Evolving Syllabus

CRITICAL DISABILITY STUDIES:  THEORY AND PRACTICE, Spring 2019

Health Studies 304                    Prof. Kristin Lindgren

Tuesday 7:30-10                       VCAM 102                                

klindgre@haverford.edu            Office: Stokes 118 IA 

                                                

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course, students will engage with recent work in critical disability studies across a range of humanistic disciplines, including literary studies, visual studies, history, and philosophy. Drawing on these varied disciplinary perspectives, we will explore how disability theory and engaged community practice inform and shape one another. Along the way, we will discuss the historical and theoretical development of the ideas of normalcy and disability; questions around ethical engagement and inclusive design; the growth of disability arts and culture; and the relationship between disability, access, and exhibition practices. In consultation with the instructor, students will also draw up an independent reading list that will shape their final project. The course includes a semester-long project in partnership with the Center for Creative Works (CCW), a studio and teaching space in Wynnewood, PA, for artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This project will involve weekly meetings, alternately at Haverford and CCW, and occasional field trips. It will culminate in an exhibition at Haverford at the end of the semester. Students will contribute weekly reading responses and project notes; complete a mid-semester essay and final course project, and participate in developing the CCW partnership. The syllabus will evolve and change as we go, based on collaborative decisions about what we what to learn and how we want to learn it.

 

LEARNING STYLES AND ACCESSIBILITY

I invite you to talk with me early in the semester about how you learn best and how we can make our classroom and class projects as accessible and generative for you and others as possible. If you would like to request accommodations in this course, please meet with Sherrie Borowsky (sborowsky@haverford.edu), Coordinator of the Office of Access and Disability Services, or with the coordinator of your campus’s office. As a class, we will try to enact principles of universal design. Let’s create a more inclusive and accessible world! 

 

COURSE MATERIALS

A notebook, aka repository of ideas, musings, sketches, and responses of many kinds
to our CCW partnership. We will provide lab notebooks for both students and CCW artists.
You may create a digital notebook if you prefer. 

Readings for the course will be made available as pdf's on Serendip as we proceed.

We will also be using these books:

Eli Clare, Exile and Pride (bookstore, library, e-version available via Tripod )
Lennard J. Davis, ed. The Disability Studies Reader (bookstore, library, e-version available via Tripod)
Kim Nielsen, A Disability History of the United States (bookstore, library)
Susan Nussbaum, Good Kings, Bad Kings (bookstore, library, audiobook via Tripod)

 

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

I expect us to create, collectively, an inclusive learning community in which each one of us, both in the classroom and in our CWW partnership, can teach and learn joyfully and effectively. To this end, I ask for your attentive presence in four spaces: our classroom; the CCW partnership; our online course space Serendip; and your notebook. Assignments include weekly notebook entries, eight Serendip posts over the semester, a mid-semester project, a final project, and participation in the CCW partnership, including planning our end-of-semester exhibition.

 

SERENDIP POSTINGS

I will ask you to post on Serendip eight weeks out of the fourteen weeks of the semester. If you miss a week, you can post a response to another course event (e.g. a film or a talk), a CCW experience, or a reflection on an article, artwork, film, etc, that is related to our course material. A full and thoughtful response to someone else's posting also counts as a response, and some weeks I will ask you to do this. So: I would like you to post at least 8 times on Serendip over the semester (your mid-term and final projects will bring this to 10) but your postings can take a variety of forms. Sometimes there will be a general prompt and sometimes a more specific one. If you have other ideas about how we can engage on Serendip effectively as a class, let's discuss! At the end of the semester, part of your "portfolio" will consist of an e-portfolio (easy to create in 3 minutes) of all your Serendip postings plus your mid-semester and end-of-semester projects posted on Serendip. If you need to miss a class for any reason, I suggest creating an additional Serendip post.  

 

PORTFOLIO GRADING

I use a portfolio grading process, in which I ask you to submit a portfolio of your work at the end of the semester. The portfolio will include your mid-semester and final projects, your notebook, your Serendip posts, and a checklist of the work for the course. The checklist includes, for example, weekly notebook entries, weekly participation in the CCW partnership, individual meetings with me, and two work-in-progress presentations. I will also ask for a 2-3 page informal reflection on your learning in the course. You will receive individual grades on your mid-semester project, your final project, and your engagement in the four course spaces (classroom, CCW, Serendip, notebook). Your final course grade will be holistic, based on these three grades and your portfolio as a whole. Please talk to me if you have questions or concerns about grading.

