Feminism & Disability

 WGST 4980-995/MLS 6500

Taught each Spring Semester (3 credits)

To enroll:  www.utdl@utoledo.edu

http://www.patmurphyphd.com/chair.jpg

What is disability? 
Why can’t the woman of strength lift her leg? 
These are the two questions at the heart of the online course;

WGST 4980 Feminism and Disability.

The course will be taught by Dr. Patricia A. Murphy, one of the founders of the Disability Studies Program and former director of the Catherine S. Eberly Center for Women.  If you have questions, contact Dr. Murphy patricia.murphy2@utoledo.edu This course will use the Zen koan method of inquiry to address the two questions at the heart of the course (What is disability!  Why can’t the woman of strength lift her leg?).  The word koan has many meanings including “a public case” or “table” as in putting the evidence on the table.  Therefore, in this online course we will gather evidence to put on our community table in order inquire into the nature and meaning of feminism and disability.  There are no wrong answers to a koan but there are many correct answers.

The source of the evidence we will collect as the basis of our inquiry:

1. Readings
2. Media Review
3. Discussion
4. Writing

Readings:   

*Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy and Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett.  The books may be purchased at People Called Women 6060 Renaissance in Toledo.  You may order books from them by telephone at 419/535-6455 or email at  PCWtoledo@yahoo.com.  You may also order books online as used books at Amazon.com.  Note:  Books change from semester to semester.  Dr. Murphy will advise you what book to buy on the first day of class.

*The books must be in hand by the second week of class or students will face losing grade points on assignments.

Additional supplemental readings may be assigned or suggested for the final research paper.  See listing below.

Online Essays:

Greeley, R. A.  (2004). Disability, Gender, and National Identity in the Painting of  Frida Kahlo. In (Smith, B. G. & Hutchison, B. Eds.) pp. 216-232.  Gendering Disability, New Jersey:  Rutgers University Press.

Finger, A.  (2006). Helen and Frida. In The disability studies reader ( Davis, L., Ed.) pp. 405-410.  In The disability studies reader (Davis, L., Ed.) pp. 79-92.  New York:  Taylor & Francis.

Herndl, D.P. (2002).  Reconstructing the Posthuman Feminist Body Twenty Years after Audrey Lorde’s Cancer Journals.  In (Snyder, Brueggeman, Garland-Thomson, Eds.)  Disability studies:  Enabling the humanities.  pp.  144-155. New York:  Modern Language Association.

Hubbard, R.  (2006). Abortion and Disability: Who Should and Who Should Not Inhabit the World?  In The disability studies reader (Davis, L., Ed.) pp. 79-92. New York:  Taylor & Francis.

Mairs, N.  (2002). Sex and Death and the Crippled Body:  A Meditation.   In (Snyder, Brueggeman, Garland-Thomson, Eds.)  Disability studies:  Enabling the humanities.  pp.  144-155. New York:  Modern Language Association.

McNeil, M. J. and Kroll, T.  (2004). Women and Emerging Disabilities.   In (Smith, B. G. & Hutchison, B. Eds.) pp. 286-293.  Gendering Disability, New Jersey:  Rutgers University Press.

O’Toole, C. J.  (2004). The Sexist Inheritance of the Disability Movement. In (Smith, B. G. & Hutchison, B. Eds.) pp. 294-300.  Gendering Disability, New Jersey:  Rutgers University Press.

Wendall, S. (2006).  Toward a Feminist Theory of Disability. In The disability studies reader (Davis, L., Ed.) pp. 243-256. New York:  Taylor & Francis.

Media Review:

Disability is everywhere in print and electronic media and media attempts to answer the question:  What is disability?  Media also addresses the question Why can’t the woman of strength lift her leg? We will examine media for answers to our questions and write a weekly (12 per semester) 100 word minimum essay with our thoughts on these topics.

Discussion and Participation: 

You will be placed in a discussion group of no more than 12 students.  In your group, you will be asked to read and to respond to the essays presented by at least 3 other students.  Rules for feedback on the work of other students include:  1) acknowledge what’s there in an essay; 2) note what is missing in the essay if anything; 3) acknowledge what was best about the essay; and 4) identify what essay you are addressing.  Your participation is worth 10 percent of the grade.  Therefore, you will need to log on at least twice per week or more in order to accomplish this.  Lack of participation can have a serious impact on your final grade since is it 10 percent of your grade.

Writing:  You will write 16 essays based on the books and other essays of a minimum of 300 words. Readings will be assigned each week as noted above with one assignment given on Mondays and the other on Thursdays.   This work will be worth 60 percent of your grade.  These assignments are fairly informal and will not be graded on grammar and spelling, although I may object if the spelling is really bad.

Final Examination:  The final paper worth 30 percent of your grade.  The paper must be submitted by 5pm on Friday, the last day of classes. 

 Failure to complete the Final Paper will result in an automatic F no matter how you did in the course work.

Late Work:  Work not posted at the appropriate times will result in a loss of grade points depending on the length of the delay.  No penalty occurs for comments on other student work but keeping up is essential.  This course is designed as an online seminar and so delay in commentary means that you lose out on the discussion around each topic.  In short, this course is really designed as a seminar. I do not comment on late work.  I comment only on work submitted on time.

