Anthropology
3080 6.0A MODES OF ENABLEMENT 2003-04
Sept,
2003
INSTRUCTOR:
Gerald L. Gold, 321 Calumet College. Office hours (Fall term-to be
announced)
Available Tuesday 1/2 hr. before
class [if possible] and by
special appointment. Please do
not contact me by e-mail or submit assignments using the Internet. If necessary, course materials can be
left in the Calumet College office, please do not leave these in the
anthropology department!
Is disability an individual phenomenon which can be best understood through medical interpretation of a damaged body, or is disability best interpreted through a social model of disablement or illness? How do we interpret disability as a socially constructed condition or category, best understood in terms of the cultural and social order?
What is understood by referring to the 'invention' of disability” and the triumph of scientific explanation?
How does the 'medical model' do what we will refer to as 'Northern cultures?' Understanding this process initially involves understanding the emergence of the medical model and its application to the functioning of the body in the 18th and 19th centuries.
These are
several issues which become the focus of Fall term. This focus on the general
characteristics of persons with disabilities is the theme for Fall term
while Winter term focuses on the recent emergence of disability cultures
some of which cross disability barriers. In Winter term, the course will
initially focus on selective and distinctive disability cultures, including
deafness, blindness and spinal cord injury.
We return to cross-disability issues in the final 6 weeks of Winter term which introduces the topics of independent living, personal attendant services, disability advocacy, sociopolitical aspects of disability, and disability and architecture.
In writing essays lecture materials are about equal in importance to reading materials, they often require critical interpretation!. Perhaps more than readings, these should be approached with a critical or skeptical attitude.
There is one essay each term. Your class presentation must deal with issues relating to your essay for that term. The first essay must deal with cross-disability issues and include at least half of its source material from outside the required readings. The second essay should focus on aspects of a disability, incorporating even more outside research. That Is, second term is more suitable for individual and original research.
Students should prepare a detailed outline BEFORE coming to see me at a prearranged time during office hours. ALL essays must be topics which have been discussed and approved by the instructor after submitting an essay outline and discussing this in sufficient detail.
A literature search should cite and meaningfully use at least 6-10 sources which are not in required readings. It is often necessary to cite required readings (IN ADDITION to these sources.) Quality essays usually do not avoid required readings but use these as building blocks for further research.
I am willing to discuss essays if they are presented to me at least 2 weeks before the due date of the paper. Essays must include proper social science or humanities references and cannot be combined with work for other courses. Essays should be individual projects.
There are several ways to do literature searches including the CD ROMs in the library at the York site on the web. Make sure that you reference all information you obtain on the Web using proper URL Citation formats. I will circulate examples of these formats.
Essays must
not exceed 1,250 words or be less than 1000 words. This does not include all your
references. As a rule or guideline,
your essays should not be greater than or smaller than 6 to 7
pages, it should be typed and double-spaced.
****Please note that your name, the title of the essay and the page
number MUST appear on every page.
Students who have taken DISABLING LIVES [anthropology 3000G.03]
should not take this course without permission of the instructor. [For these students there will be a
substitution for the reading by Robert Murphy,, The Body Silent, to Albert
Robillard, The Meaning of Disability: the Perceived Experience of
Paralysis..]
URL locations as specified on this reading list.
§These readings are either available from instructor or available at the University Bookstore. Some readings are also available on the Web.
Davis, Lennard J, The Disability Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Barnes, Colin, Geof Mercer and Tom Shakespeare. Exploring Disability A Sociological
Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press,1999. .
Gold, Gerald. 2004 in press. Whatever it Takes: Virtual support groups for auto-immune disabilities.
Murphy, Robert The Body Silent. New York: WW Norton. 1990. (Also Penguin:2002)
Ingstad, Benedictine and Beatrice Whyte. Disability and Culture. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1997.
A
Summary of Course Requirements:
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Fall presentation based on Essay . Begin Oct. 14, 2003 |
10% |
|
Fall essay: Culture of disability (must be an instructor-approved topic). Due Nov. 11, 2003 |
20% |
|
Take-home fall test. Due Nov. 25, 2003 |
15% |
|
Winter presentation based on Essay. Begin Feb. 24, 2004 |
10% |
|
Winter essay- Disability Cultures (approved topic). Due March 16, 2004 |
20% |
|
Take-home Winter test based on all required readings, lectures and all student presentation Due March 30, 2004
|
15% |
|
Class participation: questions comments and attendance |
10% |
|
|
|
|
|
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What should be included in your essays?
Essay topics are intended to make you use ALL course materials, emphasizing those selected for your essay research. Note that essays must incorporate independent research and must include at least SIX references used in a meaningful way from sources other than required readings. Do not forget these reading are your primary source of materials and they may be used (as required) in constructing your essays. If you intend to use interview material, discuss this with me, in detail, BEFORE proceeding with your essay (research often involves significant ethical questions.)
Essay sources must emphasize primarily social science materials
and many or all of these should be periodical publications. To use
periodical publications, you may wish to use search tools available at the
Library, or on-line, using library based search engines like the one for social science or
sociology and the one for psychology literature [useful for old social science
research.]. Many references are included in the bibliography of texts and
readings in your required and recommended readings.
Remember that essays should be no more than six pages or 1250 words, typed and double spaced, followed by a full list of references in an acceptable citation style [e.g., anthropological or APA].