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCING OURSELVES AND THE COURSE

January 22

Introductions and overview of the course

 

WEEK TWO: REMAKING LANGUAGE AND CLAIMING IDENTITY

January 29

Livia Charman from CCW will join us to discuss the CCW partnership and
begin thinking through schedule and logistics. 

Reading: Simi Linton, Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity (pdf): Foreword (by Michael Berube); Chapter 1, "Reclamation;" Chapter 2, "Reassigning Meaning" (37 pages in all)

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, “Becoming Disabled” (4 pages)

Eli Clare, excerpts from Exile and Pride: Preface to 2009 edition (5 pages), “The Mountain (13 pages),” and Part ii: Bodies (80 pages) (98 pages in all)
CW: sexual abuse

Stella Young: I'm Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much (9 minutes)

Serendip: Create a username and upload an image. 

 

WEEK THREE: ACCESS, PROGRESSIVE PRACTICES, & ETHICAL ENGAGEMENTS

February 5

Livia Charman from CCW will join us to discuss the CCW partnership and
begin thinking through schedule and logistics. 

Reading: Mia Mingus, "Access Intimacy: The Missing Link" (blog post, 2 pages)

Jay Dolmage, "Universal Design: Places to Start" in Disability Studies Quarterly (5 pages plus linked Wiki)

Jay Dolmage, Introduction to Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education (excerpt, pages 1-11, pdf)

Interview with Matthew Higgs and Lisa Sonneborn, "Sometimes We Need to Get Uncomfortable" (4 pages)
(Lisa Sonneborn is the producer of A Fierce Kind of Love, the play we will attend on March 2nd)

The next two readings will give you some context for understanding CCW as a progressive art studio: 

Disparate Minds, "Progressive Practices: The Basics" (blog post, about 4 pages)

Nathaniel Rich, "A Training Ground for Untrained Artists: Creative Growth Art Center" NYT Magazine 12/16/15 (about 8 pages)

G. Thomas Couser, “Auto/Biographical, Biomedical, and Ethnographic Ethics,” in Vulnerable Subjects  (pdf, 19 pages)
Couser is writing about ethical collaboration in a different context, life writing, but I'd like us to think about how biomedical and ethnographic models of ethical engagement might be relevant to our collaboration with CCW. 

Serendip: Post a question about or reflection on some aspect of the reading from either last week or this week AND post a response to one or more of your classmate's Serendip posts, including one that hasn't yet been commented on. We won't be able to discuss everything in class, but your posts will give us some places to begin and Serendip can provide a space to discuss things we don't get to in class. 

Lab notebook: Create a cover, or if you're creating a digital notebook, a cover page.

List seven things you did and seven things you noticed during your visit to CCW. These can be very small things! Then develop one or more of these things into a written reflection, a drawing, a poem, a collage, or another mode of reflecting on your experience. You will do this every week, and you can include reflections on other events (talks, fieldtrips) associated with the CCW partnership. The notebook will form a creative and concrete representation of your weekly engagement with the partnership. 

 Visit CCW for a tour and introductions.  

 

WEEK FOUR: HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

February 12

Class: Kim Nielsen, A Disability History of the United States (183 pages)

CW: Some positive stories, but lots of ugly and traumatic disability history. 

I recommend reading it in small chunks, as it's a lot to take in. As you read, think about how disability was defined at different historical moments, who was charged with caring for those who needed care, and how disability intersects in different times and places with gender, race, class, and other identity markers. You don't need to pay equal attention to every chapter of the book; read the introduction to get a broad overview and then read the chapters or sections that interest you most. Everyone please read Chapters 1 and 8. Collectively, we'll put together the bigger picture. You will choose one of the following threads to follow, and we will build class discussion around these threads.
1) Gender, race, & disability (MA, MB, MB, GC)
2) Class, labor, & disability (MA, ZT, HFF, EM)
3) Immigration, citizenship, & disability (FC, XJ, CB)

Notebook: List seven things you did and seven things you noticed during your visit to CCW. These can be very small things! Then develop one or more of these things into a brief written reflection, a drawing, a poem, a collage, or another mode of reflecting on your experience. You will do this each time we visit CCW or CCW artists come to Haverford, and you can include reflections on other events (talks, fieldtrips) associated with the CCW partnership. The notebook will form a creative and concrete representation of your weekly engagement with the partnership. If you mention particular CCW artists, you should use their initials to preserve privacy if we share notebooks in our final course exhibition/event with CCW.

