Women's Studies 2250E Lecture 1: “Freaks”:Disabilities Lecture Notes

• School: Western University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: Women's Studies 2250E
• Professor: n/a

Document Summary

We"ll explore how constructions of ability impact people"s lives, experiences and opportunities through the lens of archaeological work. (cid:523)yes that"s right archaeological work! (cid:524) Language: make clear what you mean, make sure it couldn"t mean anything else, uses, limitations, strategies, doesn"t do a good job of capturing human experiences, our language can"t accommodate that. In the context of gender, binary pronoun system, it isn"t alleviated looking at ability. It is the consumer who bears the brunt of poor design, who may be irritated or inconvenienced by ill-thought-out products or badly designed environments every day. Impacts of en/ableing and dis/ableing: hiring, money, education, security, home, voice, location. En/abled archaeology (cid:498)laugh and cry and tell stories. Sad stories about bodies stolen, bodies no longer here. Enraging stories about the false images, devastating lies, untold violence. Bold, brash stories about reclaiming our bodies and changing the world. (cid:499) (cid:498) disability is perhaps the essential characteristic of being human.