You can watch the presentation early if you like, here (please forgive the spoiler-y thumbnail… blame YouTube):
STS & HIST 2054: Engineering Cultures (Online) Syllabus
Fall 2020
CRNs: 90077 & 85639
Instructor: Joshua Earle
Email Address: jearle@vt.edu
Office Hours: Remotely (via Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, or other program) by appointment
Description
Engineering Cultures is a not a conventional history course with all the topics centered on the same period or place. Rather, it is a non-traditional course which introduces both historical and contemporary themes relevant to cultures of engineers in different nations. This course is designed to lead you around the world to understand the formations of engineers in different locations, what the engineers are up to, and how they work towards engineering problems and solutions wildly differently. We will explore a brief history of engineers and their education, social status and responsibility through space and time. Overall, this class will help you develop global leadership and multicultural perspectives, and become more sensitive to issues of global engineering and engineers.
This course will be perhaps more reading than you are used to. You can expect between 20 and 100 pages to be assigned each week, and will be quizzed on the full range of reading in those weeks. Developing the skills necessary to manage this reading (along with the requirements of the other courses you are taking) is a key part of what this course will teach you. If you find yourself struggling to complete the readings, I am always free to help with strategies and tricks that can make things easier.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successfully completing this class, you should be able to:
- Understand engineering as a product of Dominant Images, practices, and identities embedded in wider social, cultural and historical contexts
- Recognize, appreciate and compare diverse engineering cultures in the countries (the UK, France, Germany, the USA, Japan and Korea) selected in this class
- Become more familiar with the challenges of being a global engineer, including becoming more adapted to working with people from backgrounds different than yours, who define problems differently than you do.
- Critically reflect on your own personal and career trajectory along the similar line that we analyze how people in other cultural and historical settings become engineers
- Actively apply the knowledge in this class to your life, for example, by examining how people around you define (either engineering or non-engineering) problems and work towards the solutions differently from you
- Build up long-termed skills to explore issues in engineering that are interesting and relevant to you, but are not covered in this course due to the constraints of the course schedule
Course Materials
All required readings will be made available on Canvas, or linked to a publicly-available source. You will NOT need to purchase any materials or access to materials for this course.
Basic Needs Policy
Your safety and wellbeing are more important than anything going on in this course. If you find yourself having trouble, please reach out to me, even if it is just to talk. If you are struggling to secure food, housing, or safety you should reach out to the Dean of Students for support (many programs exist that can be of incredible help). Furthermore, please notify me if you are comfortable doing so (caveat: I am a mandatory reporter, see below). I will be happy to offer what support and information is available to me.
Accessibility for all students
Disability rights are civil rights, and disabled people fought hard to secure the rights to your accommodations in the classroom and workplace. Those people who fought for your accommodations were spit on, arrested, isolated, and dismissed, but they wouldn’t take less than they deserve when it came to securing your rights to access education and other public goods. They are my heroes, and their work also works to accommodate me within our classroom as a multiply disabled university employee. You can bet that I really want you to use your accommodations, or help you get them if you don’t have any in place, or find a system that works for us if you don’t care to go through the official channels. Most requests are easy – and you don’t have to be disabled or diagnosed to request from me; I am happy to distribute any in-class readings in larger or otherwise more accessible fonts, disability issue or not! And, if you need text-to-speech software to read aloud with you, I would love to introduce you to my friends in Accessible Technologies and then make sure you get the formats you need to use the AT.
Assignments
1) What is an Engineer?
As we will be exploring how engineers are made, how they define and solve problems, and what the Dominant Images which shape both of those practices, we must first become aware of what some of our own dominant images of engineers are.
To this end, I want you to (in your search engine of choice… no Bing-shaming) do an image search for the term “engineer.” Take a screenshot of the first page of your results, and include it at the beginning of your submission. In 300-500 words describe what you see. What story about engineers do these images tell?
In your description, please consider these questions:
1) Who is included in these images? Who is not included?
2) Does one kind of person dominate the images? Why do you think that is?
3) Are these images an accurate representation of engineers and engineering (even at the clothing-level)?
4) What are the demographics of the images?
4a) Do they accurately represent the profession of engineering? Why or why not?
4b) Do they align with the general demographics of the country (the U.S.)? Why or why not?
5) Do these images feel encouraging or discouraging towards engineering as a profession to you? Are there people who might feel otherwise? If so, who and why?