Think about what you'd like to show CCW folks when they visit Haverford's campus next Wednesday, and we'll make a plan in class.  

Serendip post optional this week. 

CCW artists visit Haverford for tour, conversation, and lunch at the Dining Center, Wednesday 10 AM to 1 PM.  

 

WEEK FIVE: THE HEGEMONY OF NORMALCY AND REASON

February 19

Class: Lennard J. Davis, "Introduction: Normality, Power, and Culture" The Disability Studies Reader (DSR) (12 dense pages, focus on pages 1-8) 

Chris Gabbard, "A Life Beyond Reason" The Chronicle of Higher Education (4 pages)

Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, "Taking Life: Humans" (pdf, 10 dense pages)

Then read one of these two responses to Singer: 

Harriet McBryde Johnson, "Unspeakable Conversations" in DSR and also via pdf, 28 pages) 
(The pdf contains additional chapters; feel free to read them if you wish, but we will focus on "Unspeakable Conversations," which is about her encounters with philosopher Peter Singer and ties into our focus on reason).

OR, if you've already read Johnson's essay in another class, read the following essay instead. (But also feel free to reread Johnson if you wish).

Sunaura Taylor, Beasts of Burden, Chapter 12, "All Animals Are Equal (But Some Are More Equal than Others)" (pdf, 25 pages)

We will discuss the different ways in which Gabbard, McBryde Johnson, and Taylor challenge Singer's definition of personhood.

Serendip post in response to one or more of the readings 

Notebook: Respond to Livia's first "Lab Report" prompt. 

Schedule individual meetings with Kristin for this week or next week. (I'll have a signup sheet in class).

Visit CCW for Artlab Week #1.

   

WEEK SIX: NEURODIVERSITY AND MENTAL DISABILITY

February 26

Individual meetings with Kristin this week

Begin to formulate an idea for your mid-term project assignment, due March 8.
To get started: Pick up on a thread of something that has engaged you in the reading or conversation, something that’s puzzling you,
or a question you want to ask, and spend some time following that thread. One of your Serendip posts might develop into a project. Maybe
there's a issue we haven't discussed in class that you'd like to explore. 
We'll discuss your ideas together; you do not yet need to have a fully formed plan when we meet!

Project parameters: 

• The project's scope should be equivalent to about 5-7 pages of an analytical essay, but it can take a variety of forms.
• Discuss your topic, material & methods, and parameters of your particular project with me. 
• Bring a critical disability studies perspective to your project.  You needn't simply "apply" this perspective: feel free to challenge, extend, or complicate ideas from disability studies. 
• If your project takes a narrative or artistic form, add an analytical frame or coda that reflects on its relationship to the field of disability studies. 
• Create a resource that others in the class (and beyond) can draw on. You can do this by extending a conversation we've begun in class, asking new questions, including a bibliography or other resource materials, creating an artistic project that can be shared, and in many other ways. 

Margaret Price, Introduction to Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life (pdf) (25 pages)
You can skim or skip the overview of chapters on pages 21-23, and in general focus on sections that interest you.

Ibby Grace, "Cognitively Accessible Language (Why We Should Care)" (1 page) 

In Nick Walker's blog, Neurocosmopolitanism (about 8 pages in all)

      "Neuro-what?"

      "Neurodiversity: Some Basic Terms and Definitions"

      "Neuroqueer: An Introduction"

Amythest Schaber, "What is Stimming?" (10 minutes)
If you wish, browse other videos in the Ask An Autistic series

Melanie Yergeau, "I Stim, Therefore I Am" (3 minutes)

Mel Baggs, "In My Language" (8.5 minutes) 

Optional:
Melanie Yergeau, “Clinically Significant Disturbance: On Theorists Who Theorize Theory of Mind,” in Disability Studies Quarterly (19 pages)
CW: involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and dehumanization
essay plays creatively with the form of an academic article

Serendip post in response to one or more of the readings or viewings, OR respond to someone else's post from this week or last week. 

