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Shanika's picture

The healthiest way of being ill is to resist such thinking

Are there ways to be healthy while being ill? Susan Sontag suggests in her book Illness as Metaphor, that the healthiest way of being ill is to resist such thinking. Sontag’s book is an inspection of the fantasies invented around conditions such as tuberculosis and cancer in our cultural history. Susan Sontag disputes that illness is not a metaphor and that the most ingenuous way of regarding illness is to defy thinking that one is ill. She gives examples of metaphors and images of illness that are taken from psychiatric and medical thinking as well as from

Shanika's picture

Chlamydiah Affects women and their unborn child

As the most reported Sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States of America, Chlamydia has become the most complicated STD to exist. Chlamydia is a common STD that is caused by a type of bacteria called Chlamydia trachomatis, (it is important to note that Chlamydia trachomatis can damage a woman's reproductive organs). Chlamydia lives in vaginal fluid and in semen. It is known to be a “silent” disease because the symptoms are usually mild or absent. It can take a long time for an individual realize that they have this disease. Chlamydia symptoms usually appear within one to three weeks after being infected. Those who do not have the symptoms may have an abnormal discharge (mucus or pus) from

Rachel Tashjian's picture

Energy Drinks: An Examination of Brand as a Scientific Story

Monster. Cocaine. Red Bull. Venom. Whoop Ass. Just a few years ago, these names might look like a list of fears. But they aren’t—in fact, those are the names of something that young adults seem obsessed with getting: energy drinks. You can find them at the school bookstore, the drug store, or restaurants you go out to, either to help you stay awake to study or give you energy as you rush from activity to activity. Though energy drinks are not marketed specifically as “health” beverages, their potential dangers have certainly raised many new questions in the health world. Like most consumer products, these drinks are not made primarily to give people energy; they are created and defined through their “brand” to make money. But how does brand work as a scientific story?

OrganizedKhaos's picture

What's New in Cervical Cancer?

kcough's picture

How Many Sexes Are There?

In a world where we are bombarded with sexuality nearly every minute of our lives and the sexual norms are increasingly expanding, how many sexes are there really? Must our sex and our gender always be aligned? Who should determine whether or not we are male, female, or a little bit of both? Should it be us or our parents and doctors? Focusing on the case in the 1960’s of John/Joan, I argue that this clearly evidences that sexuality isn’t solely determined by the development of our external genitalia but is also inherent from birth and therefore, Intersex children should be allowed to choose for

kcough's picture

On Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, by Dr. Paul Farmer


We don’t have to be expert in foreign affairs to have an opinion as to how much security the industrialized nations of the world brought with the $300 million they spent over ten years to eradicate smallpox, as compared to what was achieved with the $28 billion spent in 1983 alone for arms exports to Third World countries. Perhaps a few million dollars given to improve the health of the children of Central America would bring more security t o the area than the billions we have spent to arm the parents—and often the children.

tbarryfigu's picture

Art of the Feminist Identity

Please find the works of Elizabeth Cantanese, Sarah Lindberg, Gail Chavenelle, and myself in our attempts to illustrate feminism. We are two alum and two current students, each with our own account of what it means to be a feminist in today's world.

In reaction to each piece, please do one of two things: Either (a) compose a list of 5 individual words/piece which describe the work or the feeling emotion that they inspire OR (b) write a few sentences describing the illustrated definitions of feminism. If you were to look up feminism in the dictionary and find these paintings/sculptures, what would you take away?

Jen's picture

A Commentary on "Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought"

Where do we get our religious concepts from? Why do some concepts, such as the existence of one God who knows all, the existence of souls, of an afterlife, of karma, and so forth pervade throughout the spiritual lives of very different people? Why do these concepts persist for thousands of years? How do these concepts gain a following? In Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought anthropologist Pascal Boyer attempts to answer these questions in terms of what we know about cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology (1). Where once it was believed that these were silly questions to ask, Boyer believes that we now have the tools to treat

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