Message about continuing use of masks:

Masks are very highly recommended for all students, faculty, staff, and other members of the Disability Studies community who attend in-person class meetings, office hours, and in-person events and activities. Continuing the use of masks will help to protect everyone in our learning spaces and workplaces, especially at this time when there are fewer COVID safety precautions on and off campus.

Please read the full Disability Studies Program statement on COVID-19 precautions here.

SUMMER 2023

  • DIS ST/ LSJ / CHID 332 B (SLN 11110) Disability and Society: Access & Inclusion in Outdoor Recreation, Instructor: Jason Naranjo, Summer Full Term, dates of instruction TBD, hybrid learning [fulfills Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity]
    • This course is designed to provide you with an opportunity to apply learning from the field of Disability Studies in the community with people with disability. Through use of service-learning, academic texts, and contemporary media we will explore the following areas of study: a) access & barriers to inclusive play and recreation, b) allyship and social change, and c) the importance of outdoor play and recreation across the lifespan. This course will be taught through a partnership with the Outdoors for All Foundation: https://outdoorsforall.org/
    • Hybrid & Service Learning course delivery plan:
      • In person class meetings will be organized around service learning in the community. This course requires you to be at parks and other outdoor recreation spaces in Seattle for five to seven days spread June 20th–August 18th. You will choose from a range of instructional and support roles across a variety of summer recreational activities including but not limited to day camps, rock climbing, paddle sports, and cycling. Days and times of service-learning in the community will depend on the recreational activities that you choose to support.. Opportunities for both day and evening participation will be available Monday–Friday with some opportunity for weekends. Online seminar meetings will happen from 12pm-2pm on 06.23, 07.21, & 08.04. 
  • DIS ST / HSTCMP 402 & 502 Topics in Disability History, Instructor: Joanne Woiak, Summer A-Term, hybrid learning. Topic: Devices & Designs: Histories of (In)Accessible America [fulfills Subfield B Historical & Global, and Disability Studies Graduate Certificate elective]
    • Canvas syllabus: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1643330
    • Hybrid learning course delivery plan:
      • Mondays: asynchronous lectures, podcasts & webinars
      • Tuesdays: class meets on Zoom, 1:50-4:00pm
      • Wednesdays: class meets both in the on-campus classroom and on Zoom, 1:50pm - 4:00pm
      • Thursdays: class meets both in the on-campus classroom and on Zoom, 1:50pm - 4:00pm
      • NOTE: This course can be completed online and asynchronously. All materials will be available for asynchronous access.
    • Course description: This course seeks to bring disability into the center of historical inquiry, engaging with topics and themes in the histories of disability in the United States from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Topics this Summer will focus on disability activist movements, histories of medicine and technology in the lives of disabled and D/deaf people, design, material culture, and accessibility. Required readings will be: Jaipreet Virdi, Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History (2020); Bess Williamson, Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design (2019).  The course content will be offered in a variety of modalities in order to provide as much flexibility and accessibility as possible. Some class sessions will meet in person with synchronous remote access, and some will meet on Zoom only. All classes will be recorded and all class materials will be available for asynchronous access. There will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options. My goal is to support you this summer in engaging with the course material while navigating hybrid learning. Students will participate in synchronous or asynchronous discussions, write short responses to the readings, films, and podcasts, and complete a final paper of 4-5 pages or a project in another format. Please contact instructor Joanne Woiak for further information (jwoiak@uw.edu).
  • DIS ST/ LSJ / CHID 332 A (SLN 11109) Disability and Society: Disability Studies in Education, Instructor: Jason Naranjo, Summer B-Term, MTWR 9:40-11:50, hybrid learning [fulfills Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity]
    • Hybrid Learning course delivery plan:
      • The first class meeting will be in-person. Most of the following class meetings will be online via Zoom. Contact instructor Jason Naranjo for more details (jnaranjo@uw.edu)
  • DIS ST 360 A Redesigning Humanity: Disability in Speculative Fiction, Instructor: Joanne Woiak, Summer B Term, Distance Learning [fulfills Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity]
    • Canvas syllabus: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1655790
    • Distance Learning course delivery plan:
      • Tuesdays & Wednesdays: Class meetings on Zoom, 1:50-4:00pm. These will be recorded for asynchronous access. No meetings on Mondays or Thursdays.
      • This course can be completed entirely asynchronously.
    • Course description" How have disabled, BIPOC, and multiply-marginalized writers been intervening in the speculative fiction (SF) genre to “write ourselves into the future,” as novelist Octavia Butler puts it? This course will analyze SF texts - stories, films, and 2 novels by Black disabled authors - that use speculative settings and nonrealist conventions to comment on contemporary political, social, and ethical concerns. We’ll critique how SF has deployed potentially problematic tropes and metaphors that reflect mainstream attitudes about disability, race, gender, and sexuality. By focusing on the connection between speculative fiction, the field of disability studies (DS), and the work of BIPOC and queer Disability Justice (DJ) activists and scholars, the course will consider representations of disability and neurodivergence, including intersections of racism and ableism, in which authors and readers create new meanings of accessibility, identity, community, family, justice, normal, and human. 

