Catalog of Courses for Disability Studies Initiative
The course introduces medical anthropology, and contextualizes bodies, suffering, healing and health. It is organized thematically around a critical humanist approach, along with perspectives from political economy and social constructionism. The aim of the course is to provide a broad understanding of the relationship between culture, healing (including and especially the Western form of healing known as biomedicine), health and political power.
Examines the roles of deaf women inside and outside of the signing Deaf community. Using an interdisciplinary approach, considers such topics as language and cultural barriers, violence against women, sexuality, race, class, education, and work. Investigates disparities between deaf and hearing women and the choices available to d/Deaf women, individually and collectively, in contemporary culture. No prior knowledge of ASL is required.
Examines such topics as American deaf history; ASL linguistics; deaf education; cultural versus pathological views of deaf people; controversies over efforts to eliminate sign language and cure deafness; ASL poetry and storytelling; deafness in mainstream literature, film, and drama; deafness and other minority identities; and the international deaf community.
This course will provide a broad overview of autism, from historical perspectives to current scientific evidence. Challenges, strengths, and experiences will be examined from within a developmental framework and across developmental domains. Evidence-based approaches to assessment and intervention will be emphasized. The perspectives and lived experiences of individuals with autism and their families will be integrated throughout the course.
An introduction to the study of exceptional children & adults. Focuses on extending principles of learning and intellectual, socio-cultural, emotional, and physical development to persons with disabilities, as well as the gifted, autism, traumatic brain injury, ADD, and ADHD. Information on medical conditions which influence learning and development. Credit is not given for both EDIS 3020 and 5000. Master of Teaching students must take EDIS 5000
Field-based practicum for preservice teachers seeking initial licensure. Students develop skills in fostering positive professional relationships with students, colleagues, and peers; designing and implementing individual, small group, and whole class instruction; and observing and reflecting on practice. This course meets the guidelines for state-approved teacher education programs in Virginia.
Teaches special education teachers the Virginia Mathematics Standards of Learning (SOL) K-12 content strands: Number and Number Sense; Computation and Estimation; Measurement; Geometry: Probability and Statistics; and Patterns, Functions, and Algebra. This course also focuses on the mathematical adaptations through Problem Solving, Reasoning and Proof, Mathematical Communication, Mathematical Connections, and Representation.
This course explores the meaning and concepts associated with the field of emotional and behavioral disabilities, including the psychological and behavioral characteristics of individuals with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Topics include specific causes, assessment, and treatment of emotional and behavioral disabilities. Educational, psychological, historical, and medical implications are addressed.
This course explores the meaning and concepts associated with the field of learning disabilities, including the psychological and behavioral characteristics of individuals with learning disabilities. Topics include specific causes, assessment, and treatment of learning disabilities and related disabilities. Educational, psychological, historical, and medical implications are addressed.
This course explores the meaning and concepts associated with the field of learning disabilities, including the psychological and behavioral characteristics of individuals with learning disabilities. Topics include specific causes, assessment, and treatment of learning disabilities and related disabilities. Educational, psychological, historical, and medical implications are addressed.
Illness experience and medical practice alike are steeped in stories, narrative being a fundamental way we make sense of self and world (including illness and loss). This course inquires into connections among narrative, literature, and medicine through study of literary and other narratives that address a range of illnesses/conditions, the experience of doctoring, and important issues in contemporary medicine and culture. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.engl.virginia.edu/courses.
What does deafness signify, especially in a western society that is centered upon speech? This course the contradictory and telling ways that deaf people have been depicted over the last three centuries. The syllabus juxtaposes canonical texts or mainstream films with relatively unknown works by deaf artists
This course serves as an introduction to the disability rights movement and more broadly to how disability is experienced in contemporary society. Simultaneously it serves as a space for learning about and sharing resources for advocacy. In particular we will explore topics such as the conceptualizations of disability, the history of the disability civil rights movement, and disability in the context of social and professional participation.
Discussion of major topics in public health, including chronic diseases, such as child and adult obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular disease, muscle and bone diseases, and mental illness. There is a strong emphasis on fitness, nutrition, and other lifestyle choices to modify disease risk. Eating disorders and athlete medical issues are also discussed.
Disability is a pervasive, yet little studied, dimension of popular media. This class considers the stereotypes, interventions, and politics of on-screen images of disability as well as the ways in which disability affects the production and reception of media texts and technologies. Thus, we will watch a range of disability media, engage with disability cultures, and consider necessary additions to media experience (such as close captioning).
Selected topics, announced in advance, exploring the study of music within cultural and historical frameworks.
This seminar investigates the origins, expansion, and stabilization (or crisis - take your pick) of the welfare state in the rich OECD countries (North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) focussing on why market and non-market based systems of social protection emerged and the roles played by states, labor market actors, and women's groups.
Explores cultural influences on identity development, family systems, linguistics, engagement with educational and community agencies, and resilience within the Deaf community. The interaction of culture, identity and language will be highlighted and applied to future trends for groups within the Deaf community, such as children of Deaf adults, GLTB community members, ethnic minority groups, women, and persons with disabilities.
In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will discuss recent research on autism at multiple levels (biological, cognitive, social) and from multiple perspectives (autistic individuals, scientists, disability studies scholars, families, schools, community/government organizations).
Salem Witch Trials
This course examines how the medical system is shaped by cultural and societal forces, analyzing unique dimensions of medicine from varying perspectives prominent in the discipline of Sociology. Topics will focus upon the interaction of social categories (e.g., socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality) upon the distribution of diseases, experiences of illness, and relationships between patients and medical professionals.
This course explores the social dimensions of health and illness, focusing especially on the social experience of illness, the social determinants of disease, and the role and meaning of medicine and public health in modern U.S. society. The class examines how we define health problems and their solutions, and it considers the ways in which race, gender, class, age, and sexuality matter for understanding health-related experiences and discourses.
This course explores mental health and illness in social context, focusing especially on the history, definitions, social and cultural determinants, and consequences of conceptualizations and treatment of mental illness. It includes an examination of perceptions of mental illness in popular culture, and the spread of psychiatric ideas in more global context. Pre-requisite: six credits of Sociology
What is the relationship between body image and identity? How does one affect, constrain, and inform the other? The development of body image is a complex process influenced by messages we receive from family, friends, peers, health care practitioners, teachers, and mass media to name a few. Messages are also constructed and interpreted differently depending on one's gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ableism.