English 486 - Disability, Media, and the Art of Access

(Offered as ENGL 488 and FAMS 415) This advanced seminar examines disability as a central concern of media history, theory, and practice, with particular attention to access as an aesthetic and ethical principle. Focusing on moving image and audiovisual media, we will explore how dominant media forms have historically presumed able-bodied and neurotypical users—and how disabled scholars, artists, and activists have challenged and transformed these assumptions. We will study disability and media across a wide range of topics, including: disability tropes and metaphors; prosthetics and assistive technologies; captions, audio description, and other audiovisual access features; disability maker cultures; inclusive interface and exhibition design; and crip modes of spectatorship and listening. Throughout, we’ll be guided by a focus on access less as a legal obligation or inconvenient afterthought (think: captions added after a film has been completed, or a ramp added to an inaccessible building) than an opportunity to reframe how media are created, exhibited, and interpreted.

Students will engage in hybrid creative and critical activities. In-class activities will include close audiovisual analysis, discussions, on-the-spot writing, and workshops. Outside of class, students will complete weekly readings and screenings, conduct accessibility studies of campus venues, and develop original written or practice-based work. Course assessments will be based on regular participation, short hand-written/typed in-class responses, at least one audiovisual assignment (with introductory training in required software), and a final independent project that may take the form of a scholarly essay or a practice-based research project.

Authors studied may include Jina B. Kim, Sami Schalk, Mia Mingus, Mara Mills, Jonathan Sterne, and Neta Alexander. Artists and filmmakers studied may include Jordan Lord, Carolyn Lazard, Christine Sun Kim, and Hara Kazuo. We will engage materials from multiple historical periods and media forms, including experimental film and video, documentary, digital media, and contemporary art practices.

This course meets the Integrated Practices requirement for FAMS.

Requisite: A 200-level Foundations Course in ENGL or FAMS; prior video production course highly recommended.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Rangan.

How to handle overenrollment: If overenrolled priority will be given to FAMS and ENGL majors.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Assignments in this course will include weekly reading; in-class audiovisual analysis; occasional engagements with guest speakers; field visits to venues on campus for accessibility studies; at least one audiovisual assignment (some basic training in required software will be provided); and an independent research project (either a scholarly paper or practice-based project).