For your final paper, you are going to write a blog post for the collaborative blog: nursingclio.org. Nursingclio.org links discussion of contemporary issues related to gender and medicine to historical scholarship.
You can choose any topic having to do with the politics of women’s health, either something we’ve discussed in class or something we didn’t talk about but that you think would be interesting to pursue.
Your task is to make sure the issue you choose is one that can be placed in historical context. So for example, if you want to talk about the current treatment and recovery process for breast cancer, you would read (or reread) the material that I assigned as well as do some additional research. It’s possible that you might need to find some historical material as well to provide you with a sense of the context, depending on the topic you choose.
I will be looking for three components:
- how well you make the connection between your topic and its history
- how persuasively you make your argument
- how well written and engaging your blog post is.
Your post should be approximately 1000 words, double-spaced, and FREE of all grammatical and spelling errors. Your tone should be similar to the posts that are on the blog now, and so each of you should read at least 5 posts before you start writing your own. Some are more personal, like the one I wrote about getting fitted for a cervical cap: http://nursingclio.org/2013/05/13/whats-in-your-vulva/ and others are more historical, like the one I wrote about a recent intersex case: http://nursingclio.org/2013/05/17/do-no-harm-intersex-surgeries-and-the-limits-of-certainty/. Others focus on a contemporary political issue but still integrate historical context, like this one by Dr. Carrie Adkins: http://nursingclio.org/2013/03/29/north-dakota-where-freedom-blooms-on-the-hills-and-prairies-but-not-in-your-uterus/
As you will see, all of the essays on nursingclio.org are geared toward a general, educated audience. Your post should not include anything that could be considered jargon.
If your blog post is good enough, I will submit it to the other nursingclio.org editors for consideration for its publication. We are always looking for new talent!
You should find three or four corresponding pictures to accompany your essay, which may or may not be used if your essay is published online. On the last day of class, each of you will have 5 minutes to share your blog post with the class. And they will all be uploaded to our class website so that your classmates can read them.
