DST-712 Enforcing Normalcy:Deaf and Disability Studies

Course Overview

This class will explore the historical, medical, social, political, philosophical, and cultural influences that have constructed the categories of ”normalcy”, ”disability” and ”deafness”. Building on the writing of Michel Foucault and critical work in the field of disability studies, this course will inquire into the institutions that have enforced standards of normalcy, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the present. Primary attention will be paid to the rise of medical authority in the West, the history of eugenics, and contemporary bioethical issues confronting disability and deaf communities.