Professor Sara D. Schotland spring 2012 schotlan@umd.edu
Tues. 2-4:30 pm
Syllabus
HONR 268W The Body Perfect and Imperfect: Disability Studies through Stories,
Law, and Social Policy
Welcome! This course explores disability from an interdisciplinary perspective: literature, first-person accounts, disability rights “theory,” and legal framework. Texts include
“classics,” personal narratives by individuals who have disabilities or family members, and articles by disability rights scholars or activists. We integrate film study with our readings to critically examine how pop culture stereotypes of disability (the “poster child” phenomenon.)
Our classes are enhanced by the participation of guest speakers.
We begin the course with a cluster of related topics: What is Disability? Why do definitions matter? How is disability socially constructed? How did the disability rights movement evolve? We will then turn to readings that explain the special perspectives that arise for women and African-Americans who have physical or functional impairments. We explore challenges for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, psychiatric disorders, deafness and/or blindness. Through case studies, we examine the difficult choices made by parents of children with disabilities and their advocacy efforts to access funding and resources to meet their children’s needs. We also consider the intersection between disability and aging, focusing on
Alzheimer’s as an example.
All readings are on ELMS so students do not need to purchase a text for this course.
Goals of the Course
Students will:

Explore competing definitions of disability and appreciate how differences in definition shape agendas for advocacy.

Identify and critically discuss the ways in which classical literature, movies, and other forms of pop culture create myths and stereotypes about individuals with disabilities.

Understand the intersections between disability, gender, and ethnicity and appreciate the special perspectives arising from feminist and/or race identification.
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Understand the key debates now occurring within the disability community concerning educational initiatives, social policy, and legal reform.
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Understand the legal rights of individuals with disabilities and their families and learn about efforts by groups who are now at the margins of legal protections to obtain coverage under the ADA.
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Explore the intersection between disability and aging.
Topics
1.
1/31 Introduction to Disability Studies

Schotland 2 o Shapiro, Joseph P. “Tiny Tims, Super Crips, and the End of Pity.” No Pity:
People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. New York: New
York Times Books, 1993. 12-40. o Davis, Lennard. “Constructing Normalcy: The Bell Curve, the Novel, and the
Invention of the Disabled in the Nineteenth Century.” Enforcing Normalcy. Ed.
Lennard J. Davis. New York: Routledge, 1997. 9-29. o Linton, Simi. “Reclamation,” “Reassigning Meaning,” and “Disability Not
Disability,” Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York: NYU P,
1998. 1-33. o Council for Exceptional Children resources o Film in class: “Vital Signs, Crip Culture Talks Back,” begin.
2. 2/7: Looking at the Body o Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia UP, 1997. 5-32. o Grealy, Lucy. “Mirrors,” Chapter 12. Autobiography of a Face. New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 1994. 205-24. o Mairs, Nancy. Waist High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1997. 40-64. o Watch in advance of class (re Survivor episodes with individual with prosthetic limbs; Britain’s Missing Model) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp1eKNy_s-M&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e19q96B6uJg http://www.google.com/search?q=britain%27s+top+missing+model&sourceid=ie
7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe= o In class: discussion on allocation of dollars to individuals with disability—how would you allocate limited social service funds? o Film in class: “Vital Sings: Crip Culture Talks Back, continued”
3. 2/14: Disability and Gender o Wendell, Susan. “Towards a Feminist Theory of Disability.” Hypatia 4.2 (1989):
104-24. o Hartley, Cecilia. “Letting Ourselves Go: Making Room for the Fat Body in
Feminist Scholarship.” Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression. Eds.
Jane Evans Braziel and Kathleen LeBesco. Berkeley: U of Cal Press, 2001. 60-69. o O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People” (1955). http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/oconnorgoodcountry.html
o Film in class: “Murderball”

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4. 2/21: Disability and Hollywood o Norden, Martin F. “Tiny Tim on Screen, A Disability Studies Perspective.”
Dickens on Screen. Ed. John Glavin. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2003.
188-200. o Film in class: “A Christmas Carol” o Film in class: “The Glass Menagerie”
5. 2/28: Blindness o FIRST SHORT ESSAY DUE o Kleege, Georgina. “Call it Blindness.” Sight Unseen. New Haven: Yale UP, 1999.
9-43. http://www.disabilityculture.org/course/kleege.htm
. o Ved Mehta: narrative of his experience as blind Indian child o In advance of class: Mr. Magoo “Surprise Party” cartoon You Tube o Summary of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) http://library.med.utah.edu/tommy/idea/intro.html
o In class: Discussion of first essays o Film in class: “Ir a la Escuela”
6. 3/6: Deafness: Personal Narratives and the Cochlear Implant Debate o Breuggemann, Brenda Jo. “Almost Passing.” College English 59.6 (1997): 647-
60. o Rowley, Amy. “Revisiting Rowley: A Personal Narrative,” 37 J. Law & Edu. 311
(2008) o Watch in advance of class
 Gallaudet University’s “Deaf President Now” Protest (1988): http://pr.gallaudet.edu/dpn/index3.html
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNl91QXws7o (excerpt from Glee TV show about deaf choir)