Grading for this assignment is almost binary. If you turn in something sufficient, you will get full points (i.e. I’m not going to nitpick about grammar, spelling, and structure). If not, I will return it with feedback so you can re-submit for full points.
Please turn this piece in via File upload in Canvas by 11:59pm Friday, August 28. Worth up to 50 points.
2) Reflection #1
You are all here for a reason. In this reflection I want you to look inward, and reflect on that reason. Write me a short piece which describes why you are here in this course. Yes, I know, this course covers certain requirements for your majors, minors, and graduation, but why this course? In writing about this, please try to cover the following questions:
- What do you want to get out of this course? Beyond the checkmark for CLE area, Pathways, or major requirement. You chose this course instead of other possibilities. What do you feel like it will bring to you that others wouldn’t?
- What do you understand the relationship between engineering and culture to be?
- What relationship do you have, if any, with engineering? This can be personal (you are an engineering major), relationship (a family member or friend might be an engineer), or something else. What excites you about engineering, and learning about engineering?
There is no word minimum or maximum for this assignment. Please be as descriptive as you feel you need to be, but do not feel you are required to send me a 5-page paper. A 3-sentence, 200-word piece will probably not be enough to satisfy me, but neither would said 5-page manifesto. 1-2 pages should be sufficient (400-1000 words).
Grading for this assignment is almost binary. If you turn in something sufficient, you will get full points (i.e. I’m not going to nitpick about grammar, spelling, and structure). If not, I will return it with feedback so you can re-submit for full points.
This paper is due by 11:59pm Friday, August 28. Please submit it on Canvas.
Worth up to 50 points.
3) Question Formation Exercises. Due (nearly) every week.
Part 1, the questions, is due by 11:59pm Tuesday. Ask one (1) “how” or “why” question about your readings for that week. Follow your questions with a quoted and cited passage from the readings that inspired the question, and a 150-300 word explanation of why the question is a good/important one.
Part 2, answering a question, is due by the end of the day on Thursday of that same week. Posit an answer to one of your classmates’ questions. You should reference at least one of the readings (it can be the same reading the question was about, but any quote you use should be different that the one used by the asker). Please spend 150-300 words on your answer.
Worth up to 30 points per week (15 points per post (question or answer)), for a total of 300 for the semester.
There are 12 opportunities to submit a QFE, but you only need to complete 10 to get full points.
4) Reading Quizzes
At the end of each week, you will complete a short quiz on that week’s readings. Each quiz is 5 questions, multiple choice. The quizzes are open-book/open-browser-tab, and you have 3 swings at getting 100%. Questions will be only on the readings, and will not include anything resembling a “trick” question (i.e. including a “wrong” answer that is a slightly-misquoted passage from the text). If you have completed the readings for the week, these quizzes should be incredibly quick and easy.
Each question is worth 5 points for a total of 25 points per quiz, and 150 points for the term.
5) Short Essays
At the end of each module, I will post a set of questions for you to answer. Choose one of the questions and spend 500-750 words answering the question. You will need to include at least one quote from the readings (presented like so: “Text from source goes here,” (Author, Date, Page #).).
The questions will require you to make connections between readings, and between the readings and your own experience. Grades will be determined by the completeness with which you answered the question, clarity of writing, and spelling and grammar.
Upon receiving your graded essay back, you will have exactly one week (7 calendar days), to revise it and resubmit in order to improve your grade.
Each essay is worth up to 80 points, for a total of 300 points for the semester.
5) Reflection #2.
Return to your first reflection. Read through it and consider your experience in this course. Did it turn out like you thought it would? Do you have a different perspective now than you did when we started? Write me a short piece about the differences between what you expected coming in and what you experienced. In doing so, please answer the following questions:
- Did you get from this course what you thought you would? Do you feel what you learned was valuable for you (personally or within your major or minor)?
- Did your view of how engineering, culture, and Dominant Images are related change at all? If so, how?
- What sections of the course did you find particularly interesting? Why?
- What sections did you find less interesting? Why?
- Do you feel like your relationship to engineering has changed through this course? If so, how?
As with the first reflection, there is no minimum or maximum word count for this essay. Be as descriptive as you need to. Obviously a 200-word piece will not be sufficient, but neither should you send me a massive tome.
This essay is due by 11:59pm Wednesday, December 9.
Worth up to 50 points.
