Bodies and Citizens – Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell
Since I was the first freshman class to register for our own classes, I was so excited to choose my own Citizenship class! I was intrigued by the description for the class “Bodies and Citizens,” which discussed looking at how citizenship was affected throughout history for different minority groups. This went along with many of the other history classes I took last semester, but with many different readings that went beyond the history textbook. This class opened my eyes to so many issues I had never thought about, such as the treatment of pregnant women during slavery and weighing the pros and cons of production over reproduction, the Feminist, LGBT, and Civil Rights movements were aligned in the 1960’s and 1970’s, as well as looking into racial and reproductive issues of present times.
The class consisted of nightly readings that had to be annotated and submitted, as well as projects every unit going over a specific topic in that unit and creating a three-minute thesis presentation for it. We were put into groups of four, and we all contributed to put together sources and an outline for the presentation, but one person presented, each of us rotating who presented for the four units. Our final project consisted of taking a topic from the class and putting together a class outline and syllabus for the topic, using some sources from the class, but mainly outside sources from academic databases. My final project, which was a class called “Rights and Spaces: LGBTQ Rights in History,” was not only one of my favorite works from that class, but my favorite project I’ve completed since I’ve been in college. That is my attached artifact, as I put many hours work into it, and I’m so proud of the outcome of it!