Course Description
This course examines methods, drawn from core disability studies criticism, to analyze visual representations of disability. Students will compare cultural frameworks for representing disability in fine art and other forms of visual culture. Assigned readings draw connections between disability and other aspects of identity, especially gender.
Syllabus
Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:
Students successfully completing this course will be able to:
- Synthesize the major theories, concepts, and vocabularies of disability studies and apply them to looking at visual representations presented by the instructor
- Describe dynamic elements of different cultures
- Explain how similarities, differences, and connections among different groups of people or global systems affect one another over time and place
- Collect, produce, discuss, and put into context examples of disability in visual representation that are relevant to course discussions
- Learn how to ask provocative and constructive questions about representations encountered in books, galleries, websites, and film and television
- Develop and polish the skills of critical thinking, writing, and visual analysis
Course Grading Information:
| Activity/Performance Measure | Percentage/Points |
|---|---|
| Weekly discussion forum assignments | 50% |
| Final exam essays | 50% |
Attendance/Participation:
Your responses to each Unit’s assignment must be posted no later than the deadline posted on Canvas, and your final responses to other students’ posts and comments are due no later than midnight on the following Sundays. The due date for each assignment will appear on the assignment module on Canvas, but the Sunday date will be posted in the course calendar. You must remember to post all your final posts for each unit before Sundays at midnight. If a circumstance prevents you from meeting these deadlines, email me to ask for an extension.
Course Materials Purchased by the Students:
- Ann Millett-Gallant, The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), ISBN:978-0-230-10406-8
- Ann Millett-Gallant, The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art (PDF)
- Individual essays drawn from Lennard J Davis, ed., The Disability Studies Reader 5th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2016), ISBN: 9781315680668
Scholarly Perspectives
This course engages diverse scholarly perspectives to develop critical thinking, analysis, and debate and inclusion of a reading does not imply endorsement.