IDST 6102: Research Writing and Thinking: Gendered Bodies in Health Communication

University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Explores one research topic important across a wide variety of disciplines, allowing students to expand their writing and theorizing skills about a personal research topic of interest.� Students are challenged to evaluate and expand their research problem (and others) from a variety of conceptual frameworks.� These activities are designed to make students think about their research from different perspectives and thereby increase critical and creative research skills.� The course also engages in activities to improve both written and oral communication about their research. Students write and present a literature review on their topic as the culminating graded activity.� Section information text: This course is designed to (a) encourage you to recognize the ways in which health and illness are gendered and socially constructed and (b) provide an opportunity for you to study specific communication phenomena (e.g., public discourse, narrative, social support) in health contexts relevant to gendered bodies (e.g., prostate cancer, pregnancy/fertility, eating disorders). Throughout the semester, we will address a wide range of topics, including gender and the social construction of illness. This course covers the fundamentals of health communication theory and research, focusing on how health is socially constructed at the intersections of biology, medical technology, and communication. Students will explore how gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual identity produce and are produced by cultural gender norms as they manifest in embodiment, sexual expression, and experiences of health and illness. As we engage these topics, we’ll discuss historical notions of gendered health and evaluate the influence of early beliefs on current understandings.

Average GPA: 3.92

Grade distribution records: 19 students across 4 terms.

Grade distribution

Based on 19 student grade records across 4 terms and 4 professors.

Instructors

• Gregory Wickliff 8 students, Average GPA 3.83
• Vaughn Schmutz 5 students, Average GPA 4.00
• Lisa Russell-Pinson 4 students
• Frederico Batista Pereira 2 students, Average GPA 4.00