Anticolonial Feminisms – Teaching and Learning

About the Course

This course introduces antiracist, intersectional and transnational feminist critiques of health and medicine. Using an interdisciplinary approach, combining policy analysis with history and memoir, this course explores how systemic and systematic racism and casteism, along with class (and other intersectional forces), shapes gendered experiences of medical systems and health care in general.

Below you can find essays of students who explore a social justice movement either in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Systems within SART Exams: A moderated conversation with a SANE Examiner and Advocate

by Macy Puckett
This video was created with the interest of both educating students about SART services to reduce information barriers in accessing medical assistance after an assault, and reveal the extent of the reliance of SART exams on medical and legal systems, which may pose barriers for survivors of color. The video consists of an interview with SANE Nurse Jennifer Rivera and Project Sister advocate Gabriela de la Rosa.

Birth Control Through The Ages

by Caroline Crosnoe

This mini-zine provides a comprehensive overview of a variety of birth control methods through the ages. I cover the paradox of birth control and how it is used as a form of control over minorities’ reproductive rights while simultaneously acting as a form of autonomy for women.

Doulas — Full-Spectrum Feminist Careworkers

by Liliana Watkins and Sophia Gonzalez

The following paper and website provide insight into the history of doulas, the roles they play in reproductive care, and their usage of social justice frameworks and advocacy models help mediate failings of the medical-industrial system. Through interviews with practicing doulas and OB/GYNs, as well as resource maps by state, we examine the modern role of doulas in healthcare.

Maternal Mortality In Cambodia

by Lissa Suy

The visual highlights the causes of maternal mortality in Cambodia and examines the different strategies implemented to reduce deaths and improve support for Cambodian women. It also explores efforts aimed at strenthening maternal healthcare, increasing access to medical services, and promoting better outcomes for mothers across the country.

Black Women Know Their Bodies Better: An Argument for the Incorporation of Narrative Storytelling in Medical School Curricula

By Anonymous

In this project, the author provides a brief history of medical racism, examines the significance of storytelling within Black communities, and connects narratives of reproductive injustice with the shortcomings of medical education. Ultimately, the author argues that incorporating Black women’s storytelling into medical school curricula is essential to dismantling structural medical racism in the United States because narratives humanize Black women, challenge racialized assumptions in medicine, and help to fill the gaping omissions in medical educational materials.

Barriers to Endometriosis Care: Gender, Race, and Medical Neglect

by Adya Patil , Hayden Floyd, and Taylor Bourque

Endometriosis treatment and diagnosis exemplifies how many health disparities intersect between varying racial and gender identities. This paper examines the barriers to endometriosis diagnosis and experience through a multi-pronged approach: we examine the social stigma that dissuades women from pursuing an endometriosis diagnosis stemming from the shame surrounding women’s health, and dissect how the medical field fails women at multiple different levels by increasing barriers to adequate care.

Miscarriage Management: A Website for Navigating Miscarriage Treatment

by Natasha Zivkovic

Knowing when/where to seek help during a miscarriage remains a challenge for many, especially for those without an established physician or easy access to medical care. This website was created to address that problem.

BPD: The Diagnostic Blinds

By Anonymous

My zine critically analyzes Borderline Personality Disorder as a governance technology that disproportionately pathologizes women’s trauma responses while concealing structural violence. Drawing on feminist works, epistemic injustice, and intersectional analysis, I present and argue that the BPD label sorts bodies into those deemed worthy of care (privileged, affluent cis women) and those deemed unworthy of care (disproportionately Black, Brown, trans, disabled, and poor bodies). The zine explores alternatives such as trauma-informed care, neuroqueer feminism, and survivor-centered action.

Reproductive Governance and Medical Paternalism in Japan: The Politics of NorLevo’s Approval

by Emily Mito

Delayed approval of conversion of emergency contraceptive pill to OTC reveals Japan’s deep-rooted medical paternalism. The project provides close discourse analysis and historical review of the country’s reproductive governance and how it deprives women’s bodily autonomy through infantilizing, pathologizing sexuality, and placing the public benefits over women’s reproductive rights.

Maternal Health in Lao PDR: Historical Inequities, Intersectional Barriers, and the Uneven Path to Progress Amongst Ethnic Minority Women

by Anonymous

This paper examines maternal healthcare and the persisting disparities amongst ethnic minority women in Lao PDR (Lao People’s Democratic Republic), and in doing, reflects the many aspects that impact a woman’s ability to be informed of and receive proper healthcare before, during, and after birth.

Pseudoscience and Bias: The Influence of Physiognomy and Craniology on Modern Healthcare

by Amisha Reddy

This paper aims to examine how pseudoscientific disciplines influenced the development of modern medical systems and ideas about the body. It explores how scientists used visual analysis to construct racial and gender hierarchies under the guise of science. The goal of the project was to see how scientific knowledge is shaped by socio-political contexts, and how scientific racism continues to affect modern medicine despite the formal rejection of these pseudosciences.

When “Protection” Harms: Pregnancy and the Politics of Biomedical Exclusion

by Eliana Nagel

In this project, the author examines how the exclusion of pregnant people from clinical research produces medical uncertainty rather than protection from harm. Through a paper and companion zine, the project explores pregnancy research gaps, COVID-19 trial exclusions, maternal health disparities, and reproductive justice frameworks. It also offers pregnant people accessible tools for navigating evidence, care, and advocacy.