting a body in prison differ from and shape that same body once the prison doors open? How are the human rights of women connected to female bodies physically and historically?

Students will learn research skills, analytical writing skills and produce end-of-quarter creative projects involving performance and/or media.

Quarters

Spring Open

Location and Schedule

Campus Location

Olympia

Time Offered

Day