Violence-related Courses at Tulane

The following courses are developed and facilitated by VPI faculty and staff and offer both undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to increase their understanding and competency as part of their overall education.

COLQ-3601: Adverse Childhood Experiences: This course examines early adversity, violence and child maltreatment from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates hands-on experiences, small group discussions, and internationally renowned guest speakers. Assignments include enhanced writing experiences, social media posts, and attendance at outside community events. Students will learn to think and communicate across disciplines to better advocate for children exposed to early adversity through interactive lectures by faculty across disciplines, including history, journalism, and advocacy, in addition to healthcare, neuroscience, psychology, legal, and social services. The recognized Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) course will provide students with a 360-degree perspective on the impact of adversity and trauma on children, families, and communities.

SBPS 6260: Violence Prevention Studio Seminar This course is designed to create an interactive and unique learning environment for students, community partners, and Violence Prevention Institute faculty through strengthening the partnerships between academic institutions and community organizations focused on preventing violence as well as mitigating the negative effects of various forms of violence. Seminars will include presentations by community partners and faculty from the Violence Prevention Institute. Community partners will speak about the violence prevention programs and strategies utilized by their organizations. Seminars will also include presentations by Violence Prevention Institute faculty focused on empirical approaches and competencies necessary for effective academic and community partnerships seeking to address the complex issues related to violence.

SBPS-6500: Violence as a Public Health Problem: This introductory elective course is designed to give an overview of the problem of violence as viewed from a public health perspective. We will look at the epidemiology of violence (scope, causes, risk factors, and consequences) alongside public health approaches to the problem. The course aims to balance a review of the problem with ideas and evidence for solutions. Local academic and community leaders in the field will lend their expertise to help students understand and address violence as a public health problem. Students will have opportunities to build skills through violence prevention training, critical analysis of media and film, and final course projects analyzing major violence-related topics; on-campus course only open to graduate students; online course only open to SPHTM online MPH, CHS program. 

In addition to the courses VPI faculty and staff develop and facilitate, students at Tulane have several other opportunities to learn about the root causes, effects, and approaches for intervention and prevention.

ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH-3120: Anthropology of Sex and Reproduction: An exploration of the interrelatedness of biological, behavioral, cultural, social, and political aspects of human sex and reproduction. Current issues, such as new reproductive technologies, the biology and culture of pregnancy and childbirth, mate choice, will be examined from within an evolutionary framework and/or using a cross-cultural approach.

COMMUNICATIONS

COMM-2450: Topics Gender/Race/Class/Media: This course introduces students to the research about gender, race, and class in the media. We will cover the main concepts, theories, methods, and debates in media and communication scholarship about multiple forms of inequalities. We will explore the intersections of gender, race, and class and how diverse types and technologies of media (television shows, news, movies, magazines, commercials, digital media etc.) reinforce, challenge or re-shape existing power differences in society. The course explores these topics by focusing on the institutional structures of commercial media, representations, and audiences. Throughout the course, we will examine a broad range of media texts as examples.

COMM-4440: Critical Race Theory: Critical race theory was a term that was coined to refer to an area of legal studies developed by African American, Latino, and Asian American scholars to address questions of racial injustice. However, the broader field of critical race theory today incorporates multi-disciplinary scholarship that works to create critical knowledge about social inequalities and racialized power relations.

GENDER STUDIES

GESS-1900: Sex, Power, & Culture: This course invites students to learn the skills necessary to identify, analyze, and transform the cultural, social, and political forces that shape and are shaped by sex and sexuality. Approaching sexuality as a system of norms, values, beliefs, and patterns of interaction, students will learn how sexuality intersects with gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, ability, and other axes of power and privilege. Students will be introduced to the current body of empirical data and theory to identify how these intersecting systems of power take shape in patterns of human interaction such as forming relationships, dating rituals and sexual scripts, and interpersonal conflict and violence. In sum, students will develop the skills to 1) analyze how their own interpersonal and intimate relationships are embedded within and constitutive of broader systems of power and 2) how to work individually and collectively to change them.

HISTORY

HISU-2500: Legal Hist US Gender Sex: Survey of U.S. legal history, with a focus on how laws shaped understandings of gender and sexuality from the colonial period to the present. Through a study of scholarly monographs and legal decisions, we will evaluate how ideas about marriage, divorce, sexual practices, inheritance, sexual assault, and sexual identity have changed over time. Students will write an original research essay, complete a midterm and final exam, and offer one in-class presentation.  

HISU-6350: History of Gender Based Violence in the United States: This course draws upon historical and theoretical literature, memoir, film, and fiction to examine the history of gender-based violence in the United States. Topics will include domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, forced sterilization, and violence against LGBTQ+ people. We will study power relations related to race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender. We will analyze resistance to violence, systems that enable violence, and the legal, medical, and social discourses that have resisted and enabled gender-based violence. This course does not have any pre- or co-requisites.

