As an award-winning educator, Dr. Madina Agénor has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses on gender, sexuality, and health, sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice, and qualitative research methods at Harvard University and Tufts University. Additionally, she has guest lectured in undergraduate and graduate courses at various U.S. universities, including Brandeis University, Barnard College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University School of Public Health.
Undergraduate Courses
CH 199/WGSS 185-05: Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (Tufts University, Spring 2021)
This upper-level interdisciplinary seminar identifies and problematizes the dominant lenses used to examine reproductive health and health care issues among U.S. women and explores how a reproductive justice approach – which centers social justice, intersectionality, and human rights – extends our understanding of reproductive health in relation to multiple dimensions of social inequality (e.g., sexism, racism, poverty, xenophobia) in historical, social, and political context. Throughout the course, we will prioritize the lived experiences of marginalized groups – especially Black, Latina, Indigenous, and poor women but also queer and transgender people – and identify how they have challenged reproductive injustices and promoted their reproductive health and rights through individual and collective agency. We will focus on the following topics: pregnancy, birth, motherhood, contraception, abortion, forced sterilization, and surrogacy.
CH 104/ WGSS 104: Gender, Sexuality, and Health (Tufts University, Fall 2020)
This intermediate-level course explores the interplay between gender, sexuality, and health – both in the U.S. and internationally and in relation to other axes of social inequality, including racism and social class. Using an intersectional and health equity lens, we will examine how gender and sexuality, as socially constructed power relations that operate at the structural, institutional, and interpersonal levels, influence population health outcomes as well as individuals’ health and health care experiences. We will focus on the following topics: reproductive health, sexual health, cancer, intimate partner violence, occupational health, HIV/AIDS, mental health, body image, LGBTQ+ health, health services use, and public policy, among others. Various approaches to conceptualizing, investigating, and addressing the influence of gender and sexuality on health and health care will be discussed, with the goal of identifying and developing effective strategies (e.g., policies, programs, practices, advocacy campaigns, social movements) that promote the health of people from diverse gender, sexuality, and other social backgrounds. Course readings will be drawn from multiple disciplines, including public health, sociology, psychology, and anthropology. Class sessions will actively engage students using group presentations, small and large group discussions, lectures, videos, case studies, and small group activities.
WGS 1253: Sexual Health and Reproductive Justice (Harvard College, Fall 2014 and 2015)
This intermediate-level seminar investigates the connections between sexuality, reproduction, public health, and social justice. We will examine how inequities related to gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and sexual orientation influence the sexual and reproductive health and rights of socially and economically marginalized groups of women in the contemporary United States, especially women of color and poor and low-income women but also lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women. Using public health and social justice lenses, we will focus on the following topics: pregnancy, birth, abortion, contraception, forced sterilization, sexual violence, cervical cancer, and HIV/AIDS. Take a look at the work of WGS 1253 students here.
WGS 1272: Global Reproductive Health (Harvard College, Spring 2015 and 2016)
This interdisciplinary seminar examines how gender, poverty, development and global health policies, legacies of colonialism, and social institutions influence sexual and reproductive health outcomes (pregnancy, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer, sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections [STIs]) and access to and utilization of sexual and reproductive health services (contraception, abortion, STI/HIV testing and counseling, cervical cancer screening, human papillomavirus vaccine) among women in the global South. We will address how social, economic, and political contexts affect women’s sexual and reproductive health across countries in the global South and examine how inequities based on gender, sexuality, socioeconomic position, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and geography shape sexual and reproductive health inequities among women within these countries. Further, we will discuss how community-based health interventions that target the social determinants of health at multiple levels can help promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women in the global South. Take a look at the work of WGS 1272 students here.
Graduate Courses
PHP 2061: Qualitative Data Analysis for Public Health Research (Brown University School of Public Health, Spring 2022, Fall 2022)
This intermediate/advanced graduate seminar focuses on various interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of textual data from interviews, focus groups, ethnography, and secondary and digital sources—including thematic analysis, grounded theory, phenomenology, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, and arts-based approaches. Students will explore the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of these qualitative data analysis approaches and consider their application in the context of critical theories and methodologies (e.g., feminist theories, critical race theory, intersectionality). Students will also learn practical skills involved in qualitative data analysis, including inductive and deductive coding strategies, codebook development, coding transcripts using computer software, working in teams, developing categories, concepts, and themes, creating matrices, writing memos, and presenting and disseminating qualitative research findings to diverse audiences. The course also addresses issues of power, ethics, positionality, and reflexivity in the context of qualitative research with marginalized populations and discusses community-based participatory research approaches to qualitative data analysis. Lastly, the course addresses methods for combining qualitative and quantitative research findings in the context of a mixed-methods research approach. Class sessions emphasize student-centered, active learning and include large and small group discussions, in-class activities, article critiques, student presentations, and guest lectures by leading qualitative health researchers. This course is open to masters and doctoral students who meet the prerequisites and will involve the analysis of qualitative data using a computer software (e.g., NVivo, Dedoose, Atlas.ti). Students will have the option to analyze their own qualitative data during the course, including as part of a thesis, dissertation, or independent study. Students who do not have their own qualitative data will be provided with an existing qualitative dataset to analyze during the course.
SBS 521: Qualitative Data Analysis for Public Health (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Fall 2017)
This intermediate/advanced seminar focuses on the analysis of qualitative data in public health. The course covers various approaches to the analysis of textual data from interview and focus group transcripts, including thematic analysis, grounded theory, interpretative phenomenological analysis, template analysis, and hybrid and general approaches to qualitative data analysis. Students will learn practical skills involved in qualitative data analysis, including identifying themes using inductive and deductive strategies, developing a codebook, coding transcripts using computer software, creating matrices and networks, writing memos, and building conceptual models. The course also addresses issues of ethics in the context of qualitative data analysis and research with marginalized populations and discusses team-based and participatory approaches to qualitative data analysis. Class sessions focus on active learning and include mini-lectures, large and small group discussions, coding practice activities, article critiques, instruction in the computer lab, student presentations, and guest lectures by qualitative researchers. This course is open to masters and doctoral students who meet the prerequisites. Students will have the option to analyze their own qualitative data during the course. Students who do not have their own qualitative data will be provided with an existing qualitative dataset to analyze.
WGH 300: Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Spring 2017 and 2018)
A part of the Women, Gender, and Health Interdisciplinary Concentration at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, this graduate service learning course pairs masters and doctoral students with local and national community-based organizations promoting sexual and reproductive health, rights, and/or justice – including Advocates for Youth, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and Action for Boston Community Development. As part of this course, students develop a formal work plan (approved by both the course instructor and their site supervisor), meet with their supervisor on a weekly basis, and meet as a group to engage in peer-to- peer exchange and learning facilitated by the instructor on a biweekly basis.
Dr. Madina Agénor 