Sexual Wellness on College Campuses
EXP-0032-S
Thursdays, 6:30-9pm
Spring 2013
The Experimental College of Tufts University
Instructor: Miriam R. Arbeit
Email: miriam.arbeit@tufts.edu
phone: (617) 627-6084
Office: Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, 3rd floor of Lincoln-Filene
Course Description
What are the social, emotional, and cognitive skills that college students need to make
healthy sexual decisions and engage in fulfilling relationships? How do the sexual
cultures on college campuses today constrain and facilitate college students’ sexual
wellness? We will address these questions through an interdisciplinary study of sexuality
development at college. We will draw primarily from social science perspectives on
sexuality development in adolescence and young adulthood in addition to critical theory
regarding how sexuality is shaped by cultural and institutional dynamics of power and
privilege. With course themes immanently relevant to students’ own lives and to national
and global debates, in-class activities will build critical consciousness and bring a social
justice lens into the conversation. Through this course, students will become leaders,
working both independently and collaboratively to impact campus culture and promote
positive sexuality development for themselves and their peers through health promotion
and advocacy efforts.
Course Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, students will:
• Play an active role in their own education by connecting different approaches to
human sexuality studies with ideas and issues they observe around them.
• Strengthen their written and verbal skills for communicating about sex, sexuality,
and sexual health.
• Make critical and creative contributions to the field of sexuality studies and to
their communities on campus.
• Direct their continued learning about sex, sexuality, and sexual health: They will
know how to distinguish myths and facts, how to articulate their own views on
important issues, and how to understand the strengths and limitations of the
arguments of others put forth in person or in the media.
• Have the tools they need to work as sexual health advocates in their communities
and throughout the world.
Books students will need
Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus (Bogle, 2008)
The Ethical Slut (Easton & Hardy, 2009)
What You Really Really Want (Friedman, 2011)
Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (2008)
Sex on Campus, 1
Grading and Evaluation
Term Grades
Weekly Reflections = 20%
Assignments #1-4 = 40% (10% each)
Final Project = 40%
Attendance and class participation will also count in formulating the final grade.
Weekly Coursework
Class participation will integrate interactive learning, facilitated discussions, short
lectures on relevant materials, and multimedia engagement. Students will be expected to
work as active producers of their own learning both in and out of class, which includes
asking questions, expressing concerns, sharing reflections, and responding to each other.
Written reflections on the week’s course readings will be due by midnight before class
each week. These reflections will be open-ended assignments of at least one page,
designed to provide students with the opportunity to highlight what the course readings
mean to them and to get their own questions and concerns on paper before hearing from
their classmates. Reflections will be graded out of 2 points: 1 point for displaying
evidence of completing the readings, and 1 point for deep engagement with key concepts.
Students may also use these reflections as a way to provide feedback on course progress
and impact the direction of the course moving forward.
Long-term Coursework
The term project is designed to provide students with the opportunity to use what they
learn in class to take leadership in promoting sexual wellness on campus. Students will be
allowed to work alone or to collaborate with one or two others, although each student will
need to turn in their own written assignments. Each of the following assignments will
scaffold a final product of the students’ own design. Projects can have a promotion and/or
prevention focus and can take many forms, including education and advocacy. Examples
of possible term project themes include: preventing sexual assault on campus, addressing
sexism at college parties, integrating transgender students into student life, or promoting
healthy dating relationships.
Assignment #1 (due week 3): A 3-page opinion piece articulating a vision for improved
sexual health and wellness on college campuses. What is the state of sex and sexuality on
college campuses today? What would true sexual health and wellness look like for
college students? The piece should incorporate aspects of at least two of the readings
from the first class session, and should include the seeds of ideas for how we might get
from here to there.
Assignment #2 (due week 7): A 5-page research paper on the student’s project topic.
The goal of this assignment is for students to select an area of interest and delve more
deeply into the causes and consequences of this aspect of sexual and relational wellness.
This research will then inform the work they do to design their term project, which will
continue with that same topic.
Sex on Campus, 2
Assignment #3 (weeks 9-11): 2-3 goals and objectives for a proposed project. The
purpose of this assignment is for students to begin selecting a focus for their term project.
They will write one page explaining how these goals and objectives were informed by
their research paper, their weekly coursework, and their own experiences as a student on
campus. Students will post their goals and objectives on a secure online forum and
provide each other with feedback.