      This course has no prerequisites. It fulfills DIV requirements, and fulfills Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity of the DS Major and Minor.

      Students will participate in synchronous or asynchronous discussions, write short responses to the readings, films, and podcasts, and complete a final paper of 4-5 pages or a project in another format.  Please contact instructor Joanne Woiak for further information (jwoiak@uw.edu). The course is designed to provide flexibility in how you access the content and how you show your engagement with the material in online learning format.

    • Readings: We will read two novels and several short stories. You can find the books that we'll read to read/download from UW Libraries as digital copies. Copies of the books will also be available for purchase at the University Bookstore on the Ave.  Additional required readings will all be available on Canvas.
  • Some electives:
    • EDUC 300: Race & Disability (5 credits) Summer 2023, A & B Terms Online, asynchronous. Students with disabilities and students of color are often talked about in school contexts as two distinct identity groups. When students of color with disabilities are discussed it is in the context of disability identification and appropriate placement in special education, where institutional policies and practices, not student experiences, are foregrounded. Often, these institutional policies and practices construct both disability and race in negative, stigmatized ways, and simultaneously ignore the voices of students who live at the intersection of both identity groups. While research and practice have addressed the schooling experiences and identity development of students of color and students with disabilities separately, this course will instead explore what is illuminated about school and schooling when race and disability are considered together. Students will take up theories of intersectionality, social constructions of race and disability, DisCrit, and first-person narratives of people of color with disabilities in order to explore contemporary schooling issues affecting this intersectional identity and how we may work towards education equity.

SPRING 2023

  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 230 Introduction to Disability Studies, Joanne Woiak, MW lecture 10:00-11:20 plus Th quiz section. Contact jwoiak@uw.edu for add code.
    • Hybrid learning: lectures will be synchronous and asynchronous, and will be recorded; quiz sections will be synchronous.
  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 332 A Disability & Society: Media & Pop Culture, Ryan DeCarsky, MW 11:30-1:20 [fulfills DS major/minor Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity]
    • Hybrid learning: The class will meet one day per week synchronously on Zoom, and one day per week synchronously in the classroom. Topic: "Media and Pop Culture." This synchronous fully remote course will meet two times a week via zoom and provide an in-depth examination of the social construction of ‘disability’ reflected in and shaped by media and pop culture.  The class is discussion driven; together we will critically engage with examples from film and TV, social media, fashion, sports, and art both by and about disabled peoples. By examining popular culture through a Disability Studies (DS) lens, the course will aid you in your journey to understand and consider the ways disability representations in the media reify, problematize, and/or challenge the marginalization of disabled persons. 
  • DIS ST / BH 421 History of Eugenics, Joanne Woiak, TTh 1:30-3:50 [fulfills DS major/minor Subfield B Global & Historical Perspectives; fulfills Grad Certificate elective]
    • Hybrid learning: Class will meet synchronously on T and Th, with one day per week on Zoom and one day per week in the classroom. All class sessions will be recorded and there will be asynchronous participation options.
  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 430 A (5 credits) Topics in Disability Studies: Disability, Representation & Intersectionality: Cultural Studies Approaches, Ronnie Thibault, MW 1:30-3:20 [fulfills DS major/minor Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity; fulfills Grad Certificate elective]
    • Hybrid learning: The class will meet Mondays in the classroom and Wednesdays on Zoom.  Topic: "Disability, Representation, and Intersectionality: Cultural Studies Approaches." What is representation and why does it matter in disability contexts? This course will encourage you to think differently about disability representation at the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and nation. We will investigate intersectional approaches to Disability Studies with a central focus on cultural representation as both theory and practice. This class will help you to recognize the ways in which culture and representation work together to frame understandings (and misunderstandings) about disability, how the power of representation operates across media modalities, geographies, and histories, and how disability activists push against the more common stereotypes and tropes that have created dangerous misunderstandings about their lives. This is an interactive hybrid course that includes in-person, synchronous, and asynchronous lectures, weekly in-class workshops, and online discussions and activities. The course is media and workshop intensive and together we will apply cultural studies tools and techniques as we question disability representations across a multiplicity of social media, news, popular culture, legal, and additional media platforms. 
  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 434 A Civil and Human Rights Law for Disabled People, Stephen Rosenbaum, TTh 10:30-12:20 [fulfills DS major/minor Subfield A Rights, Policy, Inequality]
    • The course examines theoretical and empirical aspects of disability rights law, and policy development and analysis—from a cross-disability perspective. This includes an understanding of disabled persons’ access to public accommodations, workplaces, education and interaction with the built environment--from the perspective of the United States and various international and third country national models. The concepts, principles, and your critique and reflection, are more important than a mastery of particular case law, codes or regulations. Whether you are new to Disability Studies or a veteran scholar or activist, this is a course for you. And, while this is not a “junior law school” course, it will appeal to LSJ students with its focus on law and policy. It also offers the opportunity for the critical thinking, intellectual inquiry, and self-reflection that is the hallmark of CHID programs.  Grading will be based on your brief written reflections or analyses of readings or audio-visual links assigned before each class, in-class discussions and role plays, and a final group research project (written and oral presentation). Instructor Stephen Rosenbaum has an extensive background in university-level teaching, research and writing and litigation and advocacy in the field of disability rights. If questions, feel free to contact Prof. Rosenbaum at srosenb@uw.edu

