#  ANTHRO 1713 - Disability and the Body  

 





 Semester:   Spring 

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 Year offered:  2025 

 

 

 

 Dr. E. Irem Az

 W 6:00-8:00pm

 Is disability a human constant? Is it the physical outcome of an event/accident (including particular genetic combinations and developmental events in the fetus) or exposure to toxicity? Is it merely a social consequence of bodily norms, hegemonic relational forms, political and economic structures, and ableist infrastructures? How do both the medicalization (including pathologization) of disability and Western-centric understandings of identity-building (making sense of one’s self through difference) obscure the processes of disablement and debilitation as historical and material preconditions and effects of structural inequalities? What are the potentials and limitations of a disability justice framework that revolves around differences and abilities that are already in the body? What kinds of disability activism have the potential to address processes of disablement and debilitation that are part and parcel of racial capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism? To address these and other questions, this seminar course is built on the literatures of disability studies and the anthropology of the body. The course offers an overview of theoretical, interdisciplinary, and anthropological responses to so-called “non-normative” and “marginal” physical (including cognitive) capacities, which always co-emerge with experiences of class, race, gendered and sexual difference, technology, nationality, geography, and the built and natural environment.



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Undergraduate ](/course-area/departmental-courses-primarily-undergraduate-students)
- [ Social Anthropology ](/course-area/social-anthropology)
- [ 2025 ](/course-year/2025)
- [ Spring ](/season/spring)