BIS: Gender,Women, Sexuality Studies, Life Sciences, Public Health

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Gertrude Wilcox
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1 BIS: Gender,Women, Sexuality Studies, Life Sciences, Public Health My parents raised me to love science. My father would send me off to school asking me, What do Dahl girls do? As a little preschooler, I would gleefully respond, Chicks do math! Chicks do science! Chicks do engineering! I read every science book I could find in the library before I ever touched a Harry Potter novel. This passion for science as well as an independent lifestyle lead me to taking a research class my senior year of high school. I fell in love in the lab room of my Investigative Research in Biomedical Innovation (IRBI) class. We were tasked with conducting our own research over the course of a year, and while my project was never published in any journal, the hundreds of hours I put into reading articles, designing, conducting my experiment, and writing my findings into a scholarly article eventually lead to a second place win at the Percy Julian Science Symposium in Oak Park, Illinois. I knew I had found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. However, as my gaze shifted from my petri-dishes full of Micrococcus luteus to the world around me, I began to take notice of numerous confusing and unsettling images. Growing up in Oak Park, the first suburb west of Chicago, I didn t understand why my town was so full of shops, people, and vibrancy yet, when I rode the L downtown, so many neighborhoods passing by were riddled with empty lots, poverty, and decay. My understanding of the vast array of social injustices in my city, my country and throughout the world had expanded significantly. My best friend Sophie made sure that I kept up with this aspect of social sciences and was the first to introduce me to the concept of feminism. I didn t know it then, but my interest in feminist discourse and the search for equality, equity, and justice for all populations would weave itself intricately into my interest in research of pathogens. As I have learnt more about marginalized

2 populations and the pathogens that wreak havoc on them simply due to lack of government resources, I have been inspired. Through medicine, research, education, and activism, I want make a difference within the community, the country, even the world. It is with this optimism and desire to help the people who especially need it that I decided to pursue my Bachelor s of Individualized Studies in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, Life Sciences, and Public Health. With this independent major, I hope to go on to graduate school and study epidemiology. With these degrees I will be able to study and develop programs against infectious sexual health diseases that continue to disproportionately affect marginalized communities. Gender, Women, and Sexualities Studies The Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) department is a small yet strong department on campus. In my first year as a student at the University of Minnesota, I found that my GWSS professors were brilliant, passionate women who focused their energy on ensuring their students were aware and as concerned about social issues in gender, women, and sexuality topics as they were. This department encourages debating current systems and trying to find ways in which social systems can be changed for the good of all. This concentration area will allow me to incorporate education, research, and social change into my research all while maintaining an intersectional view of what may be causing the diseases I hope to research. In GWSS 3203W Blood, Bodies, and Science, we studied ways in which modern biology has been a site of conflict with regards to race, gender, and socioeconomic class. This course helped me to understand the broad scope of scientific professions in which feminist thought and theory can be applied. Especially in the world of epidemiology, the feminist discourse I was exposed to in this course made it apparent to me that there were significant injustices in the

3 scientific world for those who desperately needed help. I has allowed me to scrutinize the international policies the U.S. and other countries in terms of domestic and global health care rather than blindly accept an imperfect system. GWSS 3102W Feminist Thought and Theory explored a wide range of feminist perspectives and theories, many of which I had never been exposed to prior. By engaging with how theory develops from a vast array of practices, I learned ways in which social movements began, flourished, and could find a place in discourse to change a population s way of thinking. This knowledge will enable me to develop the discourse between the social and the sciences in order to make significant change throughout both aspects of society. GWSS 3415 Feminist Perspectives on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault approaches these difficult but extremely prevalent subjects from an intersectional, feminist lens. We will uncover the causes for these plagues to society and ways in which to change the opinions of society towards women, children, and other victims of violence. This course will teach me how to navigate the complicated and varying social causes for domestic violence and sexual assault in order to better interact with those of backgrounds different than my own. Similar to the previous course, GWSS 3402 Pleasure, Violence, Intimacy seeks to explore sexual violence, however adds several theories and debates about the social construction of sexuality. This will provide me with a better notion of how society enforces certain classifications and what that means for those placed into them. GWSS 3003 Gender and Global Politics explores the similarities and differences in how women experience the world in crosscultural and historical perspectives. This exposure to varying experiences will provide me with a new perspective on what it means to be a woman in places where I am not accustomed as well as allow for me to better engage with those who experience life much differently than myself. GWSS 4001 Nations, Empires, Feminisms will teach me to engage with an ever- increasing

