Minor Requirements

DBST-2270 Introduction to Disability Studies

This course explores disability from an interdisciplinary perspective: literature, first-person and identity-first accounts, public policy advocacy, and the basic legal framework. Disability Studies discusses Disability Stories, Law, and Social Policy through disabled lens. Our texts include short stories, personal narratives by individuals who have disabilities or by their family members, and articles by disability rights activists.

We integrate film stories with our readings to critically examine how pop culture represents, and misrepresents, disability and bodily differences. This course also analyzes the medical, social, and cultural models of Disability. We begin the course with a cluster of related topics: What is Disability? Why do definitions matter? How is disability socially constructed? We end with such questions as: How is Disability viewed in the media? What and how can allies do better in supporting disabled people?

Three Disability Studies core courses:

DBST-2249 Disability Law and Activism
DBST/ENGL-2680 Disability and the Arts
DBST-3304 Introduction to Deaf Community
DBST-3305 Crip/Mad/Queer Narratives
DBST-3360 Autistic Activism and Neurodiversity
ENGL-4257 Disability Narratives
ENGL-2702 Grief and Grievance
PHIL-2002 Bioethics and Disability
WGST-2234 Feminist Disability Studies

Two elective courses that engage disability in theory or practice:

ANTH-2250 Intro to Medical Anthropology
BIOL-3940 Genomics, Disability, and Health
EDIJ-2951 Education, Equity, and Advocacy
EDIJ-3200 Gateway Seminar in Urban Education
ENGL-2061 Asian/American Women’s Writing
ENGL-2440 Literature of War
ENGL/TPST-4151 Staying Cool: Race and Femininity
HESY-1000 Health Care in America
HESY/HSCI-1600 Health Promotion and Disease
MUSC-2780 Experimental Audio Production
PHIL-2001 Bioethics
PSYC-2700 Psychological Disorders
SOCI-3709 Sociology of Health and Illness
SPAN-1532 Intensive Intermediate Spanish
SPAN-3000 Gateway to Culture/Linguistics
THEO-2211 Catholic Ritual/Spirituality/Justice
THEO-3030 Religion, Medicine, and Disability
TPST-1300 Play Analysis
UNXD-2109 Health Inequalities in Context
WGST-1141 Introduction to Sexuality Studies
WRIT-1150 Writing and Culture

NOTE: ASL Courses Through the Consortium – ASL I and ASL II will be offered at Gallaudet University through the Consortium of Universities in the Fall 2024 semester. Students interested in taking ASL I (GALC:1103) or ASL II (GALC:1104) may count one ASL course towards their electives requirements.

The above list is not meant to be exhaustive. If students identify other courses that provide significant opportunities to engage with disability in theory or practice, they should present them to the Director for approval. A maximum of two courses taken elsewhere (i.e., study abroad or summer courses) may be counted as electives in the minor, with the approval of the steering committee.