Intimate Violence (SOC 333) Professor Rebecca Bordt
This course examines intimate violence from a historically grounded, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective. We explore the meaning of intimate violence, its relationship to violence in general, its root causes, and its universal and parochial forms. In addition to exposure to various theories of violence, we consider the usefulness of these theories in explaining specific empirical cases of intimate violence (e.g., rape, domestic violence, sex trafficking, eating disorders, and cutting) with an eye toward understanding these micro-level phenomena in broader social, cultural, economic and political context. We consider throughout the semester the rationale for, and effectiveness of, collective strategies (e.g., social movements) and public policy efforts to ameliorate intimate violence.