4 globalized world and what that means in terms of citizenship, economy, and the development of global politics, which will greatly help in understanding the intentions behind global health policy. Public Health The public health concentration will allow me to understand the spread of disease in a country and world with major socioeconomic disparities through an epidemiological perspective. At the intersection of social and clinical sciences, the public health concentration will provide the knowledge to enable me to study populations, engage with and develop solutions to disease. PUBH 3003 Fundamentals of Alcohol and Drug Abuse was a wonderful introduction into aspects of alcohol and other drug abuse which plague our society. We took a scientific approach in studying the mechanisms of these societal plights, sociocultural influences, and ways in which to educate and prevent their incidence. This course, taken along side PUBH 3305 Medical Ethics gave me quite the introduction to public health. I was able to grapple with difficult ethical questions within PUBH 3305 that medical and scientific professionals are faced with in every aspects of their work. This allowed me to think of ways that my own judgements of medical concepts might need to be reexamined in certain contexts. Furthermore, when I took ANTH 3306W Medical Anthropology I was encouraged to engage with the relationship among the medical world and social structure. This course enabled me to look at medicine and science from a broader lens and think critically about medical systems that have been put in place. With these critical analytic skills and broad views of world health, I will be able to design public health policies that suit the social needs of a population in the best way possible. Because I am interested in researching the spread of sexual health diseases such as HIV/AIDS, PUBH 3010 Public Health Interventions for HIV/AIDS was a large subject of

5 interest for me. This course will teach me the epidemiological features of the largest epidemic happening during my lifetime so far and help me learn skills necessary in order to develop accurate analysis and prevention initiatives. PUBH 3001 Personal and Community Health will build on this knowledge and give me skills and strategies in order to respond to health issues within a smaller, yet still essential community sphere. In PUBH 3350 Epidemiology: People, Places, and Disease, I will learn the mechanisms in which diseases and their rates are distributed among population. This will also introduce me to epidemiological terminology, methods, critical thinking, and analysis. This course will give me the skills in order to do well-rounded epidemiological evaluations of the diseases I hope to study. PUBH 3315 Clinical Research from Lab to Bedside to Populations will provide my first experiences with health research in humans. I will learn research methods, contemporary topics, and controversies from multiple perspectives in order to execute research in the most innovative and thorough ways possible as an epidemiologist. Life Sciences In order to truly excel and conduct the best research of disease possible, it is essential that I have a strong biological science foundation. The biological sciences program here at the University of Minnesota will provide me with an in-depth and thorough breakdown of the organisms and mechanisms I will need to understand in order to truly have the know-how to combat these biological infiltrators. GCD 3033 Principles in Cell Biology helped me to understand the mechanisms of the basic units of life, the cell. Having this knowledge allows me to have a greater understanding of what is functioning abnormally in the human body during infection and disease because I understand the mechanisms at work within pathogenic bacteria and cells. BIOC 3021