Visit CCW for Artlab Week #2

Wednesday, Feb. 27, 10-1
3 CCW artists will visit for tour & lunch at the DC

Saturday, March 2, 1 PM

Class trip to A Fierce Kind Love
at FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd.  
We will take a chartered schoolbus. Meet outside Stokes in
the Blue Bus area at about 12:45 as bus leaves at 1 PM sharp.
Play runs 2-3 PM with 30-minute community conversation afterwards.
Bus will then return us to Stokes.
Know Before You Go

 

WEEK SEVEN: SHARING PROJECTS 

March 5

You will each have 8-10 minutes for a conversation about your mid-semester project. (About 4-5 minutes for you to talk, and another 4-5 minutes for discussion). This is not a formal presentation; it is an opportunity to talk about work-in-progress with your classmates. Nonetheless, you need to plan your time carefully. Please give us a sense of the main questions or ideas that motivate your project and the methods & materials you are using to explore these questions. If you are including drawings, images, film clips, or other materials, it would be great to see an example or two-- you can pass things around, or you can project images on the screen. Finally, tell your classmates something you're still struggling with/trying to work out, and ask for ideas and feedback.

By the end of the day on Friday, March 8th (with a grace period over the following few days), please upload your project to Serendip. You can also email me a project separately if you wish, or give me a hard copy/material version. Before our first class *after* spring break, I'd like you to read/view at least three of your classmates' projects. Read them all if you have time! Please post a comment on one or more, including one that no one has yet commented on, by Friday, March 22nd. 

Visit CCW for Artlab Week #3

Serendip: Post a reflection on some aspect of A Fierce Kind of Love: content, production, accessibility, etc. 

 

SPRING BREAK!!!!!

 

WEEK EIGHT: DISABILITY CULTURE IN INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS 

March 19

Susan Nussbaum, Good Kings, Bad Kings (294 pages but a quick read)
CW: sexual abuse, psychiatric abuse, accidental death. Also lots of humor, resilience, and resistance. 

Harriet McBryde Johnson, "The Disability Gulag" (6 pages)

Cheryl Green, In My Home (6 minutes)

In My Home with audio description (6 minutes)

Please read/view at least three of your classmates' mid-term projects on Serendip. Read them all if you have time!

Serendip: Post a response to one or more mid-term projects, including one that has not yet been commented on. Your comments do not have to be posted before class on Tuesday; they can be posted anytime this week, ideally by Friday March 22nd. 

CCW artists come to Haverford for BioArt Week #1, followed by lunch at the DC. 

 

WEEK NINE: DISABILITY CULTURE AND DISABILITY AESTHETICS

March 26

Petra Kuppers, Introduction to Disability Culture and Community Performance: Find a Strange and Twisted Shape, (Read pages 1-14, e-version available through Tripod)

Viewing: Invitation to Dance, directed by Simi Linton and Christian von Tippelskirch (1 hr 25 min). On reserve in Science Library; DVD available through Tripod, also streamable via Kanopy.

Alice Sheppard, "I Dance Because I Can" NYTimes (2 pages)

Alice Sheppard, Embodied Virtuosity: Dances from Disability Culture (8 minutes) 

Tobin Siebers, Disability Aesthetics, Chapter 1: "Introducing Disability Aesthetics" (Focus on pages 15-20 about Judith Scott; the rest of the chapter is optional)

Serendip: post a response to or reflection on Petra Kuppers's questions: "What is disability culture? Is there one, are there many? Who calls culture into being?" OR respond to and expand on someone else's post. Please post by 2 PM on Tuesday so that we can read and incorporate your posts into our class conversation. 

Please bring your lab notebooks to class. 

CCW artists come to Haverford for BioArt Week #2 and lunch at the DC. 

 

WEEK TEN: DEAF CULTURE

April 2

Reading: H-Dirksen L. Bauman and Joseph J. Murray, “Deaf Studies in the 21^st Century: ‘Deaf-Gain’ and the Future of Human Diversity, in DSR, 242-255 (9 dense pages plus notes).

How Architecture Changes for the Deaf (5 minutes)

Christine Sun Kim, The Enchanting Music of Sign Language (15 minutes) 

Inside a Deaf School's Fight for Civil Rights (10 minutes)

Viewing: documentary film Deaf Jam (1 hour, 10 min) On reserve in Science Library; streamable via Kanopy.
If you've seen it before and would prefer to watch something else, browse youtube for clips of ASL poetry and other videos about Deaf culture.
I'd love to know what you find! 

Serendip: Post a question or response to the talk/reading/viewing before class OR post a response to reading/viewing/discussion after class.

Optional: Browse these sites, with thanks to Fiona Smith for the suggestions!