WINTER 2023

DIS ST/HSTCMP 402/502 A Topics in Disability History (instructor Joanne Woiak)

  • My plan is to teach in a hybrid format, and class will meet two times per week on this schedule:

    • Tuesdays: Class meets hybrid in-person in SAV 132 and on Zoom, 1:30-3:20pm.  Students may attend in either modality on Tuesdays.

    • Thursdays: Class meets on Zoom only, 1:30-3:20pm.
    • NOTE: Week 1 (on Jan 3 and Jan 5) class will meet on Zoom only. 

    • All class meetings will be recorded for asynchronous access. It is strongly preferred that students participate synchronously on a regular basis. My intent is that this course will be largely discussion based.

AUTUMN 2022

DIS ST 230 / CHID 230 / LSJ 230 A Introduction to Disability Studies (instructor Joanne Woiak): 

  • Quiz sections will meet on Thursdays only, synchronously at the scheduled class time, and all remote through Zoom. There will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options.

  • Lectures scheduled for Mondays will usually be asynchronous (pre-recorded or films).

  • Lectures on Wednesdays will meet synchronously at the scheduled class time, with in-person and remote access options. Wednesdays will have some guest lecturers from the disability community who are likely to present online rather than in-person. All Lectures will be recorded and available for asynchronous access.

DIS ST / GWSS / CHID 335 A Sex, Gender, and Disability (instructor Joanne Woiak): 

  • Tuesdays the plan is to meet in a hybrid format (both in-person and remote access), determined by our classroom community guidelines for wearing masks.
  • Thursdays will meet through Zoom only all quarter.
  • All class meetings will be recorded for asynchronous access, and there will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options.

 

SUMMER 2022

  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 230 Introduction to Disability Studies, A-Term, MTWR 9:40-12:20

    • UPDATED: This course will be taught in REMOTE format.
    • Description: Our broad goal in the class is to develop an understanding of disability as a complex and crucial part of the world's cultures and human experience. This course will introduce you to a critical framework for recognizing how people with disabilities see their worlds, and suggest new ways of thinking about difference, myths, identity, justice, power, privilege, the body, and society. We will further explore how disability activists and scholars have re-conceptualized disability from a more empowering sociopolitical and human rights perspective, as an element of human diversity, and as a source of community. Finally, we will draw on other disciplines to understand how disability often intersects with other social categories such as gender, class, and race.
    • Format: Class meetings will be remote. For asynchronous access, class meetings will be recorded or notes will be provided.
    • Instructor: Kristen Johnson, krissiej@uw.edu 
      • About Kristen: My current research is looking at present-day disability rhetoric in the media, particularly relating to deafness, d/Deaf education, and Deaf culture. What I love about teaching is that I can and do share a lot of my experiences (and those from whom I have received permission) with my students to give them more of an idea of what it is like for Deaf people and disabled people on a daily basis. I am currently working on a writing project concerning deafness, trauma, and oppression.
  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 430 and HSTCMP 490 Topics in Disability Studies: Disability History, A-Term, MTWR 1:50-4:00

