Course Modules

Module 1:

The Social & Medical Models of Disability

Key Concepts: Impairment, Disability, The Medical Model of Disability, The Social Model of Disability, Biological Sex, Deaf Culture, Elective Disability, Atavism, The Invention of the Intersex Diagnosis

Monday: Welcome to the Course Lecture

Due Monday: Nothing. Generally theoretical readings will be due on Monday mornings, but to make room for introductory content, this week’s theory, “The Social Model of Disability,” will be provided during Wednesday’s lecture)

Wednesday : Theory Lecture on the Social Model of Disability

• READ: “Defending Deaf Culture: The Case of Cochlear Implants” by Robert Sparrow, The Journal of Political Philosophy

• COMPLETE: Reading Quiz

• READ: Syllabus & Email J with Questions or Accommodation Paperwork if appropriate

Friday: Group Analysis of Discussion Board Case Study, “The XXY Supermale”

• WATCH: “The Way We Think About Biological Sex”

• WATCH: “The Weird History of Sex Chromosomes”

• SUBMIT: Module 1 Discussion Board Post

Module 2:

The Moralization of Health

Key Concepts: Fat Politics, Phrenology, Atavism, Cesare Lombroso, Adolphe Quetelet, L’homme Moyen, Muscular Christianaity, The Quetelet Index

Monday: No Class

• READ: “Introduction: Against Health, “Why Against Health” by Jonathan Metzl

• READ: “What is Health and How Do You Get it?” by Richard Klein, in Against Health

• READ: “On Obesity, Eating, and the Ambiguity of ‘Health’ by Lauren Berlant, in Against Health

• COMPLETE: Reading Quiz

Wednesday : Theory Lecture

• READ: The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI

Friday: Group Analysis of Discussion Board Case Study, “The Vitruvian Man”

• EXAMINE: The Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo DaVinci

• READ: “Visual Research Methods” by Marcus Banks

• READ: “The Terror Within: Obesity in Post 9/11 US Life,” by Charlotte Biltekoff

• SUBMIT: Module 2 Discussion Board Post

Module 3:

“Eating the Other” & Imperialist Nostalgia

Key Concepts: Eating the Other, Exoticism, Imperialist Nostalgia, Sarah Baartman, Georges Cuvier, The Trope of Black Edibility

Monday: Theory Lecture

• READ: “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” by bell hooks

• READ: “Introduction,” In Racial Indigestion, Eating Bodies in the 19th Century

• COMPLETE: Reading Quiz

Wednesday : Case Studies

• READ: “Ch 3: Everything ‘Cept Eat Us,” and “Ch 5: What’s De Use Talking ‘Bout Dem ‘Mendments” In Racial Indigestion, Eating Bodies in the 19th Century

Friday: Group Analysis of Discussion Board Case Study, Sarah Baartman & “The Couple in the Cage”

• WATCH: The Couple in the Cage

• SUBMIT: Module 3 Discussion Board Post

Module 4:

Spectacle & Enfreakment

Key Concepts: Enfreakment, Spectacle, Stigma, Erving Goffman, Misfitting, “Monstra,” Freak of Culture, “Steatopygia,” Speccimen, The American Freak Show, PT Barnum’s Circus, Julia Pastrana, Robert Wadlow, Joice Heth, Charles Tripp, “The Three Graces”

Module 5: Final Project Discussion & Method Review

Module 6:

Subjection

Key Concepts: Critical Analysis of Subjection, Judith Butler, Administrating Gender, Dean Spade

Module 7:

Biopower & Biopolitics

Key Concepts: Biopower, Biopolitics, the USDA, the FDA

Module 8:

Medical Social Control & Health Regulation

Key Concepts: Diagnostic Politics and the Pharmaceutical Industry, Medical Technology, Medical Collaboration, Medical Ideology, Peter Conrad, Medicalization

Module 9:

Complex Embodiment, Fertility, Disability & Eugenics

Key Concepts: Complex Embodiment, Identity Politics, Situated Knowledge, Social Construction

Module 10:

Cartesian Dualism & Mind Body Philosophies

Key Concepts: Cartesian Dualism, Mind-Body Connections, Affect, Performativity, Posthumanism, Discourse, Matter

Module 11: Draft Paper Week

Final Project Q&A, Demo Presentation, Draft Due Friday

Module 12: Peer Review Week