You Tube-selections on what it feels like to hear with Cochlear implant and reactions by child and adult who receive Cochlear implants o Film in class: “Sound and Fury.”
7. 3/13: Down’s Syndrome and Intellectual Disability; Prenatal Testing o Berube, Michael. Life as We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional
Child. New York: Pantheon Books, 1996. ix-xix, 47-115. o Ferguson, Philip. “The Social Construction of Mental Retardation.” Social Policy.
1987 (ELMS) o Watch in advance of class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl1AWT1_pY8 Downs retard

Schotland 4 o Asch, Adrienne. “Genes and Stability: Defining Health and the Goals of
Medicine: Disability Equality and Prenatal Testing: Contradictory or
Compatible.” 30 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 315 (2003). o Film in class: “Educating Peter”
SPRING BREAK: 3/20
8. 3/27: Autism Spectrum Disorder o SECOND SHORT ESSAY DUE o Watch “My Language” in advance of class s on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc o Tammet, Daniel. Born on a Blue Day. New York: Free Press, 2006. 1-28, 47-91. o Barron, Judy and Sean Barron. There’s a Boy in Here: Emerging from the Bonds of Autism. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2002. 82-115. o In class: Discussion of second essay o Film in class: “A Mother’s Courage”
9. 4/3: Psychological Disorders and the Deinstitutionalization Debate o Nicki, Andrea. “The Abused Mind: Feminist Theory, Psychiatric Disability and
Trauma.” Hypatia 16.4 (2001): 80-104. o Gilman, Charlote Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2274/ o Danquah, Meri Nana-Ama. “From Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s
Journey Through Depression.” Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women. New York: Norton, 2003. 32-43. o In class: Guest Speaker describing son’s experience with biopolar disorder o Film in class: “Asylum: A History of the Mental Institution in America.”
10. 4/10: Paraplegia o ABSTRACT FOR FINAL PAPER OR PROJECT DUE o Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” (ELMS) o In advance of class: Re-Walk Powerpoint on “walking device” for paraplegics
(ELMS) o In class: Guest Lecture: the Parlympics
11. 4/17: Caregiving Models

Schotland 5 o Kittay, Eva. “Not My Way Sesha, Your Way Slowly: A Personal Narrative.”
Love’s Labor: Essays on Women, Equality and Dependency. New York:
Routledge, 1999. 147-62. o Gottlieb, Roger. “The Tasks of Embodied Love: Moral Problems in Caring for
Children.” Hypatia 17.3 (2002): 225-36. o Kittay, Eva. “Love’s Labor Revisited.” Hypatia 17.3 (2002): 237-50. o Murphy, Robert. The Body Silent. New York: Norton, 2001. Chapter 8. o Film in class: “Voices in a Deaf Theater”
12. 4/24: Disability and aging: Is aging a disability? Should there be a right to die? o Alzheimer’s Disease. A selected list of personal narratives ...
www.alz.org/national/documents/PersNar_RL2007.doc
o Bouvia v. Superior Court of California, http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/63073 o Eudora Welty, “Worn Path,” http://www.monstar.com/~acpjr/Blackboard/Common/Stories/WornPath.html
o Eudora Welty, "A Visit of Charity." Literature and Aging. Eds. Martin Kohn et al.
331-335. o Film in class: “Inside Looking Out” (on Alzheimer’s)
12. 5/1: The Americans with Disabilities Act o U.S. EEOC Americans with Disabilities Act Questions and Answers http://www.ada.gov/q%26aeng02.htm o In class: Begin Presentations of Final Papers or Projects
13. 5/8 Student Presentation of their Final Projects or Papers Continued
FINAL PAPERS DUE MAY 8
Class Meeting Times
Tuesdays 2-430pm
Assignments
Students are expected to attend class regularly and will be graded in part on the quality of class participation.
Students are asked to prepare (a) two short essays (four double spaced pages) AND (b) a final term paper of twelve-fifteen pages or a project. The final paper and or project will be due at the end of the course. The project can involve public service, working at a nursing home or in a special education setting, or other related endeavors. Joint projects are encouraged.
Grades will be determined as follows: 40% final paper or project, 20% class participation, 40% essays (20% each).

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Office Hours
Please arrange an appointment by email: schotlan@umd.edu
.
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Required Texts/Materials
The texts (articles and book chapters) are available on ELMS Blackboard /electronic course reserves.

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