Body, Health, Disability: Critical Interventions

elective courses

Remote learning

This course will be co-taught with instructors from Indiana University, Indianapolis and will include both OSA UW students and American students. Each week, we will meet for an hour on Zoom with the American group, and for the remaining 30 minutes, we will have classes on our own (on Zoom). The joint classes will run for 8 weeks, until April 17. Beginning in mid-April, classes will be conducted exclusively with the Polish group - American students will then finish the semester.

The aim of the class is to reflect on such terms as health, illness, body and the ways in which culture shapes their meanings. We’ll think of body image, the ideas of self-care and wellness as well as fatness and disability. In this class, we’ll focus both on the US and Poland and will oftentimes compare the ways in which body, sickness, and health are understood and represented in these two countries.

This course will be co-taught with instructors from Indiana University, Indianapolis and will include both OSA UW students and American students. Each week, we will meet for an hour on Zoom with the American group, and for the remaining 30 minutes, we will have classes on our own (on Zoom). The joint classes will run for 8 weeks, until April 17. Beginning in mid-April, classes will be conducted exclusively with the Polish group - American students will then finish the semester.

The aim of the class is to reflect on such terms as health, illness, body and the ways in which culture shapes their meanings. We’ll think of body image, the ideas of self-care and wellness as well as fatness and disability. In this class, we’ll focus both on the US and Poland and will oftentimes compare the ways in which body, sickness, and health are understood and represented in these two countries.

Polish students will work in groups on presentations with American students. Individually, students will write short response papers and learn to prepare short videos (FLIP).

The texts may be subject to change

Margo de Mello, "Body Studies" (selection)

Lennard Davis, "Disability Studies Reader" (selection)

Mary Douglas, "Purity and Danger" (selection)

Sabrina Strings, "Fearing the Black Body" (selection)

Aubrey Gordon, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" (selection)

KNOWLEDGE

Upon completing this course a student:

- has knowledge of basic theories and concepts from health studies and disability studies

- has knowledge about the ways in which culture, history, and politics inform popular understandings of body, health, and illness

- is aware of multiple contexts of how bodies function in cultural and social spaces of contemporary United States and Poland

SKILLS

Upon completing this course a student:

- is able to anlayze texts of popular culture using above mentioned theories and concepts

- is able to compare and contrast how health, body and illness are understood in Poland and the United States

- is able to formulate critical arguments about representations and discussions of bodies in the US and in Poland

COMPETENCES

Upon completing this course a student:

- can discuss cultural and social phenomena that are currently at the center of public debate

- can work in groups

- can plan and write papers and make short movies on FLIP

attendance and participation: 20%

response papers: 40%

presentation: 20%

final paper: 20%

Grading scale:

Grading scale:

100-97 5!

96-91 5

90-84 4+

83-78 4

77-68 3+

67-60 3

59-0 2