Magdalena Ornstein-Sloan

What does it mean to live a flourishing life? This is one of the most fundamental questions of human existence, and this course explores this question through an engagement with the universal human experiences of care, aging, and death. Together, we will dig deep into the centrality of caregiving to the human experience and identify and explore normative claims around care, aging, and death. Specifically, we will explore issues of avoidance, dependence, and interdependence, as we think together about the role of care in our lives across the lifespan but especially leading up to the final stages of life. In dominant US culture, notions of individualism prevail—and caregiving is often conceptualized as a burden. But who has decided that the care of other humans is a burden, or that an unburdened life is one most worth living? Who is to say that we’d prefer or be better off to be “unburdened” from the most important relationships in our lives? Collectively, we will consider more life-affirming, meaningful, and pluralistic ideas about care and consider who is most served by current mainstream normative claims. Finally, we will look at the ways these ideas are being resisted. Guest speakers will help us explore how individuals have replied to questions about how one lives life well by discussing how they have replied to these questions with their lives for meaningful engagement. Readings in this interdisciplinary course will include Lyn Lofland, Viktor Frankl, Carol Gilligan, Martha Nussbaum, JK Gibson-Graham, and The Sage Handbook of Death and Dying in order to focus on various cultural approaches, such as the Native American, Hindu, Muslim, Japanese, Taoist, and Jewish ways of death.

This course explores human-environment interactions and the relationships between natural, social, and built environments in shaping us as individuals. We will critically explore human interactions from the body, the home, and the local to the globalized world, with a return to the individual experience of our physical and social environments. As a survey course, we will cover myriad topics, which may include urban/rural/suburban relationships, gentrification, urban planning, environmental sustainability, globalization, social justice, and varying conceptualizations and experiences of “home” based on gender, race, class, age, and for people with disabilities. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will give special consideration to public space and home environments. As a discussion-based seminar, topics will ultimately be driven by student interest. Several films will be incorporated into class.

What does it mean to live a flourishing life? This is one of the most fundamental questions of human existence. This course will explore this fundamental question through an engagement with the universal human experiences of care, aging, and death. Together, we will dive into the centrality of caregiving to the human experience and identify and explore normative claims around care, aging, and death. Specifically, we will explore issues of avoidance, dependence, and interdependence, as we collectively think about the role of care in our lives across the lifespan—but especially leading up to the final stages of life. In dominant US culture, notions of individualism prevail—often leading to the conceptualization of caregiving as a burden. But who decided that the care of other humans is a burden? Or that an unburdened life is one most worth living? Who is to say that we would prefer or be better off to be “unburdened” from the most important relationships in our lives? Collectively, we will consider more life-affirming, meaningful, and pluralistic ideas about care, as well as consider who is most served by current mainstream normative claims. Finally, the course will look at the ways these ideas are being resisted. Guest speakers will help explore how individuals have replied to questions concerning how one lives life well.

This course explores the relationships between physical and social environments and human behavior. Care, in the broadest sense of the term, will be utilized as a lens through which we examine conceptualizations of environmental psychology. Utilizing qualitative methodologies (photovoice and autoethnography), we will engage with an “Ethic of Care” to critically explore levels of human interaction from the body, home, and the local to the globalized world, with a return to the individual experience of receiving and providing care within our social environments. Topics to be considered will include food (in)security and alternative food networks, informal family caregiving, environmental sustainability, globalization, structural violence, social determinants of health, and social justice—but will ultimately be driven by student interest. Films and a field trip will be incorporated to provide experiential learning. Students are encouraged (but not required) to participate in service learning through local community involvement facilitated by the Office of Community Partnerships, with the possibility of conference projects resulting from this experience.