6 Biochemistry will teach me the fundamentals of biochemistry such as the structures and functions of organic macromolecules and their ties to metabolism. This knowledge of the chemistry that runs biology will enable me to understand what mechanisms are at play in disease and how to use them in order to understand morbidity of disease and develop treatments and vaccines. STAT 3011 Statistics will explore statistical reasoning, methods, and mathematical reasoning through a basic computing program in order to analyze data obtained from various social environments. Any science must validate its research and being able to use statistics will be essential for my work as an epidemiologist. In MICB 3301 Microbiology, we will study bacterial function and disease as it is related to their structures. On a similar theme, MICB 4171 Virology will address a very similar topic of viral function and disease as it is related to their structures. Along with the pathogens that infect, I will need to understand the human body and PHSL 3051 Human Physiology will provide me with the knowledge of major organ systems such as nerve, muscle, circulation, respiration, endocrine, renal, gastrointestinal, temperature regulation and energy metabolism and their functions. Understanding how disease spreads begins with an understanding of the body and the mechanisms in which bacteria and viruses function within it and these combinations of courses will provide me with the best foundation for that. The combination of Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies, Life Sciences, and Public Health will set me up with the skill necessary to become an epidemiologist and study the sexual health diseases that have so drastically affected the lives of millions. This combination will allow me to conduct research and produce prevention programs that take into consideration the varying socioeconomic experiences of men and women throughout the nation and world. Because I have

7 been able to specifically tailor my courses of each concentration, I will have a highly focused area of expertise when I research sexual health diseases and invest the best of my knowledge into the best practices and programs instituted through that epidemiological research. In concert with a refined scientific mindset, I will be able to knowledgeably and critically engage with social institutions and structures that vary drastically in order to develop solutions that work the best for the men and women in those circumstances. Being able to pursue these three concentrations allows me to engage three of my passions in my work. I hope to translate this passion into excellent work that will be defined by its impact not only on the literature and understanding of sexual health disease, but on the people whom I wish to help at home and across the globe. BIS/IDIM Program Course Worksheet Name: ID#: Title: Total number of credits in proposed program: 60 Total number 3/4/5xxx level credits in proposed program: 60 Total credits in program left to complete: 30 Concentration One Gender, Women, & Sexualities Studies Dept. Course Code Course Title Complete: Credits (Grade) Not Complete: Credits (Term) GWSS 3203W Blood, Bodies, and Science 3 A- GWSS 3102W Feminist Thought and Theory 3 B GWSS 3415 Feminist Perspectives on Domestic Violence and Sexual As 3 IP GWSS 3402 Pleasure, Intimacy, and Violence 3 Sp. 17 GWSS 4001 Nations, Empires, Feminisms 3 Fall 17

8 GWSS 3003 Gender and Global Politics 3 Sp. 18 TOTALS: 3/4/5xxx level credits in area: 18 Total credits in area (IDIM only): 18 Title: Concentration Two Public Health Dept. Course Code Course Title Complete: Credits (Grade) Not Complete: Credits (Term) PHIL 3305 Medical Ethics 4 B PUBH 3003 Alcohol and Drug Abuse 2 B ANTH 3306W Medical Anthropology 3 B+ PUBH 3010 Public Health Approaches to HIV/AIDS 2 IP PUBH 3001 Personal and Community Health 2 Sp. 17 PUBH 3415 Intro to Clinical Trials 3 Sp. 18 PUBH 3350 Epidemiology: People, Places, and Disease 2 Sp. 17 PUBH 3315 Clinical Research from Lab to Bedside to Populations 2 Fall 17 TOTALS: 3/4/5xxx level credits in area: 20 Total credits in area (IDIM only): 20 Title: Concentration Three Life Sciences Dept. Course Code Course Title Complete: Credits (Grade) Not Complete: Credits (Term) GCD 3033 Principles in Cell Biology 3 B- BIOC 3021 Biochemistry 3 IP STAT 3011 Intro to Statistical Analysis 4 IP MICB 3301 Biology of Microorganisms 5 Sp. 17 PHSL 3051 Human Physiology 4 Fall 17 MICB 4171 Biology, Genetics, and Pathogenesis of Viruses 3 Sp 18 TOTALS: 3/4/5xxx level credits in area: 22 Total credits in area (IDIM only): 22

BIS: Life Sciences, Public Health, Human Health and Wellness

BIS: Life Sciences, Public Health, Human Health and Wellness Throughout my life, there were always stereotypes shown through the media about nursing homes; their atmospheres, patients and services all