Disability: History and Theory

Catalog description

Disability is the "next academic frontier," argues historian Douglas Baynton, "an analytic category with the transformative potential of race, class, sexuality, and gender." The purpose of this course will be explore recent literature on the history and theory of disability, focusing primarily on the history of physical disability. Throughout the semester, we will approach this literature with an eye to how disability studies relates to the fields of the history of science, medicine, and technology. Topics will include: the sociology of deviance, the medical vs. social model of disability, chronic illness and disease, genetics and disability, the role of disability in health care policy, as well as the politics of design and assistive technologies.