From Fiona:

April 9

Eli Clare, "Introduction," "Thinking about Trigger Warnings," 
 Chapter 1, "Ideology of Cure," and Chapter 4, "Nuances of Cure" in Brilliant Imperfection, (e-book on Tripod, 32 pages total)

Erika Check Hayden,"Tomorrow's Children: What would genome editing really mean for future generations?"
Nature, vol 530. Also in pdf. (about 5 pages) 

Ben Mattlin, "Cure Me? No Thanks"  NY Times

If you haven't already done so, please read Franny's midterm project My Father, Me, & Disability and Claire's midterm project, both of which offer perspectives on the politics of cure.
These are private posts and you must be logged in to Serendip to read them. 

H-Dirksen L. Bauman, Designing Deaf Babies and the Question of Disability, also pdf (5 pages)

Instead of a Serendip post, do a little thinking & preparation for your chosen role on our (very) informal bioethics committees.
Here is a brief overview, Ethics Committees, Programs, and Consultations, from the U of Washington Medical School, of the role of ethics committees. (about 2 pages)

We can't possibly function like an actual committee: we'll simply be trying to bring a variety of perspectives to a couple of ethical/medical issues involving Deaf or disabled people.  
Here's one scenario we'll discuss:
Since we’ve recently done some reading and thinking about deafness and Deaf culture, let’s start by exploring further the question posed in Bauman's article: Is it ethical to use reproductive or genetic technologies (ranging from selecting a sperm donor to pre-implantation genetic screening to CRISPR) to select against a deaf child? To select for a deaf child? To use germline editing to select for or against the trait of deafness in future generations? What are the questions and perspectives we need to consider?

We will schedule individual meetings starting next week to brainstorm about your final projects and to think about reading or other preparation.

Visit CCW if you still need to work on Artlab projects. 

Four optional longer articles: read or skim one or more if you wish:

Keri Cronin, "Modern Eugenics: A Disability Theory Perspective on CRISPR" (Serendip) 

Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, "Bioethics and the Deaf Community, in Signs and Voices (pdf, 11 pages) 

Shawna Benston, "CRISPR: A Crossroads in Genetic Intervention: Pitting the Right to Health against the Right to Disability" Laws 2016 5 (1) (about 15 pages)

Michael Berube, "The Meaning of Life," from Life as Jamie Knows It (pdf, 30 pages)

 

WEEK TWELVE: ACCESS IN THE ARTS & DESIGN

April 16

Please add scans of photos and one or more pages of your lab notebook to the Google folder by Monday, April 22nd. 

Carmen Papalia, “A New Model for Access in the Museum”

Sara Hendren, The Accessible Icon Project (An Icon Is a Verb and Notes on Design Activism) (about 8 pages with images)

Teaching Tolerance lesson plan: Art & Accessibility: Study of Design (about 3 pages) and related lessons.

See links below to the guidelines offered by two high-profile, mainstream arts & exhibition spaces. Browse these guidelines, checking out what interests you. Smaller arts organizations are often at the cutting edge of access, but the big organizations are generally the ones that produce guidelines.    

The Kennedy Center: Sensory Friendly Programming: A Guide for Performing Arts Settings (17 pages)

Smithsonian Guidelines for Accessible Exhibition Design (110 pages with Table of Contents, so you can read selectively)
Read Overview of Guidelines (3 pages) and one section that interests you, otherwise browse 

In your lab notebooks, list/describe 7 access features you've noticed at CCW, ranging from specific art tools or techniques to different ways of imagining communication, community, temporality, productivity, and so forth.  Bring notebooks to class.

Start developing ideas for your final project, and we'll schedule individual meetings this week and next week.

Optional: Additional info about The Accessible Icon Project: 

WEEK THIRTEEN: PROJECT PLANNING

April 23

By Monday, April 22nd:
Please add scans of one or more pages of your lab notebook, plus photos if you wish, to the Google folder
Please add a comment about the ArtLab/BioArt collaboration with CCW to the google doc.
Comments might be most interesting if they focus on a particular moment or particular activity.
You'll find links to both things in an email from me. 

Seniors may choose to give Work-in-Progress Presentations this week (others next week). 

No new reading apart from individual reading related to your final project.

Since we didn't have a chance to discuss Sara Hendren's design activism, check out these two quick interviews with her:

Sara Hendren Interview (7 minutes)

Browse the examples of access strategies and accessible exhibitions below. We will create a list of access tasks for our exhibition and you can sign up for one or more. If you find an interesting example of an access practice or an exhibition that uses access creatively, post it to Serendip, and I'll also list it here.  

In class, we'll work on planning the CCW exhibition and the opening reception, with particular attention to access.

OPTIONAL: If you want more feedback on your proposed project: post on Serendip, or send me by email, a project proposal of about 1-3 paragraphs. See the parameters for the project and work-in-progress presentation below, under next week's tasks. 