Assignment #4 (weeks 11-13): The methods and theory of change for the proposed
project. The goal of this assignment is for students to think creatively and concretely
about what methods they could use to promote sexual and relational wellness on campus
and how those methods relate to their goals and objectives. After turning in this
assignment, students will be required to meet with the Instructor on campus for an
individual conversation about their project.
Grading for Assignments 1-4 (letter grades, based on 10 points each)
5 points for completing each aspect of the assignment
5 points for critical and creative approaches to key issues and challenges
The final project will include: (a) revised versions of Assignments 1-4, (b) a prototype
of the proposed wellness promotion project, and (c) a written reflection on the strengths
and limitations of the proposed project. Students working in collaboration with each other
must demonstrate how they each are uniquely contributing to their collective ideas and
products. Students will be encouraged (but not required) to go live with their projects
when they are ready!
Grading for the Final Project (letter grade, based on 30 points)
10 points for revision of Assignments 1-4 (based on prior grading criteria)
20 points for high-quality work on the prototype
and for a prototype that is realistic, relevant, and original
10 points for awareness and insight in the written reflection
Sex on Campus, 3
Weekly Reading
Please note that given the state of the theory and research, many of the assigned readings
pertain to girls and women specifically. We will discuss in class why and how girls and
women have become the focus of much scholarship on sexual wellness. In addition, we
will work together to gather readings and other resources addressing the sexuality and
sexual wellness of boys, men, and students of all genders.
1/17, Week 1: Introduction and Expectations
*Overview of key concepts: sex, sexuality, sexual health and wellness
*Review structure, expectations, and grading for the course
*Introduction to perspectives on sexuality and sexual cultures on college campuses
Armstrong (2010). Is hooking up bad for young women?
Arnold (2010). College student development and the hook-up culture.
Bogle (2007), chapter 5. The campus as a sexual arena.
Heldman & Wade (2010). Hook-up culture.
Tolman, Striepe, & Harmon, (2003). Gender matters.
Unit 1—Sexual Selfhood: Developing Personal Wellness
1/24, Week 2: Desire
*The missing discourse of desire from conversations about sexuality and sexual health
*Embodiment, embodied desire, and connecting to/ through the body
*Confusing and confused desire: wanting and not wanting something simultaneously
Fine (1988). Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females.
Fine & McClelland (2006). Sexuality education and desire.
Friedman (2011), chapter 1. You can’t get what you want ‘til you know what you want.
Muehlenhard & Peterson (2005). Wanting and not wanting sex.
Tolman (2006). Through a lens of embodiment.
1/31, Week 3: Identity
*How do college students figure out who they are and who they want to be?
*Compare and contrast traditional and fluid models of identity development
*Intersectionality of identity: a critical look at race, class, gender, and sexual orientation
Readings suggested in this particular order.
Diamond & Savin-Williams (2003). Gender and sexual identity.
Savin-Williams (2005), chapter 8. Identity.
Diamond (2008), chapter 3. Sexual fluidity in action.
Friedman & Valenti (2008). Ch 6. Queering black female heterosexuality by K. Springer.
Abes & Jones (2004). Meaning-making capacity.
Assignment #1 due (opinion piece)
Sex on Campus, 4
2/7, Week 4: Ethics
*How do college students examine their sexual values, and beliefs, and priorities?
*Explain different models of sexual ethics. Which are dominant on college campuses?
*Social and institutional sexual ethics: law, policy, and civil society
Bauer (2010). Lady power.
Easton & Hardy (2009), chapter 3. Our beliefs.
Lamb (2010). Toward a sexual ethics curriculum.
Shalet (2010). Sex, love, and autonomy in the teenager sleepover.
Wade & Heldman (2012). Hooking up and opting out.
2/14, Week 5: Agency
*Using what I want, who I am, and what I value to make healthy decisions
*What is sexual agency and when do we know if we are exercising it?
*What are the strengths and limitations of “agency” as a framework for sexual wellness?
Bay-Cheng, Livingston, & Fava (2010). Assessment and management of sexual risks.
Black Women’s Blueprint (2011). An open letter from black women to the SlutWalk.
Burns, Futch, Tolman (2011). It’s like doing homework.
Friedman (2010). My sluthood, myself.
Friedman & Valenti (2008), ch 11. When sexual autonomy isn’t enough, by M. Z. Perez.
Unit 2—Sexual Negotiation: Building Fulfilling Relationships
2/21, Week 6: Consent
*The role of consent in sexual violence prevention efforts on college campuses
*Giving and getting consent at every step of sexual activity—is it possible? desirable?
