FutureLearn

Religion and Sexual Wellbeing: Pleasure, Piety, and Reproductive Rights (FutureLearn)

Offered by University of Groningen,

Explore how religion, culture, and politics intersect with women’s sexual wellbeing. Examine the role of religion in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Reproductive rights are at the forefront of many of today’s most heated political and ideological battles. Understanding the relationship between religion, gender, and sexual wellbeing is crucial to understanding the world today. On this course, you’ll reflect on sexuality as a private and public affair, exploring people’s lived experiences around sexuality, intimacy and pregnancy.

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Examine the role of religion in sexual wellbeing
You’ll explore the difference between religion as a lived experience, and religion as prescribed by religious authorities in relation to sexual activity and health.
You’ll examine how sexuality can be the cause of ideological debate as much as a source of enrichment, and explore the dynamics of the current polarisation around reproductive rights in relation to local, national and global histories.

Explore sexual wellbeing alongside experts
Using real-world case studies from the Philippines, Zimbabwe, and the Netherlands you’ll reflect upon how people become sexually knowledgeable, and how we can combat gendered forms of violence.
You’ll come away able to investigate the consequences of cultural polarisation around reproductive rights, and to reflect on how to support people’s sexual wellbeing and health.

Syllabus

Week 1: Polarization, religion and sexual wellbeing
Week 2: Philippines: religion in policy and in everyday life
Week 3: Zimbabwe: SRHR and gendered forms of violence
Week 4: The Netherlands: becoming sexually knowledgeable

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Explore the dynamics of current polarization in cases on sexual health and reproductive rights you observe in the media in relation to their local, national and global histories.
Investigate the differences and interactions between ‘grand schemes and everyday life’ concerning religion and sexuality.
Identify the context of religion and sexuality in specific cultural and gendered contexts.
Reflect on all the different contexts through which people become sexually knowledgeable.
Investigate the consequences of the polarizing dynamics between religious and secular actors concerning possibilities to improve sexual wellbeing.
Reflect on how to position yourself in a way that supports people’s sexual wellbeing and health.

Who is the course for?
This course is for anyone interested in the topics covered. More specifically, it could benefit faith-based and secular organisations that promote sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across the globe.

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