Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Sexuality And Human Rights (Spring 2014), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

What happens when we think of sexuality, with all of its transgressive and individualistic energies, in terms of rationally established universal human rights? Literary texts that focus on individual cases in the context of larger cultural and social traditions with a particular attention to the power of language can help us sort through some of the complex ideas that emerge from a discussion of sexual rights.

In this class, we will focus on issues such as sadism, masochism, polygamy, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and transsexuality that bring questions of rights to the forefront.

A photo of this Spring 2014 class was taken …

Medicine & Literature (Spring 1996) (Whitman College), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

This course was taught by Robert Tobin at Whitman College. Professor Tobin worked at Whitman for 18 years as associate dean of the faculty and chair of the humanities, and was named Cushing Eells Professor of the Humanities.

"In World Literature 390, I want to examine from a literary perspective medicine and medical discourse. How do authors use metaphors of sickness and health, illness and cure, disease and well-being in their literature? How in turn do these literary and rhetorical metaphors affect everyday understandings of these basic concepts?"