Seminar in Composition: Disability Studies

Seminar in Composition: Disability Studies (ENGCMP 0213) will engage students in formal and informal writing that fosters critical thinking on the topic of disability. Drawing on theoretical writing in disability studies as well as creative and critical literature by writers with disabilities, the course will introduce students to ways of identifying and questioning certain sociocultural assumptions about ability, sensory experiences of the world, and mental as well as physical health. The nature of the writing assignments and writing processes will vary in order to recognize a diversity of abilities and ways of thinking. In exploring disability as a diversity issue, the course aims at intersectionality, a concept introduced in 1989 by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. Intersectionality is the recognition that none of us can be said to inhabit a single identity; for example, our racial identity is always complicated by our socioeconomic class, gender and sexuality, as well as by our identities as abled/disabled. Anyone may become disabled at any point in time, and according to the Center for Disease Control, 61 million Americans identify as disabled, so it’s safe to say that disability impacts every identity.