Courses

Women and Covid-19 (GLobal engagement, activism, and leadership) OSUN Course taught in 7 countries:

Women are playing a large role in responding to the COVID-19 crisis, serving as frontline healthcare workers, public health experts, leaders on the political stage, mobilizers in their communities, and caregivers at home. As the crisis intensifies around the world, it is clear that if we truly want to deliver health, wellbeing, and dignity for all, women must be front and center in the emergency responses now and post-pandemic. 

This course examines the Covid-19 crisis effect on women and the historical, cultural, and social reasons why women, despite their majority in many other sectors of life, are greatly affected by such disparities. Students will explore how the impacts of the pandemic are felt differently depending on one’s identity. 

The course will also identify solutions that exist for individuals and groups, and what has been done historically and presently to improve the path to leadership for women during a global crisis. Widening the lens, this course will also look at female leaders handling the coronavirus pandemic. How is their leadership different from male leaders? What lessons can we take from both, including solutions for a number of areas and groups? As a Network/ELAS course, this seminar will provide students with the unique opportunity to bring theory and practice together in a very immediate sense by connecting with women and partner institutions throughout the global network to share their experiences on the frontlines and allowing students to submit a women empowerment project proposal with the goal of supporting women networks within their communities and/or networks front and center in the emergency responses now and post-pandemic.

Women and Leadership:

The course explores some of the stories that circulate in our culture around women and power, both from an academic and from a practical, real-world perspective. What does it mean to lead? How do we use a language of empowerment? Why has the United States embraced certain narratives of gender equity and success as opposed to those being created in other countries and cultures? We will focus on learning from women who are committed to making a difference in the world through their personal and professional choices, hearing their stories, and reading texts that have been particularly important to them in their lives and work. So too, we will engage with stories from the past (archival research), from across disciplines (religion, the military, higher education, STEM, the arts, media) and from a wide range of perspectives. As an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences course, this seminar will provide students with the unique opportunity to bring theory and practice together in a very immediate sense: by the end of the term you will have identified a story only you can tell, whether it is based in political activism, community engagement, or work experience.