Fall 2023
HRSJ 5010 -Foundations of Human Rights and Social Justice
HRSJ 5020- Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Resurgence of Land Based Pedagogies and Practices
HRSJ 5150 – Truth to Power
Winter 2024
HRSJ 5030- Problem Solving in the Field
HRSJ 5130- Body Rights: Systems and Social Movements
HRSJ 5210: Law, Human Rights, and Justice
Summer 2024
HRSJ 5040- Practicum
Fall 2024
HRSJ 5710- Food, Art, and Community Empowerment
HRSJ 5160- Social Justice and Networked Culture
One of the most impactful assignments that I completed in my coursework was a paper that I entitled “The Calamitous Effects of the Surveillance and Medicalization of Birth: The Case of Cullan Chisholm” This paper dives into the medicalization of birth, the negation of informed consent, and the risks of induction for both the birthing parent and fetus throughout the labour process. The piece centers on the idea of “the price of a child” or human capital theory, the idea that we do not value life but instead the cost of legal ramifications or equipment needed to sustain the person. Calculating the damages for a person’s life when adverse effects were concluded is impossible unless the physical needs that can be quantified are taken into consideration This was one of the disturbing capitalistic views of poor outcomes when it comes to labour and birth. I found throughout this work that I was often very upset with the fact that children are both priceless and worthless at the same time. I also became overwhelmed by the way that labouring parents are treated but also with the systems that they are supposed to trust. No two births are the same and so of course there will be difficulties and challenges but this should never negate informed consent or the labouring parents right to their body or information about the effects on their baby.
I have added the entire paper with the references in case you would like to dig deeper into this topic should you feel inclined.
The most impactful assigned reading that I did for this program is hard to choose. I read so many very horrific stories of rights violations and genocides, as well as amazing descriptions of triumphs and push backs with grass roots organizations. These ethnographies, research papers, books, and all other assigned media will stick with me due to the depth at which I learned about such diverse subject matter throughout the course work.
Two of the readings in HRSJ 5130- Body Rights: Systems and Social Movements that focused on children, labour, and health, were very enlightening but also pulled me into wanting to learn more and caused me to begin to question everything. Paradoxes of Care Children and Global Medical Aid in Egypt by Rania Kassaab Sweis as well as Casualties of Care by Miriam Ticktin were the most impactful and deeply thought provoking in these ways.
In Paradoxes of Care Children and Global Medical Aid in Egypt Sweis problematizes the way in which the children are treated by adults and their own autonomy which is often questioned as they are made to be innocent or childish while dually living a very mature, self sufficient, and oftentimes dangerous life. Sweis brings forward Arthur Kleinman’s idea of “illness narratives” which are used to describe “stories of street-child bodily injury”(p.47) explaining that “illness is an experience that is culturally shaped beyond the body”(p.47). Sweis delves into some cases of children who access mobile medical aid and the struggles that they face as well as the policies and procedures that guide the work that the doctors and volunteers have to abide by. Sweis looks at how these procedures are being followed and where they fall short in serving those who need it most due to hierarchical disenfranchisement.
While on the other hand in Casualties of Care Ticktin discusses and analyzes the way in which individuals without documentation face oppression within their everyday lives and the political and social structures that uphold and contribute to continued marginalization and discrimination. This includes some of the political and legal frameworks that have been instituted to try to “help” but have not been implemented and upheld by the government or other regimes of power. Ticktin dives into the example of the “illness permit” and the politics behind it. “The illness clause…is a provision of the French law on conditions of entry and residence that grants legal permits to those already living in France who have pathologies of life-threatening consequence” (p.91). Although this is meant to be of benefit to those who are living undocumented it has also had many negative effects. Many of those who access the illness permit are not able to work during the time in which they are receiving treatment which is impossible for individuals to continue to support themselves and their families. This permit has also created some political issues for doctors and medical health professionals. Thus creating a further divide between those who want to help and do advocacy work and those who have racist or anti-immigrant ideologies. Ticktin also dives into the idea of the body and the legitimacy of suffering, detailing whose bodies are worthy or unworthy of suffering and problematizing the institutional structures that subjectively judge these factors.
These ethnographic novels of front line work with real individuals and children were emotional to me because in them I can see and understand the flaws within the systems but also the heart of the people who are still trying to help and are doing everything they can for the aid of others. Often to the detriment of themselves. This kind of sacrifice and forward thinking propels me both within my research as well as in my front line work to always work for the betterment of those I am serving even when I am restricted by policy or other legislation that becomes a hindrance to direct service provisions.