3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

People-crippled or not-wince at the word ‘crippled’ as they do not at ‘handicapped’ or ‘disabled.’ Perhaps I want them to wince.”-Nancy Mairs How do disabled people seek out justice when traditional legal and activist attempts at realizing it so often exclude us? If we consider how ableism and disability relate to other forms of oppression and identity can we imagine justice differently? Since we know that studying how to write helps us to communicate our ideas and points of view effectively, this writing-intensive course asks how writing might help us to explore these questions and articulate new, freer futures. Beginning with a unit on academic writing, the course will ask students to critically respond to writings in the emerging field of disability justice by members of the Disability Justice Collective who coined the term.Class discussions and projects involving on-campus interactions will help students explore the idea of disability-conscious rhetoric intended to be used on the first paper assignment. Unit 2 will consider further applications and contexts for disability justice by considering writings such as Brenda Brueggemann's Deaf Subjects:Between Identities and Places and Melanie Yergeau's Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness, which ask what writing looks like for d/Deaf people who sign ASL but write in English or for neurodivergent people who are nonspeaking but are rhetorical in innovative ways. For the second paper assignment, students will be asked to consider an audience beyond a traditional academic one, perhaps a group or community on campus. The final unit of the course will continue our focus on campus life and engagement. Through readings including Jay Dolmage's Academic Ableism and Margaret Price's Mad at School we will consider the history and future of activism and its close relationship to the disciplines of rhetoric and writing. All readings are subject to change. No prior knowledge of disability studies is required.