Rackham 580 Fall 05

It is our intention to support the full participation of all students in the learning process of this class. We have incorporated a variety of instruction techniques and evaluation methods in the course process. In spite of these efforts, situations may occur in which the learning style of individual students is not met by the instructional climate. It is our expectation that students who require specific or additional support to acquire the course content or demonstrate their achievement of the objectives will inform us of their needs immediately. For UM-Ann Arbor, please contact the Office of Students with Disabilities, G664 Haven Hall, at 763-3000. For U-M Flint, Ms. Paula Pollander is available in the office of Accessibility Services in 264 UCEN at 762-3456 to provide direct assistance.

Course Description

"Topics in Disability Studies" provides an interdisciplinary approach to disability studies, including focus on the arts and humanities, natural and social sciences, and professional schools. Our topic this semester is "disability and culture", emphasizing both the culture of disability and how disability is received in various cultural contexts. Disability Studies views people with disabilities not as objects but as producers of knowledge whose common history has generated a wide variety of art, music, literature, and science infused with the experience of disability. Students will have the opportunity to interact with visiting speakers from a broad range of fields. The course is offered for 1 or 3 credits. Accessible classroom with realtime captioning. For more information, please contact Tobin Siebers or Kristine Mulhorn.

Learning Objectives

The course will prepare the student

to understand how disability is culturally represented, historically and currently

to understand how disability is addressed in the natural, social, and human sciences

to understand how historical events have informed social and public policy.

Students should be able to describe the implications of various conceptualizations of disability, including the implications for how persons with disabilities

experience disability culture

understand disability in US culture and in other cultures

Students will also be able to describe formal models of disability, such as the medical model, social model, minority model, business model, and others.

Requirements: Mandatory attendance and or participation, a substantial research project (3 credits), weekly reports (1 credit)

Course Schedule

Required Readings (Coursepack available at Kolossos, 310 East Washington Street)

Baynton, Douglas C. "Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History." The New Disability History: American Perspectives. Ed. Paul K. Longmore and Lauri Umansky. New York: NYU Press, 2001. Pp. 33-57.

Braddock, David and Susan L. Parish "An Institutional History of Disability." Handbook of Disability Studies . Ed. Gary L. Albrecht, Katherine D. Seelman, and Michael Bury. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001. Pp. 11-68.

Brown, Steven E. "I Was Born (in a Hospital Bed)--When I Was Thirty-One Years Old." Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride. New York: iUniverse, Inc. , 2003. Pp. 61-69.

_____. "Oh, Don't You Envy Us Our Privileged Lives?: A Review of the Disability Culture Movement." Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride. New York: iUniverse, Inc. , 2003. Pp. 93-109.

_____."We are Who We Are ...So Who Are We?" Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride. New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2003. Pp.77-81.

_____."The Walkout." Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride. New York: iUniverse, Inc. , 2003. Pp. 25-34.

Charlton, James. I. "Political Economy and the World System." Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Employment. Berkeley: California 2000. Pp. 37-50, 172-74.

Cubbage, Maxwell E., and Kenneth R. Thomas. "Freud and Disability." Rehabilitation Psychology 34.3 (1989): 161-73.

Davis, Lennard. "Crips Strike Back: The Rise of Disability Studies." ALH 11.3 (1999): 500-12.

Fougeryrollas, Patrick and Line Beauregard. "Disability: An Interactive Person-Environment Social Creation." Handbook of Disability Studies . Ed. Gary L. Albrecht, Katherine D. Seelman, and Michael Bury. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001. Pp. 171-194.

Fox, Renée C. "The Social and Cultural Significance of Health and Illness." The Sociology of Medicine: A Participant Observer's View. Ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. 1989. Pp. 1-37.

Freud, Sigmund. "Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work (The 'Exceptions). The Standard Edition. Vol. XIV. London: Hogarth, 1957. Pp. 309-15.

Fries, Kenny. "Questions of Origin." Body Remember . New York: Dutton, 1997. Pp. 1-24.

Fujiura, Glenn and Violet Rutkowski-Kmitta. "Counting Disability." Handbook of Disability Studies . Ed. Gary L. Albrecht, Katherine D. Seelman, and Michael Bury. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001. Pp. 69-96.

Goodman, Ellen. "Schiavo's Lesson for Us All ." Boston Globe, 31 March 31, 2005.

Johnson, Harriet McBryde. "The Disability Gulag." New York Times Magazine, 23 November 2003. Pp. 58-64.

_____. " Not Dead at All: Why Congress Was Right to Stick Up for Terri Schiavo." Slate, 23 March 23, 2005. Url: slate.msn.com/id/2115208/

Kleege, Georgina. "Call It Blindness." Sight Unseen. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. Pp. 9-42.

Lacey, Marc. "Freight on Board: Wheelchairs Deliver the Goods." The New York Times, 3 July 2002.

Lubet, Alex. "Tunes of Impairment: An Ethnomusicology of Disability." The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal 1.1, (2004). URL:

Lupton, Deborah. Medicine as Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body in Western Societies . London: Sage Publications, 1995. Pp: 5-19.

Mundell, E. J., "Schiavo Dilemma: Brain Death vs. Physical Life." HealthDay , 24 March 2005.

Omi, Shigeru. "Western Pacific." Critical Issues in Global Health. Ed. C. Everett Koop, Clarence E. Pearson and M. Roy Schwarz, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002. Pp. 46-55.

Quindlen, Anna. "The Culture of Each Life." Newsweek 4 April 2005. Url: www.msnbc.nsn.com/id/7305204/site/newsweek

Taylor, Steven J, "Betraying Terri Schiavo: Disability is Not a Reason to Die." The Standard, 25 May 25, 2004.

Thomas, Kenneth R. "Countertransference and Disability: Some Observations." Journal of Melanie Klein and Object Relations 15.1 (1997): 145-61.

Wendell, Susan. "The Social Construction of Disability." The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability . New York: Routledge, 1996. Pp. 35-56.

Whaley, Russell F., and Talal J. Hashim. "World Health Regions: An Introduction." A Textbook of World Health . New York: The Parthenon Publishing Group, 1995. Pp. 43-55.