Care and caregiving are aspects of daily life that each of us depend upon at various times throughout our lives. Yet, care remains hidden and devalued in our current sociopolitical climate in which women continue to provide a majority of care. In this course, we will look at care, both as an orientation and as an activity provided by family and friends to people with disabilities and older adults. An ethics of care will provide a lens through which to explore the experiences of family caregivers. Specifically, our focus will be on caregiving youth, young-adult, and male family caregivers, as well as on paid caregivers and care receivers living with a variety of disabilities and chronic illnesses. Students will have the opportunity to engage with qualitative research methods, such as interviews and photovoice, as we explore care and caregiving from a variety of perspectives. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach and introduce students to the various literatures on family caregiving. From psychology to public health, we will consider care as a reciprocal process that ebbs and flows throughout the lifespan. We will read from feminist theory, critical disabilities studies, psychology, and public health, as well as look at how care is portrayed in popular culture, film, and books. We will learn about individual and policy responses geared toward supporting family caregivers, as well as about organizations that are dedicated to creating better conditions of care for all of us. There may be opportunities to engage with grassroots advocacy organizations and with research (with me) for conference, although this depends upon the status of the research and the community-based projects.

With obesity and diabetes rising at alarming rates, and a growing awareness of disparities in food access, researchers and policymakers are rethinking the role of the environment in shaping our diets and health. This course takes a collaborative approach to investigating some of the key issues guiding this area of research and action. Students will critically review literature on food environments, food access, and health inequalities and explore how modes of food production and distribution shape patterns of food availability in cities. Students will use photography and video to examine foods available in the neighborhoods where they live, review media related to the course themes, and use a time/space food diary to reflect on the ways in which their own eating habits are influenced by the social and material settings of their day-to-day lives. The course concludes with students writing letters to the editor/op-eds to a news outlet of their choice with suggestions about how to move forward with action to improve food access and public health and social justice in the places where they live.

The role of the environment is well recognized in shaping food-related health outcomes, especially among vulnerable populations. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach and introduce students to food-environment research in environmental psychology, geography, and public health. Utilizing social justice and antiracist lenses, this course takes a participatory approach to investigating some of the key issues guiding this area of research and action. Students will critically review literature on food environments, food security, and health inequalities and explore how modes of food production and distribution shape patterns of food availability in cities. Students will use photography and video to examine foods available in the neighborhoods where they spend time. They will also review media related to course themes in order to reflect on the ways that their own eating habits are influenced by the social and material settings of their day-to-day lives. The course concludes with students writing letters to the editor/op-eds to a news outlet of their choice, with suggestions about how to move forward with action to improve food security, public health, and social justice.

Care and caregiving are aspects of daily life that each of us depend upon at various times throughout our lives. Yet, care remains hidden and devalued in our current sociopolitical climate in which women continue to provide a majority of care. In this course, we will look at care, both as an orientation and as an activity provided by family and friends to people with disabilities and older adults. Utilizing Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory as a framework, we will explore the multilevel experiences of family caregivers. Specifically, we will focus on caregiving triads—for example, caregivers in all their diversity, as well as paid caregivers and care receivers living with a variety of chronic illnesses. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach and introduce students to the various literature on family caregiving. From psychology to public health, we will consider care as a reciprocal process that ebbs and flows throughout the life course. We will read from feminist theory, critical disabilities studies, psychology, and public health, as well as look at how care is portrayed in popular culture, film, and books. We will learn about multilevel interventions, such as individual and policy responses geared toward supporting family caregivers, as well as organizations and social movements that are dedicated to creating better conditions of care for all.

Using a social justice framework, this course will provide a theoretical foundation for the exploration and application of ethical dilemmas relevant to the health care system in the United States. The ethics of advocacy, in its various forms, will be explored from different positions—from the patient and family level to health care institutions, funding mechanisms and public policy perspectives. Due to shifting demographics of who provides care, the “where” of health care and the resulting ethical dilemmas will be explored, as the majority of long-term care in the United States is provided in the community by family caregivers. In addition, as the medical model of disease has shifted to include the socialecological model—recognizing the importance of the social on all aspects of health, wellness, and illness—ethical dilemmas have changed, as well. The shift away from purely medical bioethics to a more socially informed version of health care requires different approaches to solving new problems encountered within the current health care system. This course is not intended to teach you a moral code. It will not teach you to act ethically, although it will likely make you think more about how you act and why. You will be challenged to identify ethical problems and explore various outcomes and solutions, making real-world decisions within a climate of moral ambiguity and competing priorities. Ethical dilemmas that you have or with which you are engaging in your field placements will provide possibilities for fertile conversations about these real-world dilemmas and how to effectively grapple with the range of possible outcomes.