2015 Schedule

Schedule of Material  [Subject to shift as semester happens.]

August 25: Dis-orientation (Reading in class p. 38-41 Harriett McBryde Johnson’s Accidents of Nature and Emily Ladau’s “The Complexities of Curing Disability” and watch Stella Young’s TEDx Talk)

August 27th: Introduction: Judith Butler’s walk with Sanaura Taylor and Silvia Yee’s “People With Disabilities Should Not Be Defined by Technologies They Do or Don’t Use” and Last Chapter from Harriet McBryde Johnson’s Too Late to Die Young

September 1: Infrastructure: Bess Williamson’s “Electric Moms and Quad Drivers” and Corbett O’Toole’s Fading Scars Chapter 9 “From Berkeley to Beijing”

September 3: ADA : ADA Title II Primer + Classroom Visit by VT ADA Coordinator Pamela Vickers

//Sept 4: I’m speaking on  “New Legs and Old Skills”at 1pm  as part of the STS departmental seminar series. Students are welcome.

Sept 8: Class Expedition with VT ADA Specialist Mike Kutnak + Reading from Kim E. Nielsen’s Chapter 8 “I Guess I’m an Activist. I think It’s Just Caring: Rights and Rights Denied, 1968-” (From A Disability History of the United States)

Sept 10: Environment and Infrastructure: Zofran Istan’s “In the Transhumanist Age, We Should Be Repairing Sidewalks, not Disabilities” and Replies to the Istan article: “When Celebrating Accessible Technology Reinforces Ableism” and “The Hidden Burden of Exoskeletons for the Disabled”.  Adventure Plans Due

Sept 15: [Mike is coming back to check our measurements, so this will take the beginning portion of class.] Closed Captioning:  Mental Floss’s “A Brief History of Closed Captioning” and NCI’s short “History of Closed Captioning” and Brenda Brueggemann’s “On (Almost) Passing” (From the Disability Studies Reader)

Sept 17:  Hearing Aids: R.A.R. Edwards: ‘Hearing Aids are Not Deaf’: A Historical Perspective on Technology in the Deaf World (From the Disability Studies Reader) and Harlan Lane’s “Construction of Deafness”

Sept 22: Film:  Sound & Fury will be watched in class.

Sept 24: Invisible Disability: Ellen Samuels’ “My Body, My Closet” + Guest visitor Ellen Samuels

//Dr. Samuels is also a guest lecturer on September 25th at 3pm on the Topic “Will the Real Disabled Person Please Stand Up, or, What’s Wrong with this Picture?” Students are encouraged to attend. The lecture will be in SURGE 104A. 

Sept 29:  Technology & Concealment: Rosemarie Garland-Thompson’s Staring Chapter 9 “Hands” and Daniel J. Wilson’s “Passing in the Shadow of FDR” (From Disability and Passing)

Oct 1: Classroom Expedition to the Assistive Tech Lab, Guided by Christa Miller + “People With Disabilities Are Still an Afterthought in Tech Design”

Oct 6: Assistive Tech & Universal Design for Learning: Universal Design in Learning and Jenifer Simpson’s “Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies”

Oct 8: Apps for Assistance: Rachel Adams’s Raising Henry “Finding a Voice” and “7 Best Apps” article about variety of apps for disabilities and Haben Girma’s “Designing Technologies for Disabilities”

Oct 13: Joshua Earle lectures on the History of Eugenics

Oct 15: Selection & Disability:  Harriett McBryde Johnson’s “Unspeakable Conversations” and  Ruth Hubbard’s “Abortion and Disability: Who Should and Should Not Inhabit the World?” (DS Reader); Paper Topics or Proposals Due

Oct 20: Genes: James C. Wilson’s “Disability and the Human Genome (from DS Reader) and Rachel Adams’s Raising Henry “Choices”

Oct 22   Genetic Diagnostics: “Down Syndrome screening isn’t about public health”  and Chris Kaposky’s “Do We Really Need An Even Better Screening Test for Down Syndrome?”

Oct 27:  Computerized Speech and Voices: Carl Elliott’s “The Perfect Voice” (from Better Than Well) and recent news release about Hawking voice open software

Oct 29: Film: Murderball (apologies: the trailer is poorly captioned, but captioning will be better for the actual movie!)

//October 30: Dr. Rachel Adams will be a guest lecturer on Oct 30 at 3pm on the topic of “From Freaks to Disability Studies: A Conversion Narrative.” Students are encouraged to attend. The talk will take place in SURGE 104A

Nov 3: Sports & Disability: Classroom Guest, Graduate School Dean Dr. Karen DePauw and read  Karen DePauw’s “(In)visibility in Disability” and read Corbett O’Toole’s Fading Scars Chapter 7 “Court Crips”

Nov 5: Prosthetics: Serlin chapter from from Artificial Parts, Practical Lives and  Catherine Campbell’s “Giving up a 3-D Printed Prosthetic for a Different Vision of Perfect” and Rosemarie Garland-Thompson’s “Hands” from her Staring book.

Nov 10: Fake Feet: Raman Srinivasan’s “Technology Sits Cross-Legged” (From Artificial Parts, Practical Lives) and

Nov 12: Film: Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement

Nov 17: John Hockenberry’s Moving Violations Chao 16 “The Point of No Comment” + Teleconference with Mallory Kay Nelson on the topic of images of technologies in disability

Nov 19: Broad Discussion Day: Mara Mills’ “Technology” (From Keywords) and Rosemarie Garland-Thompson’s “The Case for Conserving Disability” or “Eugenics”

Week of Break – No Class

Dec 1: Undergraduate Presentation Day

Dec 3: Graduate Presentation Day

Dec 8: Graduate Presentation Day

//There will likely be another disability studies oriented lecture during April 2016 from Dr. Rosemarie Garland-Thompson, so please remind me to announce that before the semester is out.