Possible total points: 1100
Points out of which your grade will be calculated: 1000
Extra Credit:
Life happens. We get sick, we drink too much, we burn out and need a mental health day… it happens to us all. To that end, should you be so unfortunate to miss an assignment, or didn’t do as well on one as you would have liked, I allow for unlimited extra credit. You will need to pitch a project to me, discuss it in person or over email, along with a possible point total and rubric before you turn it in. Any extra credit must line up with the themes of the course, but in theory you could do none of the work assigned and still get 100% if you do enough extra credit. That said, the amount of effort per point for extra credit will usually be higher than your average assignment from the syllabus.
Principles of Community
Virginia Tech is a public land-grant university, committed to teaching and learning, research, and outreach to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world community. Learning from the experiences that shape Virginia Tech as an institution, we acknowledge those aspects of our legacy that reflected bias and exclusion. Therefore, we adopt and practice the following principles as fundamental to our on-going efforts to increase access and inclusion and to create a community that nurtures learning and growth for all of its members:
- We affirm the inherent dignity and value of every person and strive to maintain a climate for work and learning based on mutual respect and understanding.
- We affirm the right of each person to express thoughts and opinions freely. We encourage open expression within a climate of civility, sensitivity, and mutual respect.
- We affirm the value of human diversity because it enriches our lives and the University. We acknowledge and respect our differences while affirming our common humanity.
- We reject all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including those based on age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, and veteran status. We take individual and collective responsibility for helping to eliminate bias and discrimination and for increasing our own understanding of these issues through education, training, and interaction with others.
- We pledge our collective commitment to these principles in the spirit of the Virginia Tech motto of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).
Honor Code
The Undergraduate Honor Code pledge that each member of the university community agrees to abide by states: “As a Hokie, I will conduct myself with honor and integrity at all times. I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor will I accept the actions of those who do.”
Students enrolled in this course are responsible for abiding by the Honor Code. A student who has doubts about how the Honor Code applies to any assignment is responsible for obtaining specific guidance from the course instructor before submitting the assignment for evaluation. Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the University community from the requirements and expectations of the Honor Code.
For additional information about the Honor Code, please visit: https://www.honorsystem.vt.edu/Links to an external site.
To add to this statement, please ask questions as we go if you want clarification on what is expected in this course.
Mandatory Reporting
Please be advised that, as a faculty member at Virginia Tech, I am a mandatory reporter, which means that I am obligated to notify the Title IX Office at Virginia Tech if I am given knowledge about sexual assault or violence by other employees and students. Confidential sources, those who do not have to report to the Title IX Office, include staff members at the Schiffert Health Center, the Cook Counseling Center, Virginia Tech Mental Health Centers, and The Virginia Tech Women’s Center.
Course Schedule
Week 1: Aug. 24-28
Readings:
Brody: An Interview with John Sununu (1992) (8 pages)
Florman: Trial and Error in Washington (1992) (1 page)
Downey: Culture as Dominant Images (9 pages)
Downey: What is Global Engineering Education For? (5 pages)
Winner: Do Artifacts Have Politics? (17 Pages)
Supplemental Video:
Welcome to Engineering Cultures
6-Part playlist
Week 2: Aug 31 – Sept 4
Readings:
Han & Downey, Engineers for Korea,
Chapter 1: What Are Korean Engineers For? (pp. 1-20)
Chapter 2: Five Koreas Without Engineers: 1876-1960 (pp. 23-48)
Week 3: Sept 7-11 (Labor Day Week)
Readings:
Han & Downey, Engineers for Korea,
Chapter 3: Technical Workers for Light Industry: 1961-1970 (pp. 53-73)
Chapter 4: Engineers for Heavy and Chemical Industries: 1970-1979 (pp. 77-97)
Week 4: Sept 14-18
Reading:
Han & Downey, Engineers for Korea,
Chapter 5: Loss of Privilege and Visibility: 1980-1998 (pp. 101-125)
Chapter 6: Engineers for a Post-Catch-Up Korea? (pp. 131-145)
Chapter 7: Engineers and Korea (pp. 149-158)
Week 5: Sept 21-25
Reading:
Engineering Our Future (1980)
Smiles – The Lives of Engineers (1862)
Smith & Whalley – Engineers in Britain (1996)
Supplemental Video:
Great Britain 1.1: Introduction to Great Britain (Links to an external site.)
