SOAN 215 - Anthropology of Disability

FDR: SS4
Credits: 3

To what extent is disability culturally defined? How do understandings of being “dis-” or “differently” abled vary across time and space? In what ways is impairment “not simply lodged in the body, but created by the social and material conditions that ‘dis-able’ the full participation of those considered atypical” (Ginsburg and Rapp)? This course explores these issues through a trio of lenses: Virginia (c. 1830-1980); the contemporary United States; and case studies from diverse cultures around the world. Virginia offers powerful insight into cultural constructions of disability because it was an epicenter of the eugenics movement. How are perceptions of disability currently changing in the United States and abroad? How do people around the world conceptualize relationships between different abilities, race, gender, sexuality, and spirituality? Bell.