Irrepressible Bodies: Hope, Health, and Resilience in a Turbulent World

Resilience is the capacity to transform in response to significant change. In this time of social and ecological turbulence, the idea of “irrepressible” bodies will be our gateway to exploration of human health and human communities, and their potential for resilient transformation.

Students new to the program are welcome to join us for spring quarter. Critical health literacy – understanding and measuring health in its social, political, and economic contexts, and developing skills to enact change toward social justice and resilience – will be an important area of program focus. The science-related fields of public health and epidemiology (the study of health of populations), and the study of learning and of how best to educate others, will tie our work to professions focused on response and resilience in this era of change. 

During spring quarter we’ll examine nutrition, the microbiome, and the nutritionally and socially-related conditions of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity through an equity lens. We’ll also continue study of community, focusing on design of educational workshops and activities for individuals and groups. For their final project, program members will choose a topic and approach for the purpose of engaging and informing others on a health or resilience-related topic. The project will involve independent research into published sources, design of an experience or product intended to inform, and presentation of work.

During fall and winter quarters, we inquired into the structures and functions of the human mind-body. In winter, we explored the workings of the civic and governance aspects of communities in enabling individual and communal health. We also began consideration of the powerful, intersectional ways in which race, class, gender identity, and dis/ability shape health, social conditions, and resilience in neighborhoods, workplaces, and nations.

Class sessions will feature a mix of lectures, seminars, hands-on learning activities, and workshops. Program participants will have opportunities to develop the habits of mind of analytic, innovative, and resilient thinkers. Development of skills in crafting clear and thoughtful spoken and written communications, in critical inquiry, and in cultivating a collaborative culture of resilience and relationship-building will be an essential component of the program. Willingness to learn how to think about and work with data is necessary; previous work with numbers beyond basic addition, subtraction, and division is not. Work in Irrepressible Bodies will prepare students for continued study and eventual employment in these fields: health, health care and medicine, human biology, community organizing, journalism, social work, education, public health, and public administration.