*Conceptions of consent: enthusiastic consent and other models
Antioch College (1996). The Antioch College Sexual Offense Prevention Policy.
Baker (2012). My weekend in America’s so-called ‘rape capital’.
Beres (2007). 'Spontaneous' sexual consent.
Friedman & Valenti (2008), ch 2. Towards a performance model of sex, by T. M. Millar.
Peterson and Muehlenhard (2007). Conceptualizing the “wantedness”.
Sex on Campus, 5
2/28, Week 7: Protection
*Examining perspectives on reproductive justice on college campuses
*Using protection to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy
*Communication as protection; communicating about protection
Easton & Hardy (2009), ch 11. Keeping sex safe.
Edgar, Noar, & Freimuth (2008), ch 1. The role of partner communication.
Edgar, Noar, & Freimuth (2008), ch 2. Communication skills training.
Fluke (2012). Testimony before Congress.
Friedman & Valenti (2008), ch 22. When pregnancy is outlawed, by T. Jayasinghe
Assignment #2 due (research paper)
3/7, Week 8: Pleasure
*Deep versus shallow understandings of sexual pleasure and empowerment
*Power with someone else instead of power over someone else
*Desire and discrimination: saying yes, no, maybe, and I don’t know
Must read this week’s readings in order—they respond directly to each other
Lamb (2010). Feminist ideals.
Peterson (2010). What is sexual empowerment?
Lamb & Peterson (2011). Adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment.
Bay-Cheng (2012). Recovering empowerment.
Tolman (2012). Female adolescents, sexual empowerment and desire.
Optional readings, also part of the same debate:
Gavey (2011). Beyond ‘empowerment’?
Gill (2012). Media, empowerment, and the ‘sexualization of culture’ debates.
Peterson & Lamb (2012). The political context for person empowerment.
3/14, Week 9: Intimacy
*Engaging emotionally to negotiate consent, protection, pleasure, and more
*Rethinking intimacy within and without romantic dating relationships
*Dating, relationships, coupling, and love on college campuses
Afifi & Faulkner (2000). On being ‘just friends’.
Bogle (2007), ch 8. Hooking up and dating: A comparison
Friedman (2011), ch 5. What’s love got to do with it?
Impett, Schooler, & Tolman (2006). To be seen and not heard.
Mukhopadhyay (2011), ch 2. Searching for citizenship in the state of love.
Assignment #3 due (goals and objectives)
Sex on Campus, 6
3/21—NO CLASS—SPRING BREAK
Unit 3—Sexual Empowerment: Supporting Healthy Communities
3/28, Week 10: Boundaries
*Establishing and respecting boundaries, including commitment, fidelity, and breakups
*Critiquing socially-imposed boundaries that are potentially problematic
*Exploring positive possibilities for boundaries that are clear, specific, and flexible
Butler (2004), ch 1. Beside oneself.
Easton & Hardy (2009), ch 9. Boundaries.
Friedman (2011), ch 8. It’s complicated.
Friedman & Valenti (2008), ch 3. Beyond yes or no, by R. K. Bussel
Valenti (2009), ch 1. The cult of virginity.
Post feedback on Assignment #3 (goals and objectives)
4/4, Week 11: Coping
*Coping with difference, change, loss, overwhelm, and violation
*Getting stuck: when coping behaviors make it worse
*Asking for help and accessing resources on college campuses
Bay-Cheng & Eliseo-Arras (2008). The making of unwanted sex.
Friedman & Valenti (2008), ch 5. How do you fuck a fat woman? by K. Harding
Friedman (2011), ch 2. Bad things come in threes.
Moore (1999). Sexuality in adolescence.
Robinson & Ward (1991). A belief in self far greater than anyone’s disbelief.
Assignment #4 (methods and theory of change)
4/11, Week 12: Analysis
*Analyzing influences from family, peer culture, and the media
*Media literacy, media activism, and why it matters
*Identifying sexism, heterosexism, and intersecting systems of oppression
Bogle (2007), chapter 6. Men, women, and the sexual double standard.
Diamond (2005). I’m straight, but I kissed a girl.
Friedman & Valenti (2008), ch 12. Trial by media, by S. Mukhopadhyay
Kim, Sorsoli, Collins, Zylbergold, Schooler, & Tolman (2007). From sex to sexuality.
Ward (2003). Understanding the role of entertainment media.
Students schedule meetings with Instructor to discuss final project.
Sex on Campus, 7
4/18—SPECIAL EVENT TBA
4/25, Week 13: Advocacy
*What can I do to make change? What can we do if we work together?