DISABILITY CULTURE
1. Sept. 9
The social as opposed to illness or medical models of disability;
object and requirements of this course
A discussion of course objectives, tests and papers, required readings, films and other resources without booklet. Course participants must read materials for the next week's class before that class!
2. Sept.
16
Disability in history
Davis 9-28 Constructing normalcy, ”The Bell curve, the novel, and the invention of the disabled body in the 19th century.” (Davis).
Davis 75-109 “Disability and society before the 18th century: bread and despair.” (Winzer)
:
Individual and social
models of disability
Barnes Chapter 1-2 historical approaches and models of disability
Damaged bodies and damaged selves
3. Sept. 23
Murphy 1-84 “In the Beginning -- Signs and Symptoms, The road to entropy, The return”
[substitution to be announced for students who have taken or currently enrolled in anthropology 3000G.]
4. Sept. 30
Murphy 85-111 "The Damaged Self"
Barnes chapter 3 Sociological approaches to Disability
Murphy 112-136 “Encounters”
Barnes chapter 4 Enter Disability Theory
5. Oct.
7
Ingstad and Whyte (3-38) “Disability and culture, Introduction, Personhood”
Barnes chapter 5 Disabling Barriers
6.
Oct. 14 Presentations
begin
Disabled identities and disability culture
Vital Signs: Crip Culture Fights Back (film)
Murphy 111-135
Barnes chapter 6 Social Policy and Disabled People
Ingstad and Whyte (73 –106)
[these Web references should be examined and supplement readings]
C Marfisi (2004)
"Disability culture: what's the purpose?" Politics and Culture 2003, issue
2,
http://aspen.conncoll.edu/politicsandculture/page.cfmy=237
Carolyn Tyjewski, "Hybrid Matters: The Mixing
of Identity, the Law and
Politics" _Politics and Culture_ 2003, issue 3.
http://aspen.conncoll.edu/Politics and
Culture
7. Oct. 21
Gender and disability
Barnes chapter 7 Politics and Disability Politics
Film - Beyond Intimacy
8. Oct. 28
Davis 241-259 (Asch and
Fine)”Nuturance, Sexuality and Women with Disabilities” Freak shows and the
grotesque body
Davis 279-294 (Thomson) “Feminist theory, the body, and the Disabled Figure”
Film -- Freak Show
9. Nov. 4
Disability in literature and film: images of disability
Davis 332-347 (Hevey) The enfreakment of disability
Barnes chapter 8 Culture, Leisure and the Media
10. Nov. 11 Essay Due
Barnes chapter 9 Advancing the
Sociology of Disability
Davis 172-186, (Hahn) “Advertising the acceptably employable image.”
Davis 366-382 (Uprety) Disability and postcoloniality in Salman Rushdie's ...
Barnes: 98-150 (disability theory and independent living) will write one character
11. Nov.
18
Metaphors and narratives of disability (examples of people with
multiple sclerosis)
Ingstad and Whyte 107-136 “Being Ill and Being me. Self, Body and Time in Multiple Sclerosis Narratives.”.
Film -- Lorenzo's Oil
12. Nov. 25
Take-home test must be submitted in class, on the last day of class,
term 2003.
The class must be completely attended.
Important -- Do not
submit tests without attending and participating in last class,
Winter term 2003 DISABILITY CULTURES AND ADVOCACY
Support groups and Medicalization
Anthropologists working with
Disability
Virtual Disability: a different perspective on the isolation and marginality of the disabled.
Gold: Whatever It Takes! Virtual Support Communities. [Introduction, chapter 1, chapter 2
Gold: Whatever It Takes! Virtual Support Communities. Chapter 3
3 &4. Jan. 20 & 27
Deaf Culture
Film --
Children of a Lesser God
Davis 153-171 (Lane) "Constructions of Deafness. "
Davis 52-75 (Nelson and Berens) “Spoken daggers, deaf years and silent mouths”
5. Feb. 3
Blindness as Disability
Ingstad and Whyte 159-173 "Sighted Lovers and Blind Husbands: Experiences of Blind Women in Uganda."
6. Feb. 10
Assistive devices and rehabilitation
The social construction of
accessibility
Ingstad and Whyte
174-196,” Public Discourses and Rehabilitation: from
Norway to Botswana"
film: Wired for Life (Nature of Things)
READING WEEK Feb 17
7. Feb. 24 Presentations
begin
Independent living and disability activism
Murphy 135-231 “ON LIVING”
Ingstad and Whyte
246-263 ... Gift from God: Perspectives on
“Attitudes” toward Disabled Persons
8. March 2
Disability and architecture: making accessible space
test lecture possibly by Paul
Martel, architect
[materials will be circulated by the instructor but see also Barnes]
9. March 9
AIDS as a disability
Davis 122-140 (Sontag) “AIDS and its metaphors.”
( Bresalier et.al. Making Care Visible optional reading)
film "And the Band Played on"
10. March 16 Presentations
Due
11. March
23
12
March
30
Take Home Test
Due
Second term test MUST be
submitted on or before this day .
ALL COURSEWORK MUST BE
SUBMITTED BEFORE APRIL 6 in sealed envelopes in the Calumet College office. Please do not send any work by e-mail as
this can be easily lost.
Thank you -- I would be pleased to recommend related courses or write
references, if requested several weeks before their submission date. Some students have been able to get
related employment or enter related graduate programs in Disability. York University has a new program in
Critical Disability Studies.
Another Local Program Is at Ryerson University.