PHILOSOPHY

PHIL-3540: Gender and Justice: Many contemporary moral and political controversies concern sex- and gender-related issues, and there are also difficult conceptual and theoretical questions about the nature of sex and gender. This course introduces students to some of those practical and theoretical questions by examining work in philosophy, both historical and contemporary, that theorizes about sex, gender, and justice. It examines some foundational theoretical questions (e.g., what sex and gender are, what sex- and gender-related injustice is, and what individuals and the state ought to do about it) and some contemporary moral and political questions (e.g., questions about the gendered division of labor, the gender pay gap, abortion, the #MeToo movement, and trans rights). Students will learn to use the tools of philosophical analysis to achieve a better understanding of the difficult issues implicated in these important theoretical and practical questions.

PHIL-6530: Philosophy and Gender: An examination of conceptions of gender in the history of philosophy and in contemporary philosophic discussions. Topics may include relations between gender and identity, ethics, law, and science.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

POLC-4200: The Politics of Rape: This course will ground students in the academic literature of rape and the anti-rape movement, with a focus on public policy, critical race theory, feminist theory, law, and social movements.  

POLA-4260: Race, Sex, & Power: This course examines the role of race and sex-based classification in the law of equal protection and focuses on the political actions and events that lead to legal remedies for discrimination. For majors only. Non-major juniors and seniors may enroll in courses at the 4000-level or above only with the consent of the instructor. Prerequisite(s): POLA 2100 and POLS 2010.

PUBLIC HEALTH  

SPHU-3500: Public Health Approach to Sexual Violence: This course provides an in-depth examination of sexual violence from a public health perspective. Theories of sexual violence, the epidemiology of sexual violence (scope, causes, risk factors, and consequences), and public health approaches to reducing sexual violence will be covered. Open to undergraduate, public health; pre- or co-requisite SPHU 3110.

SOCIOLOGY

SOCI-1010: Sexualities and Society: The course is an introduction to sociological thinking about sexuality. It explores the social construction of sex; cultural discourses about sex; and the role sex plays in nation-building and social control. It examines role of sex in giving meaning and value to intersecting social identities. It introduces a theory of sexual scenes, particularly as it pertains to collegiate hookup culture. And it asks students to imagine alternative ways of organizing our sexual lives, identities, relationships, and societies.

SOCI-1020: Topics in the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity focuses on race and ethnic categorizations and relations. It examines the social stratification and impact of race and ethnicity on the everyday lives of people. This course provides you with the scientific tools necessary for examining power dynamics and deconstructing socially constructed identities globally. It significantly attends to the historical experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States especially.

SOCI-1040: Gender & Society: Examines the social construction of gender and the consequences of gender equality. Topics include socialization, intimate relations, paid and unpaid work, violence, and social change.

SOCIAL WORK UNDERGRADUATE

SOWK-1000: Trauma - A Survey Course: This hybrid survey course introduces students to the universal concept of trauma and the global scope and impact of traumatic experiences on individuals and communities. Students have the unique opportunity to be involved in the development of TraumaQuest, an innovative online Course Game that reinforces educational objectives and challenges students to apply knowledge in a gaming environment designed to simulate disaster and promote resiliency. The techniques and methodology pioneered during the development phase of TraumaQuest will provide students with an interdisciplinary examination of trauma and resilience, as well as facilitate engagement through student input on design considerations and stylization of academic content.

SOWK-2100: Family Trauma - A Survey Course: Trauma Foundations is an online only graduate course aimed at students being exposed to and critically evaluating the complex factors that affect people and their relationships following a traumatic event across the life cycle and across various traumatic events and circumstances. Students will focus on understanding the causes, consequences, assessment, and treatment trauma at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. Through examination, discussion group leadership activities, and other assignments students learn about undergraduate students’ experiences with trauma, along with an examination of their own experiences and those of others in their life. They are more prepared to engage in personal reflection about how their life experiences may affect social work practice. Students will develop an understanding of how differing theoretical frameworks can empower and / or oppress diverse populations exposed to trauma. They will also learn to communicate this understanding in a professional and ethical way with fellow graduate students, the instructor, and those undergraduate students in the discussion group they lead. Collectively and together with other courses, students will be more competent in assessment, intervention, and evaluation in social work practice.

SOWK-2510: Making Meaning of Trauma: This course is about the suffering that may be caused by traumatic events, and the way that suffering is soothed through spirituality and faith. In this class students will: *explore the early history of religion and health, and through the benefit of a mind-body spirit approach to resilience; *learn about disaster impact - to a community, a family, and an individual - and the ways in which disaster recovery tests the human spirit; *learning the basics of stress and trauma from a clinical perspective, and from the perspective of the major religions traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, non-believers, etc.; *discuss concepts such as pain, suffering, despair, pleasure, joy, forgiveness, grace and transformation; *acquire skills (e.g., relaxation and stress reduction methods) that, when practiced regularly, will be useful when life takes a dark turn for you or someone you know; and *learn about trauma theory and religious traditions, and ways in which an integrated approach to trauma recovery may be used.