Disability in History

Disability has a long history, which has been hidden until recently. Specifically, as historian Douglas C. Baynton has written, "Disability is everywhere in history, once you begin to look for it, but conspicuously absent from the histories we write." This course questions the lack of inclusion of disability in the teaching of history up until recent years. In doing so, it constructs a history of persons with disabilities in the U.S. by concentrating primarily on the modern era beginning with institutionalization in the Jacksonian and Civil War eras and ending with the modern Disability Rights, deinstitutionalization, parent advocacy and self-advocacy movements, as well as treatment of disabled veterans. The course reviews the history of persons with disabilities, including some of the Western, pre-modern notions of disability, such as the sacred or profane, ugly or grotesque, and highlighting the so-called hierarchy of disabilities.

Fall, Spring