Religion and Disability

Catalog description

What is disability and how is it constructed? What have the major world religions, on their own and in conversation, decided is 'normal' and what they have decided is 'other?' How do they view and treat those individuals/groups they have deemed disabled? How do people with disabilities create their own meaning within and beyond their own religion? This course will investigate the nature of disability in five of the world's religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam). While we will become familiar with how disability intersects with and across each of these religions, the heart of this course will be deep explorations of specific case studies as well as personal reflections on the students' and others' intersectional identities in the context of various communities.