Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Searchable Course Catalog

header image

AMST 0120

Disability in American Culture

Body Politics: Disability in American Culture
In this course we will address the meaning of disability in America. We will confront the social construction of disability, its representation, and its changing meaning in society. We will consider how ideas about disability-and normalcy-reflect broad and shifting notions of identity across time and place. Our critiques will consider disability as it relates to issues of gender, community, class, region, and race. This line of inquiry invites us to rethink language, the body, identity, culture, power, and the nature of knowledge itself. We will draw heavily from texts such as The New Disability History and Freakery and will view documentary films like Murderball and Through Deaf Eyes. Oral histories, memoirs, literature, and Hollywood films represent core primary sources for this class.
Subject:
American Studies
Department:
Program in American Studies
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
NOR SOC

Sections

Spring 2010

AMST0120A-S10 Lecture (Burch)
AMST0120B-S10 Lecture (Burch)