Update: You will be able to include this class as a Social Dimensions of Health Certificate elective in spring 22.
As the schedule goes live and you contemplate your spring courses, we wanted to reach out with a new update.
We are lucky enough to have a new post-doctoral scholar in our department who will be offering a brand new special topics elective course this spring! We are very excited about her research and her course, so we wanted to also put it on your radar. Her name is Dr. Mercedez Dunn and she is a recent graduate of one of the top Sociology PhD programs in the country. She *also* holds a Master's in Public Health (MPH). The course is called "The Body and Society" (listed under special topics, SOCY 397, description below). Attached is a PDF flyer for the course. It will be offered as a hybrid T/Th 11:30am-12:45pm (online asynchronous Tuesdays, in-person Thursdays).
What could a focus on bodies provide about everyday issues? Beyond flesh and bone, bodies are deeply social and symbolic. Bodies are used to justify stigmatization, oppression, and exclusion and differentiate “us” versus “them.” They are also sites of resistance, pleasure, acceptance, and joy. This course invites you to move beyond conventional understandings of how bodies fit (and don’t fit) within social worlds. Together, we will draw on sociological approaches to examine the ways bodies are represented, racialized, medicalized or considered sick, gendered, exploited, and reclaimed.
Dr. Dunn's Bio:
Dr. Mercedez D. Dunn earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Additionally, she holds a M.P.H. in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Sociology from Spelman College. Her primary research interests lie at the intersection of gender, race, class, relationships, and sexual health inequity. She is particularly interested in the ways young Black Americans confront intersectional inequities in their sexual lives. Her dissertation, “Respectability, Responsibility, and Resistance: Heterosexual HBCU Women’s Negotiations of Sexuality, Romance, and Sexual Health,” examines how Black collegiate women’s sexual and romantic pursuits both challenge and reinforce existing social hierarchies. Mercedez loves to bake and is a huge fan of all things Disney and true crime.