WGSS 4 Introduction to Disability Studies

This class will introduce students to key ideas in disability studies: the social model; newer ideas of disability justice; and histories of disability in relation to race and work; gender and sexuality, and empire, policing, and militarism. We will read key texts in disability studies, as well as scholarly work that apprehends disability through the lenses of Marxism, social history, trans studies, and biopolitics/empire studies. We will also closely consider representations of disability in three novels a documentary film, and contemporary detective television shows. By combining these various approaches, we will not only gain a sense of contemporary debates in disability studies, but also begin to notice (if we did not know already) how central disability, and ideas of disability, is to contemporary global geopolitics and culture.

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies