Course Syllabus

Semester & Location:	Fall 2025 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 3 credits
Major Disciplines:	Gender Studies, Leaderships Studies, Psychology
Faculty Members:	Emily Brocks Current Students: please contact your faculty using the canvas inbox function
Program Contact:	Helle Rytkønen
Time & Place:	Tuesday 08:30 - 11:25, Classroom N7-B12

 

Course Description

‘A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.’ - Zen Shin

Sociologists, economists, psychologists, and leadership gurus alike are all in agreement: We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the collective consciousness. Rather than focusing on external status symbols, competition and lineal rationality, a shift is currently underway. Research from a wide variety of disciplines shows that qualities such as trust, collaboration, being vs. doing, intuition, and empathy, formerly often exclusively attributed to being feminine, are now being seen as powerful tools to not only solve global issues and lead multi-national companies – but the key to living happier lives – for all of us.

This new consciousness has great potential to reframe how we live, love, work and develop who we are in the world of tomorrow. Yet many of us have never learned how to embrace and embody these qualities in today’s busy digitalized life.

This course aims to introduce you to this emerging new consciousness, the impact of gendering these changing social norms, while exploring how it is already changing the way we do business & work - in Scandinavia, the US and around the world. We’ll also explore how this new consciousness has the potential to reframe how we as individuals balance work/life and develop a sense of who we are in the world.   

This course is highly experiential, as the course will also be a platform for you to be curious about your own identity, personal strengths & potential blind spots you uncover while practicing embodiment of these traits during the course. Each week we will dive into a specific theme through discussions or creative projects based on the readings, as well as physical exercises that will awaken your intuitive sense of how the themes relate to your own life journey.

Uncovering the impact of collective consciousnesses, Exploring biases of masculine & feminine traits, Creating emotional agility, Uncovering dogmatic codes of sensuality, Listening intuitively, Living in synchronicity, Developing the neutral mind, Meeting your critical inner voices – are just some of the themes we’ll unfold together. 

 

Course Objectives

• Practice balancing masculine & feminine ways of being in your daily life
• Gain insight into which skills will be needed for the world tomorrow & current leadership trends
• Connect to your body & mind using intuitive yoga, meditation & creative flow processes
• Develop your own authentic strategy for success as a young professional
• Be inspired by Scandinavian perspectives on embracing these qualities of being

**It is not required to have previous experience with yoga or meditation to participate in the course.

Faculty

Emily Brocks is Danish-American with a background in Gender Studies from the US and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Denmark. She is a certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher, Shakti Yoga Teacher, NLP Coach Practitioner and women’s circle leader. Emily has extensive experience working with young adults as a mentor, coach, and teacher. She taught the introductory course to Gender & Sexuality at DIS from 2010-2013, and for ten years managed student housing programming at DIS. Following her passion of bringing awareness of the feminine to young adults through coaching, meditation, and Kundalini yoga, she now runs her own company, GirlCollective, offering workshops for local youth focusing on the body, sexuality, relationships, identity and leadership.

 

Readings

• Abby Epstein (2021) The Business of Birth Control Documentary 
• Alexandra Walker (2018). Collective Consciousness & Gender (various chapters) 
• Alexandra Pope (2018) Find your fierce feminine force Interview 
• Andy Aylesworth & Richard Cleary (2020) 'Reawakening creativity for business leaders: Removing obstacles',  in Journal of Education for Business, vol.95, Issue 4
• bell hooks. (2001)  'Commitment: Let love be love in me' in All About Love: New Visions
• Brené Brown, (2022), 'Vulnerability as a Creative'  on Being Boss Podcast
• Daniel Goleman. (2020) 'When smart is dumb' & 'Know thyself' in 'Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ 25th anniversary', 
• Diane Richardson  (2018) ‘The power of mindful sex’ TEDTalk
• Eldra Jackson III (2018) How I unlearned the dangerous lessons on masculinity TEDTalk
• Gabor Maté (2022) 'Living in an Immaterial World: Emotions, Health & the Body Mind Unity' & 'You Rattle my Brain: Our Highly Interpersonal Biology' in The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture 
• Halla Tomasdottír (2019) ‘The Crisis of Leadership and a new way forward’ TEDTalk
• John Gerzema, Michael D'Antonio (2013). The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men who think like them) will rule the future. (various chapters)
• Justin Baldoni (2017) Why I'm done trying to be 'man enough' TEDTalk 
• Reshma Saujani (2022) Pay it Up: The Future of Women & Work: And why it's different than you think (various chapters) 
• Robert Waldinger & Marc Schulz (2023) The Good Life and How to live it: Lessons from the World's Longest Study on Happiness (various chapters) 
• Sheri Winston (2010). ‘A tale of cultural confusion’ in Women’s Anatomy of Arousal
• Susan David (2016) ‘Rigidity to Agility’ in Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work & Life. 

 

Field Studies

October 1: (8:30-11:30) Menstrual Awareness Workshop / 18-21 (optional) Screening of 'The Business of Birth Control' Documentary 

November 12: (13-16) Sound Healing Workshop 

 

Evaluation

Dynamic Participation, Active Listening and Feedback Skills (incl: sharing in class, giving constructive feedback and participating in group exercises, being a class rep, putting effort into your passion sharing assignment, posting engaging & inspiring content on our group platform.) 

Weekly Journaling: Weekly journaling prompts related to themes of Sacred Rest

Reading Reflection Posts: Weekly posts in class 'Padlet' that are either a question, reflection or inspiration related to the reading that are used to guide class discussions. 

3 assignments: Exploring core concepts of the course

• Paper: The Price We Pay
• Group project: Mindful Sexuality Game
• Creative Final Project: Embodying the Revolution

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Dynamic Participation, Active Listening and Feedback Skills	15%
Sacred Rest Weekly Journaling	10%
Reading Padlet Post	15%
The Price We Pay Paper	25%
Mindful Sexuality Group Project	20%
Embodying the Revolution Creative Project	15%

 

Academic Regulations 

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code

 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org