The Global Menstrual Movement: Understan

In recent years, a global movement has begun around menstruation, ranging from research and policies addressing the barriers that school girls may be facing in low-resource contexts, to initiatives fighting the on-going stigma experienced by girls, women and people with periods in high- and low-resource contexts, to the advocacy focused on period poverty.  How did this global movement begin? What is the existing evidence base for addressing menstruation as a public health issue? And what gaps remain?  The purpose of this course is to provide students with a foundation on the topic of menstruation, including the existing research, program and policy approaches underway globally, to equip students with an understanding of the research methodologies most appropriate for understanding the experiences of those who menstruate, and the ways in which advocacy has served to shift attention to this fundamental issue.  Students in this course will learn to analyze the current status of the global menstruation movement through debates, news media critiques, and a proposal addressing ‘new frontiers’ in menstruation. The course fits into the MPH curriculum in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences by increasing students’ knowledge and skills of key perspectives and approaches to research and intervention around menstruation that include social science theories