Some Thoughts on Academic Integrity:  For University policy on this topic, go to http://www.utoledo.edu/dl/students/dishonesty.html.  One great thing about writing academic papers is that you are not alone.  That is, you have the company of scholars who have gone before you and this is true in articles, essays, unpublished work by another person, newspaper reports, website discoveries, films, interviews, and audio reports.  Academic integrity means “no stealing of the ideas of others.”  Academic integrity means an attitude of gratitude which is expressed by acknowledging the authors in quotes or with other documentation strategies.  For more detail on the proper way to do this go to http://utoledo.edu/dl/students/ewriting.html. 

Course Navigation Tips

Discussion Board General Facilitation: This is where I send you to the numbered topics for your assignments and make announcements about general trends I see happening in the course.  You should ALWAYS check this section before anything else.

Group discussion:  Once you are assigned to your group, you will only be able to  post to the Discussion Board within your group.

Topics:  Please post to the topic on the Discussion Board.  Please note that I will be numbering topics as we go along.  This will make it easier for us to know what we are commenting upon when we read each other’s comments.  I will give the outlines for each assignment in the assignment section of the Discussion Board.

Questions:  Questions about course navigation and course content should be posted to the Questions section on the Discussion Board so all students can benefit.

Email to the Instructor/Online Office Hours:  Please use email to the instructor for private issues only.  Use email to the instructor as you would use the instructor’s office hours.  Thank you.

Time:  I will be online almost every day for this course.  I recommend that you spend at least 30 to 40 minutes per day online and this way you will not get behind.  Please note that longer assignments will be given on Thursdays so that you will have the weekend to do the work.  Late work will result in loss of a grade point.  Please make time for your reading and research.

Computer Help:  If you are unable to get into your discussion group or are having problems getting into the course go to http://www.utoledo.edu/dl/helpdesk/hlp_index.html.

Grades:  I will post your grade immediately after reading your assignment.  I am able to post your grade privately but comment on your work for the entire group to read.  Sometimes I get going and forget to give you your grade.  Email me and let me know if I failed to send you a grade.  The media essays are worth 20 percent of your grade.  The writings on the books and other essays are worth 30 percent of your grade.  You final paper is worth 30 percent and your participation 10% of your grade.

The First 8 Weeks:  We will be reading Autobiography of A Face and other located on your course menu under Readings.  You will be writing essays about the book and these readings as well as exploring media regarding the representation of women and disability and writing shorter essays about what you find.  All assignments should cite sources for your work.

The Second 8 Weeks:  You will wind up the Media Reviews and start working on your final paper.  We will also be reading Truth and Beauty and you will write your 300 word minimum essays on what we find there.

Learning Policies for the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

General provisions

      1.            This policy is in line with AAUP policies regarding Distance Learning (DL) courses, in case of any contradiction between the AAUP version and this policy the AAUP version shall prevail.

      2.            Distance learning courses (DL) shall comply with all of the standard practices, procedures, and criteria which have been established for traditional in the classroom courses.

      3.            Faculty member teaching a DL course shall receive the appropriate technical training that is available at UT. Whenever new technologies are added, faculty member shall be required to take the training courses available on campus. Instructors may seek further training offered online or elsewhere if they choose to do so.

 

Definitions:

      4.            Student: any person who registers for a DL course offered by the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies (the Department) at the University of Toledo.

      5.            Instructor: A qualified member of the University of Toledo (UT) faculty who meets the requirements stated above.

      6.            Course: any class offered for credit or otherwise that a student may register for.

      7.            Distance Learning (DL) course: refers to a course not taught in class but establishes communication between instructor and student via one or more technological media available at UT, such media may be developed, improved, or acquired by UT and may change as UT continues to acquire more sophisticated means of electronic media for DL.

Rights and Responsibilities of Students

      8.            All students registered for a DL course shall abide by the regulations and policies established by the university for in-class courses, in particular DL students are responsible for:

a.      Delivering assignments on time

b.     Participation in online discussions

c.      Following rules regarding academic honesty;

d.     Refraining from addressing the instructor and fellow students using derogatory or disrespectful statements.

      9.            Students in a DL course are entitled to:

a.      Delivery of written notes or complete lectures if a live medium is used.

b.     Have their questions answered

c.      Freedom of expression provided that they abide by article 8. above.

 10.            Any disagreement, conflict, or any other problem that arises in the course should be settled or solved by the faculty member teaching the course. The instructor shall not allow the problem to escalate without offering solutions.

 11.            If the instructor is unable, for any reason, to resolve a problem, he/she must report the problem to the Department Chair who in turn shall seek a solution to the problem.

 12.            Any complaints made by students directly to the Chair of the Department shall be communicated immediately to the instructor who should work with the Chair or other faculty to solve the problem. Solutions shall, as far as possible, seek to satisfy the student’s needs without breaching the rights of other students enrolled in the course or the instructor’s.

 13.            The syllabus shall contain instructions on the line of communication if the problem is a technical one, i.e. students are to report the problem to the Helpdesk copying the instructor.

 14.            The instructor must contact the Helpdesk if the problem is not solved in a timely manner.

 15.            The Department may develop an online evaluation form for student’s assessment of the course, such form is be sent to the students directly from the Department’s secretary’s office and sent back through the same channel it was sent through.