    • This course will be taught in hybrid format.
    • Description: This course seeks to bring disability into the center of historical inquiry, engaging with topics and themes in the histories of disability in the United States from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Learning goals are to deepen our understanding of disability and ableism in the past and how these may shape the present. We will consider how historical analysis can more fully encompass the lives of disabled people, as well as the ways that the concept of disability has worked with and against other forms of discrimination and rights movements in American society. How does disability as a category of analysis inform other social constructions such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? Specific topics to be covered include the 1977 sit-in for disability rights and the Black Panther Party; the history of eugenics, settler ableism, and the Canton Asylum; how disability and disability disavowal were used in debates over women’s rights and gay rights; and the history of accessible design and disability material culture.
    • The course counts as W (writing credit).
    • Format: The course content in Disability History will be offered in a variety of modalities in order to provide as much flexibility and accessibility as possible. Some class sessions will meet in person with synchronous remote access, and some will meet on Zoom only. All classes will be recorded. Some lectures will be pre-recorded and all class materials will be available for asynchronous access. There will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options. My goal is to support you this summer in engaging with the course material while navigating hybrid learning.
    • Instructor: Joanne Woiak, jwoiak@uw.edu
  • DIS ST / LSJ / CHID 332 Disability and Society: Disability Studies and Education, B-Term, MTWR 9:40-11:50 

    • The course will be taught in remote format.
    • Description: This course is designed to provide you with a place to examine history, theory, values, and assumptions about disability in the contexts of schools and society. This course will explore how disability is defined within our educational system and in society at large. We will focus our learning in the following areas of inquiry, a) historical and theoretical foundations for defining disability, b) disability in the context of public schooling, c) the relationship between disability, social change, and equitable access to opportunity.
    • Format: The course content in Disability Studies in Education will be offered in a variety of modalities in order to provide as much flexibility and accessibility as possible. Learning activities will include guest presentations from teachers, scholars, and activists, case-based problem solving, and student and faculty lead discussion. Materials for the course will be a mix of readings, film, and podcasts that center the voices of children, youth and families. Some class sessions will meet with synchronous remote access via  Zoom. All classes will be recorded. Some materials will be pre-recorded and all class materials will be available for asynchronous access. There will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options.
    • Instructor: Jason Naranjo, jnaranjo@uw.edu

     

    SPRING 2022

    DIS ST 230 / CHID 230 / LSJ 230 A (instructor Joanne Woiak): 

    • Quiz sections will meet on Thursdays only, synchronously at the scheduled class time, and all remote through Zoom. There will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options.

    • Lectures on Mondays will meet synchronously at the scheduled class time. During the first 2 weeks lectures will be held on Zoom. After that, we will devise classroom community guidelines with the intent of having hybrid Monday lectures with in-person and remote access options. Mondays will have some guest lecturers from the disability community who are likely to present online rather than in-person.
    • Lectures scheduled for Wednesdays will usually be asynchronous (pre-recorded or films).
    • All Lectures will be recorded and available for asynchronous access.

    DIS ST 332 / CHID 332 / LSJ 332 A (instructor Ronnie Thibault): 

    This class will follow a hybrid format. The bulk of our class meetings will take place through Zoom synchronously at the scheduled class time. We will meet in person to workshop your representation analysis assignments on the following two Mondays: April 18 and May 9.  All class meetings will be recorded for asynchronous access and all course materials, including in-class lectures, videos, and presentations will be available asynchronously.

    DIS ST 384 A (instructor Megan McCloskey):  

    This class will follow a hybrid format. The first class of the quarter (on Tuesday, March 29) will be in person, with masks highly recommended. The bulk of the remaining class meetings will take place through Zoom synchronously at the scheduled class time. Students will be working in research teams on assignments to be completed during the scheduled class time, so synchronous attendance is strongly encouraged. Small group workshops to be held on two Thursdays (April 28 and May 19) will be in person. With the exception of the first class and the small group workshops, all class meetings will be recorded and all course materials will be available through Canvas for asynchronous work.

    DIS ST 421 / B H 421 A (instructor Joanne Woiak): 

    For the first 2 weeks, all class meetings will be held remote only through Zoom, synchronously at 1:30-3:20pm. After that, there will be different modalities for Tues and Thurs classes. Tuesdays the intent is to meet in a hybrid format (both in-person and remote access), determined by our classroom community guidelines and how many students plan to attend in-person. Thursdays will continue to meet through Zoom only all quarter. All class meetings will be recorded for asynchronous access, and there will be synchronous and asynchronous participation options. Please hold 1:30-3:50pm in your schedules as there will be some days we meet beyond 3:20 to screen and discuss films.