This course which is really on putting women's bodies at the center of science will examine the problems of the current technologies designed by scientists to enable women to have control over their reproductive capacities. The problematic technologies are a direct result of women’s ideas and voices being excluded at the very concept of the scientific project. The new technologies being developed will be examined, e.g., microbicides, the female condom, cervical protection. One important research question will also be investigated. Is the vagina studied only as a vehicle for sexual intercourse and child birth or is it studied beyond this function? This is a critical question when one puts women’s bodies at the center of science.
A part of the activism for this class is some level of involvement in advocacy for research and funding in this area. Advocacy in gyno-centered technologies is necessary in shifting the paradigm of condom use as the primary methodology in HIV prevention. This approach is detrimental for women’s health and agency and leaves them the problematic of fighting a 21st-century epidemic with 18th-century technology, further women’s sexual safety still resides in the hands of men who must make the decision to use a condom. It is time that women have in their hands methodologies that they can control to keep their own bodies safe. This will be a central theme in this course.
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