If you wish, bring your CCW notebooks to class *to hand in to me.* I want to be able to look/read through them and return them to you before the end of the semester. If you prefer, you can hand yours to me next week.

CCW Exhibition Dates

April 29:  Work for exhibition ready
May 2 and 3, 10-12:30, Installation in VCAM 
Tuesday, May 7, 4:30-6: Exhibition Opening Reception (you do not have to be there the entire time)
May 6-20: Exhibition on display in VCAM Create Space

 

WEEK FOURTEEN: WRAPPING UP

April 30

Class: Work-in-Progress Presentations

Fill out Course Evaluations in class

May 2nd and 3rd, 10-12:30, CCW Exhibition Installation in VCAM (stop by if you wish, especially to work on audio descriptions)
Tuesday, May 7, 4:30-6: Exhibition Opening Reception in VCAM (please come, and invite your friends!) 

In planning your 5-minute presentation (followed by 5 minutes for discussion) keep these things in mind:

• What are the central questions or ideas guiding your project?
• How does a disability studies framework shape your project and the questions you are asking? (Consider the difference between a project "about" disability and a project that also brings questions or perspectives from disability studies to the table) 
• What are your materials and methods? (Close reading of text, images, film clips? Interviews? Multiple media? A particular disciplinary framework? An intersectional approach?)
• What would you like the rest of us to learn from your work so far? What can you share with us now, and what are you still figuring out? How can the rest of us be a resource for you as you work on your project? How can your project serve as a resource for the rest of us, and potentially for others beyond the class?      

Final project parameters: 

• The project's scope should be equivalent to about 8-10 pages of an analytical essay, but it can take a variety of forms.
• Discuss your topic, material & methods, and parameters of your particular project with me. 
• Bring a critical disability studies perspective to your project.  You needn't simply "apply" this perspective: feel free to challenge, extend, or complicate ideas from disability studies. 
• If your project takes a narrative or artistic form, add an analytical frame or coda that reflects on its relationship to the field of disability studies. 
• Create a resource that others in the class (and beyond) can draw on. You can do this by extending a conversation we've begun in class, asking new questions, including a bibliography or other resource materials, creating an artistic project that can be shared, and in many other ways. 

Final projects and portfolios due for seniors on Friday, May 10 (with a grace period until the official college deadline, 5 PM Saturday May 11); for others on Friday, May 17 by noon.

Note: May 11 and May 17 are *college deadlines* for all semester work, so I cannot extend these deadlines without permission of your Dean.

CCW Exhibition Dates:

May 2nd and 3rd, 10-12:30, CCW Exhibition Installation in VCAM
Tuesday, May 7, 4:30-6: Exhibition Opening Event in VCAM.
May 6-May 17: Exhibition on display in VCAM Create Space.

Pick up your own artwork before you leave campus! 

 

PORTFOLIO INSTRUCTIONS 

Below are instructions for submitting your final project, e-portfolio, and course reflection. This process invites you to look back on the work you've done over the semester and reflect on what you’ve learned. 

1. Please post your final project to Serendip.

2. Log onto our course homepage. Under “Quick Links” on the left side of the page, you will see “My E-Portfolio.” Clicking on that will call up your two projects and all of your Serendip postings. This is your “portfolio” for the semester.

3 (Updated: you've already scanned some pages of your lab notebook and I've already seen and returned lab notebooks except those still in the exhibition). 

4. Review your portfolio and reflect on your learning this semester (not just what appears in concrete form in your portfolio). Then, please write an informal essay (about 2 pages) reflecting on this learning, on where you were at the beginning of the semester and where you are now. Do you see any particular questions or themes that occupied you throughout the semester? Think about your projects and your contributions inside and outside the classroom. You can consider some of the questions below, but you do not need to answer all of them. 

How has your understanding of disability been expanded or challenged? In what contexts did learning happen for you, and how did you contribute to others’ learning?  What will you take from this course into your future courses and your future as a human?

You can email your reflection to me or post it on Serendip. If you post on Serendip, tag your piece by checking the box “Self-Evaluation and Reflection." I look forward to spending some time with your portfolios and your reflections. If you have any questions whatsoever about the process, please feel free to email me.

Your portfolio includes your two projects, your Serendip posts, your CCW notebook (perhaps returned to you earlier) and a written reflection on your learning in the course.

Final projects and portfolios due for seniors by Saturday, May 11 by 5 PM; for others on Friday, May 17 by noon.