Disability Studies

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores disability from an interdisciplinary perspective: first-person accounts, fjction, public policy advocacy, and film. We begin the course with an introduction to Disability theory: What is Disability? How is disability socially constructed? How does disability intersect with gender identity? We integrate film study with our readings to critically examine how pop culture represents, and misrepresents, disability and bodily difference. We examine statutes that significantly impact the disability community including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Family Medical Leave Act. We hear the voices of the disability community, focusing in particular on Deaf Culture, the blind, individuals with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and mental illness. Addressing contemporary policy issues, we examine intersections between disability and the opioid crisis and the role of prisons as a “new asylum” for the mentally ill. We examine disability from the perspective of aging, in illustration that “able-bodiedness” is generally a temporary condition. We conclude with a discussion of caregiving and the potential for empathetic and often reciprocal interdependence between cared for and carers. This course is part of a disability studies cluster, which will include lectures and interactive workshops with leading disability scholars, artists, and activists.