277 class blog: Intro to Disability Studies

Blog post #5: Individual Reflection

2010-06-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year... the one where things come to an end (cue sniffling).

Use this post to reflect on the process of collaborating on your final project, as well as where you see yourself now vs. where you saw yourself at the beginning of the quarter. How has your understanding of disability and disability studies changed (or not changed)?

Also, you might reflect on any of the questions from the final project assignment sheet. How did your group choose to approach the question What is disability studies? What theories or narratives did you include in your project? What challenges did you encounter in creating your project?

Blog post #4: Autism memoir

2010-05-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Use this post as an opportunity to reflect on, and respond to, the autism memoir that you've read. Do provide some brief background information for those who haven't read your book, but use most of your post to consider what this memoir has to say about disability, or what it contributes to the larger realm of Disability Studies. Some points you might consider in your response:

What does the writer want us to learn about autism/disability?
How are these stories different from (or similar to) the other personal stories about disability that we've encountered?
How might you tie this book back to the discussions we’ve been having in class? What did you get out of this book?

Blog carnivaling, part deux

2010-05-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

By now you've all posted your blog carnivals and maps -- and you've also had an opportunity to talk with several of your peers about their findings and ideas. But the carnival can't end until we take a moment to see what others have done for their final carnival posts.

Read one blog carnival entry -- preferably from someone who's draft you didn't read -- and with a partner or two, consider the following questions:

What can we learn from these individual bloggers/blog entries about disability?
What can we learn about personal narrative and lived experience?
What does this particular, themed carnival that you're reading (complete with map!) teach us?

Once you've discussed these questions, leave a comment for the person. You can do this as one big group comment (sign all of your names) or as separate, individual comments.

Blog carnivaling

2010-05-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

So, your final drafts of your blog carnivals are due by class one week from today: Monday, May 17.

I'd like you to submit your final versions via your blog. Create a new blog post, title it, make it pretty, etc. And also be sure to link back to the blog posts that you end up summarizing. You can do this by copying and pasting the URLs below or above your write-ups -- or you can do something fancy, like this, and link words in your text. Just make sure that we can all visit the original blogs somehow.

Finally: be sure to include your map somewhere in your carnival post.

A brief map of a blog carnival

Blog post #3: Multiple Perspectives

2010-04-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Wednesday's class is canceled, and we'll all be attending different sessions at the Multiple Perspectives conference this week. Please use this blog post to recap your experiences at the conference.

Which session(s) did you attend?
What was the session about, and what did you learn?
In what ways did the session overlap with our discussions and readings from class? (e.g., You might think about how our theoretical readings helped you to better understand or re-see the session. Or you might think about the personal narratives we've encountered -- the DALN videos, Brueggemann, Hershey, or Mossman.)

In-class writing, 4/19: Linton & Murderball

2010-04-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

During our brief class discussion of Murderball last week, someone raised an interesting question: Where does Simi Linton come in?

And so, fellow 277 people, I'd like you to muse on this question. Where does Linton fit into Murderball? (And, okay, okay: you can also talk about where you feel Linton doesn't fit in.)

It might help to think about a variety of themes and social structures here, many of which you referenced Wednesday: think personally/individually, culturally, socially, medically, politically, historically. It might (or might not!) even help to think about the Laura Hershey piece you read for today, a political and personal narrative.

Finally: comment on someone else's post, preferably a blog you haven't commented on before. What themes are they noticing? How Lintonesque (new word!) do they feel Murderball is or isn't?

Class notes from 4/14

Blog post #2: The gaze

2010-04-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Disability aesthetics refuses to recognize the representation of the healthy body— and its definition of harmony, integrity, and beauty—as the sole determination of the aesthetic. It is not a matter of representing the exclusion of disability from aesthetic history, since such an exclusion has not taken place, but of making the influence of disability obvious.

-- Tobin Siebers, p. 64, "Disability Aesthetics"

So, here's the deal: I'd like you to find a visual artifact (e.g., a newspaper photo, an advertisement, a youtube video, a book cover) that deals with disability in some way and analyze it using the frameworks provided by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and Tobin Siebers, respectively. (Also: Either embed your image/artifact, or provide us with a link or description.)

Consider the following in your analysis: What disability rhetorics (wondrous, exotic, sentimental, realist) do you see? What are the implications of these rhetorics? That is, who are they meant to persuade, and in what ways do they, as Lennard Davis might suggest, enforce normalcy? And finally, what might Sieber say? Do you notice a disability aesthetic at work? Why and how?

In-class activity, 4/5 (continued on 4/7)

2010-04-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

We've started out this class by making quite a few lists! Now comes the time to apply those ideas to other texts, using the concepts we've gathered from our discussions and our readings (Davis, Linton) as a theoretical lens.

Take a look at the GRASP and Generation Rescue ads listed on our Carmen site (thumbnails below), and consider the following:

What ideological differences strike you most?
Who is represented in these ads? Who is representing? (Agency)
What do you notice about the visuals? In what ways are they trying to persuade you or win you over?
What might Davis have to say about these ads? Linton?

Write a brief response in your blog -- nothing fancy, but enough to get your mind gears turning. Once you've posted, direct your attention to one or more of your classmates' blogs. If time permits, leave a comment. Are you observing similar patterns?

Blog post #1: Models of disability

2010-03-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

Due: before class on Monday, 4/5

We've already introduced ourselves to one another in class, but since we have a lot of people, let's do this one more time! For this post, please...

1) Tell us who you are. What's your major? What are your interests (academic and non)? Why are you taking intro to disability studies, and what do you hope to gain from this class?

2) Talk about the reading that's due for class on Monday: Shakespeare, Linton, and the Barbie doll models of disability. How do these texts position (or define) disability? In what ways do they (or don't they) line up with your own experiences with or understandings of disability?

Introductory post

2010-03-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to ENG 277: Intro to Disability Studies! This term, we'll work to develop an understanding of disability as a complex and crucial part of the world and of human experience. As we press forward, we'll continually revisit the following questions:

What is disability? What does it mean to be a person with disabilities? Who gets to decide?
What is disability culture(s)?
What is normalcy? In what ways do we enact normalcy in our everyday lives?
In what ways do enact -- or subscribe to -- various models of disability in our everyday lives?
What does it mean to be "accessible"?

We'll be using our own blogs to hash out some of these things. Think of your own blog as a space to work through some of the issues we encounter as the quarter presses on.