*Students make presentations about their final projects, and get feedback from classmates
*What campus-based sexual advocacy is happening already? What can we learn from it?
Explore the websites for these organizations.
Advocates for Youth: Rights. Respect. Responsibility.
Feministing Campus: Feminist activists on campus, online.
SAFER: Students active for ending rape.
SPARK a Movement: Sexualization protest, action, resistance, knowledge.
Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood.
The final project is due on Thursday, May 2
Sex on Campus, 8
5. Bibliography
Abes, E. S., & Jones, S. R. (2004). Meaning-making capacity and the dynamics of lesbian
college students’ multiple dimensions of identity. Journal of College Student
Development, 45, 612–632.
Advocates for Youth (2008). Advocates for Youth: Rights. Respect. Responsibility.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/
Afifi, W. A., & Faulkner, S. L. (2000). On being 'just friends': The frequency and impact
of sexual activity in cross-sex friendships. Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships, 17, 205-222.
Armstrong E. Q., Hamilton L., England P. (2010). Is hooking up bad for young
women?. Contexts, 9, 22–27.
Arnold, K. D. (2010). College student development and the hook-up culture. Journal of
College & Character, 11(4).
Antioch College (1996). The Antioch College Sexual Offense Prevention Policy. Yellow
Stone Springs, Ohio: Antioch College.
Baker, K. J. M. (2012, May 10). My weekend in America’s so-called ‘rape capital’.
Jezebel. Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/5908472/my-weekend-in-americasso+called-rape-capital.
Bauer, N. (2010, June 20). Lady power. The New York Times. Retrieved from
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/lady-power/
Bay-Cheng, L. Y. (2012). Recovering empowerment: De-personalizing and repoliticizing adolescent female sexuality. Sex Roles, 66(11-12), 713-717.
Bay-Cheng, L. Y., & Eliseo-Arras, R. K. (2008). The making of unwanted sex: Gendered
and neoliberal norms in college women’s unwanted sexual experiences. Journal
of Sex Research, 45, 386-397.
Bay-Cheng, L. Y., Livingston, J. A., & Fava, N. M. (2010). Adolescent girls’ assessment
and management of sexual risks: Insights from focus group research. Youth &
Society, 43, 1167–1193.
Beres, M. (2007). 'Spontaneous' sexual consent: An analysis of sexual consent literature.
Feminism & Psychology, 17, 93-108.
Black Women’s Blueprint (2011). An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk.
Retrieved from http://www.blackwomensblueprint.org/2011/09/23/an-open-letterfrom-black-women-to-the-slutwalk/
Bogle, K. A. (2008). Hooking up: Sex, dating and relationships on campus. New York
and London: New York University Press.
Burns, A., Futch, V. A., & Tolman, D. L. (2010). “It’s like doing homework”: Academic
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Diamond, L. M. (2008). Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Diamond, L. M. (2005). “I’m straight but I kissed a girl”: The trouble with American
media representations of female–female sexuality. Feminism and Psychology,
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Sex on Campus, 9
Diamond, L. S., Savin-Williams, R. C. (2002). Gender and sexual identity. In Lerner, R.
M., Jacobs, F. & Wortlieb, D. (Eds.), Handbook of Applied Developmental
Science (pp. 101-121). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
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Edgar, T., Noar, S. M., & Freimuth, V. S. (Eds.). (2008). Communication Perspectives on
HIV/AIDS for the 21st Century. New York: Taylor & Francis.
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Fine, M. and McClelland, S. (2006). Sexuality education and desire: Still missing after all
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Friedman, J. (2011). What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide
to Sex and Safety. New York: Seal Press.
Friedman, J. & Valenti, J. (Eds.) (2008). Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power
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Gill, R. (2012). Media, empowerment, and the ‘sexualization of culture’ debates. Sex
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Heldman, C., & Wade, L. (2010). Hook-up culture: Setting a new research agenda.
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(2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime
network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44, 145-157.
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bear on individual development. Harvard Educational Review, 80(1), 81-105.
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critique. Sex Roles, 62, 1573–2762.
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Muehlenhard, C. L., & Peterson, Z. D. (2005). Wanting and not wanting sex: The missing
discourse of ambivalence. Feminism and Psychology, 15, 15–20
Sex on Campus, 10
Mukhopadhyay, S. (2011). Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life. New York:
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Peterson, Z. D. (2010). What is sexual empowerment? A multidimensional and processoriented approach to adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment. Sex Roles, 62, 307–
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Sex on Campus, 11