Getting Through It, Together: Collective Care
a Discovery Core Experience
This course may be taken as BCORE 115 (Social Science)
About This Course
In this course, we will learn about how communities practice collective care as a means of survival and resilience in a time of multiple and overlapping crises. While many of us have been acculturated to think of wellbeing and survival as largely individualized endeavors, many communities are rediscovering the power and joy (and challenges!) of collective care. Learning from disabled, Black, feminist, and global South writers and practitioners, we will explore forms of collective care and how we might integrate these strategies into surviving – and thriving – in our own lives. Our work in this course will also be collective as we both unlearn individualism and practice caring for each other.
What Will We Do in the Course?
Throughout the course we will learn about strategies of collective care, then try to adopt those strategies as practices in our own communities (and in the classroom), and then reflect on what we learned in order to refine our practices. This means we’ll be trying new things, being patient with ourselves and each other as we do so, and honestly reflecting on what we learned. We’ll also be actively cultivating collective care in our classroom community through exercises and assignments. Finally, we’ll learn about different ways people have taught each other about collective care practices, through things such as zines and online communities – and we’ll get a chance to develop some of these materials ourselves throughout the quarter.
As we go along, we’ll be building a community that is welcoming of our whole selves and creates connections that will help you as you continue to navigate the rest of your academic life at UW Bothell. Using principles of disability justice we will co-create a space that is accessible to, and supportive of, all participants.
Dr. Nora Kenworthy
School of Nursing and Health Studies
About Dr. Nora Kenworthy
Nora Kenworthy is a Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies and a 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Her work examines how politics, technology and inequality shape people’s health. She has written several books and numerous articles on these topics. She also co-hosts a podcast with Seattle journalist Marcus Harrison Green and has written for The Washington Post, Scientific American, and The Seattle Times.
Dr. Kenworthy teaches courses on global health, health policy, and health and society. She has a PhD in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.