Disability and Culture

This course is an interdisciplinary study of social understandings of disability, particularly its relationship to categories of sex/sexuality, gender, and identity. Using examples drawn from various points in history, various countries around the world, and various disability categories (psychiatric/psychosocial, intellectual, physical, etc.), students read a variety of texts, including ethnographies, autobiographies, and case studies, in order to understand the variety of the disability experience. This class draws from critical disability studies, feminist, and queer theory.