ENGL 717-01: Disability, Art, and Culture

Section Description:

In this dynamic practicum, we will explore the rich relationship between disability, art, and culture. Utilizing critical theory as well as case studies drawn from the literary, visual and performing arts, we will employ disability studies approaches to examining how disability challenges notions of culture. Rather than viewing disability as something art overcomes or therapizes, we will examine how cultural workers deploy disability as a lens, an identity, an aesthetic, and a form of discourse to interrogate notions of power, representation, art, ability, and more. We will also consider our own assumptions about ability and art, and work to transform the classroom community and beyond. Issues of access will be central. Art- and culture-making will be used as methods of criticism. Project-based learning and disability justice will form the core of our praxis, which we will collectively create.