Disability Studies Minor Applications Now Accepted for 2020

Apply Now to the 2020 Disability Studies Minor, Due by October 12

Students throughout the University are invited to apply for a minor in Disability Studies. The student-centered, flexible interdisciplinary program fosters a dynamic, inclusive learning community through a series of lectures, workshops, and cultural events as well as compelling courses. 

“Disability Studies is an incredibly diverse, student-centered, dynamic minor,” states Jennifer Natalya Fink, professor of English and program director for Disability Studies. “Like disability itself, Disability Studies touches on every field and every life.”

Current students in the minor take core courses like Bioethics and Disability, Feminist Disability Studies, and Disability and Culture. There are several interdisciplinary electives to choose from as well. 

Irene Chun (C’21) chose to become a Disability Studies minor due to its unique positioning between understanding the medical industrial complex as a STEM student, and as a Social Science student. “One of the shortcomings of understanding disability as a [purely] medical term…is that it maintains the assumption that disability is something that must be cured or fixed. Disability studies…analyzes the social model as well as many other intersectional lenses…naming a range of attitudinal and institutional barriers that cause disablement, visible or not.”

To apply, please send a 500 word personal statement detailing your interest in the minor to Prof. Jennifer Natalya Fink by October 12, 2020 in order to be considered.