Society for Disability Studies

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English 615: Disability Studies Prof. Elizabeth Wheeler
Graduate Theory Seminar Office: 238 PLC
University of Oregon,Winter 2006 346-3929
CRN25521
ewheeler@uoregon.edu
Thursdays 6-9 pm Office Hours: W 9:30-11,
Th 3:30-5
Disability Studies in the Humanities
This seminar offers a survey of disability studies theory since its inception in the 1990s. Disability studies is an emergent field, centered primarily in the humanities, which sees disability not through the lens of doctors or service providers but rather sees disability as an identity, a culture, and a political, social, and literary construct. Disability studies often models itself on earlier “identity studies” fields like ethnic studies and women’s studies, and this seminar will both explore and question disability studies’ relations to race theory and feminism. We will also connect disability studies to literary theory, film theory, environmental studies, queer theory, and philosophies of personhood.
Required Reading: Books
Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Literature and Culture. Columbia, 1997
Paul Longmore, Why I Burned My Book and other Essays on Disability. Temple, 2003 Eli Clare, Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. South End, 1999
Jim Ferris, The Hospital Poems. Main Street Rag, 2004.
Terry Trueman, Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, 2001
Required Reading: Articles on eReserve: Please see attached syllabus. Assignments:
Seminar Research Paper, 15-18 pages, due Tuesday March 21 by 4 pm. Please feel free to develop this seminar paper out of your own research interests. You may include sources from the course syllabus, but you must also do substantive independent research that brings in a bare minimum of two secondary sources of your own discovery. I also suggest that you think of this paper as a first draft of a conference paper or journal article in your field.
Every week: Reading Responses. Please bring for class discussion:
The thesis statement of the book or article for all secondary works.
Two discussion questions on different authors or different aspects of today’s reading.
From Week 4 (Feb 2) onwards: Check-ins. Starting this week, we’ll begin each class with a discussion of your last week’s detective work and thinking on the seminar paper, and where you’re headed for next week. I suggest you meet with me early in the term to discuss your ideas and sources.
Week 7 (March 2 ): Please bring in an example of a disability metaphor or a disability portrayal in literature.
Week 8 (March 9): Please bring in an example of a disability portrayal in film or TV. Seminar Paper Proposal: Due Week 7 (Feb 23), approx. 3 pages. This should include:
A description of your seminar paper topic, including 3 elements: a specific main question, an explanation why or for whom this question is important, and a “bold assertion” (“I will argue, claim, assert, etc., that...”)
A description of the independent research you have done and still intend to do.
A draft of the introductory paragraph of the paper.
An annotated bibliography that includes at least 2 secondary sources of your own discovery and a minimum of six entries total. You may include sources from the course bibliography if they are relevant. Start with a standard MLA bibliographic citation, then please use the following format to annotate the citation. The annotation for each book should be exactly four sentences long and must perform the tasks outlined below.
Name of author(s) and a rhetorically appropriate verb (“asserts,” “argues,” etc.); and a THAT clause containing the major assertion (thesis statement) of the work.
An explanation how the author develops and/or supports the thesis, usually in chronological order.
A statement of the author’s apparent purpose, followed by an “in order” phrase.
A description of the use you will make of this work in your seminar paper.

English 615: Disability Studies Prof. Elizabeth Wheeler
Graduate Theory Seminar Office: 238 PLC
University of Oregon,Winter 2006 346-3929
CRN25521
ewheeler@uoregon.edu
Thursdays 6-9 pm Office Hours: W 9:30-11,
Th 3:30-5
Disability Studies in the Humanities
This seminar offers a survey of disability studies theory since its inception in the 1990s. Disability studies is an emergent field, centered primarily in the humanities, which sees disability not through the lens of doctors or service providers but rather sees disability as an identity, a culture, and a political, social, and literary construct. Disability studies often models itself on earlier “identity studies” fields like ethnic studies and women’s studies, and this seminar will both explore and question disability studies’ relations to race theory and feminism. We will also connect disability studies to literary theory, film theory, environmental studies, queer theory, and philosophies of personhood.
Required Reading: Books
Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Literature and Culture. Columbia, 1997
Paul Longmore, Why I Burned My Book and other Essays on Disability. Temple, 2003 Eli Clare, Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. South End, 1999
Jim Ferris, The Hospital Poems. Main Street Rag, 2004.
Terry Trueman, Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, 2001
Required Reading: Articles on eReserve: Please see attached syllabus. Assignments:
Seminar Research Paper, 15-18 pages, due Tuesday March 21 by 4 pm. Please feel free to develop this seminar paper out of your own research interests. You may include sources from the course syllabus, but you must also do substantive independent research that brings in a bare minimum of two secondary sources of your own discovery. I also suggest that you think of this paper as a first draft of a conference paper or journal article in your field.
Every week: Reading Responses. Please bring for class discussion:
A) The thesis statement of the book or article for all secondary works.
B) Two discussion questions on different authors or different aspects of today’s reading.
From Week 4 (Feb 2) onwards: Check-ins. Starting this week, we’ll begin each class with a discussion of your last week’s detective work and thinking on the seminar paper, and where you’re headed for next week. I suggest you meet with me early in the term to discuss your ideas and sources.
Week 7 (March 2 ): Please bring in an example of a disability metaphor or a disability portrayal in literature.
Week 8 (March 9): Please bring in an example of a disability portrayal in film or TV. Seminar Paper Proposal: Due Week 7 (Feb 23), approx. 3 pages. This should include:
1. A description of your seminar paper topic, including 3 elements: a specific main question, an explanation why or for whom this question is important, and a “bold assertion” (“I will argue, claim, assert, etc., that...”)
2. A description of the independent research you have done and still intend to do.
3. A draft of the introductory paragraph of the paper.
4. An annotated bibliography that includes at least 2 secondary sources of your own discovery and a minimum of six entries total. You may include sources from the course bibliography if they are relevant. Start with a standard MLA bibliographic citation, then please use the following format to annotate the citation. The annotation for each book should be exactly four sentences long and must perform the tasks outlined below.
1. Name of author(s) and a rhetorically appropriate verb (“asserts,” “argues,” etc.); and a THAT clause containing the major assertion (thesis statement) of the work.
2. An explanation how the author develops and/or supports the thesis, usually in chronological order.
3. A statement of the author’s apparent purpose, followed by an “in order” phrase.
4. A description of the use you will make of this work in your seminar paper.