4-Part Playlist
Week 6: Sept 28- Oct 2
Reading:
Buchanan – Education or Training
Morice – Britain and European Engineering Education
Ward – Public Schools and Industry
Supplemental Video:
(see previous)
Week 7: Oct 5-9
Reading:
Downey & Wada – Avoiding Inferiority: Global Engineering Education Across Japan (2011)
Henry Dyer (1882) – Valedictory Address to the Students of the Imperial College of Engineering
Ohashi – Engineering Education in Japan, Past and Present (2004)
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sprCr7u2-4&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb6Y6R-avWZmf-VyXwJhwf6B (Links to an external site.)
Youtube Playlist, Parts 1.1-2.8
Week 8: Oct 12-16 (Fall Break on the 16th)
Reading:
McCormick – Japanese engineers as Corporate Salarymen (1996)
Traweek – Cultural Differences in High Energy Physics (1993)
Vonderau – The Cultural Gap Experienced by a Gaijin Engineering Executive in japan (2000)
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sprCr7u2-4&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb6Y6R-avWZmf-VyXwJhwf6B (Links to an external site.)
Youtube Playlist, Parts 3.1-4.7
Week 9: Oct 19-23
Reading:
Gispen – The Long Quest for Professional Identity (1996)
Hughes – Technology (1980)
Huning & Mitcham – The Historical and Philosophical Development of Engineering Ethics in Germany (1993)
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa_vsElL94k&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb6R0_hkSwPE4Kl5FfKo3HAy (Links to an external site.)
YouTube Playlist, Parts 1.1 – 2.2
Week 10: Oct 26-30
Reading:
Kennedy – Engineering Education in Germany (1996)
Legg – German Engineering at the Crossroads (1990)
Dutta – Daimler-Chrysler A Cultural Mismatch (2001)
Hollman, Carpes & Beuron – The Daimler Chrysler Merger – A Cultural Mismatch? (2010)
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa_vsElL94k&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb6R0_hkSwPE4Kl5FfKo3HAy (Links to an external site.)
YouTube Playlist, Parts 2.2 – 3.5
Week 11: Nov 2-6
Reading:
None. Catch-up week. Remember to Vote.
Week 12: Nov 9-13
Reading:
Taylor – The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
Reynolds – The Engineer in 19th Century America (1991)
Reuss – Politics and Technology in the Army Corps of Engineers 1850-1950 (1991) [1985]
Surowiecki – Turn of the Century (2002)
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlPiMtsO1ys&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb4oVuaHrY_pCBgrnfdBaLTx (Links to an external site.)
YouTube Playlist, Parts 1.1 – 2.4
Week 13: Nov 16-20
Reading:
Borgdona et al – Engineering Education – Innovation through Integration (1993)
Bowen – The Engineering Student Pipeline (1988)
Landis – The Case for Minority Engineering Programs (1988)
Wallenstein – Asians and Asian-Americans at Virginia Tech
Wallenstein – The First Black Students at Virginia Tech
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlPiMtsO1ys&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb4oVuaHrY_pCBgrnfdBaLTx (Links to an external site.)
YouTube Playlist, Parts 3.1 – 5.5
Thanksgiving Week.
No class
Week 14: Nov 30-Dec 4
Reading:
Cain – Raising and Watering a City (1991) [1972]
Lohmann et al – Defining, Developing and Assessing Global Competence in Engineers (2006)
Noble – The Emergence of the Professional Engineer (1977)
Sinclair – At the Turn of the Screw (1991) [1969]
Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlPiMtsO1ys&list=PLBs7E8Ml0Kb4oVuaHrY_pCBgrnfdBaLTx (Links to an external site.)
YouTube Playlist, Parts 6.1 – 8.3
Technology and Disability Summer II 2020
Course Syllabus
STS 3284: Technology and Disability
Description
This undergraduate course is designed to introduce students to the material cultures surrounding disability, the social meaning of “health” technologies, and the lived experiences of those who deploy, resist, and wrestle with technologies aimed at their bodies and minds.
Having successfully completed this course, undergraduate students will be able to:
- Identify landmarks in the history of technologies for disabilities
- Understand the social and medical models of disability and how those play into technological design
- Recognize and critique common narratives and assumptions about technology and disability
- Analyze the relationship between disability studies and engineering orientations of disability
- Discuss contemporary issues and controversies about technologies for disability communities
- Identify, lift up, and defend the voices of disabled people in the context of policy and engineering
- Recognize ableism in social narratives about technology and disability
Specific topics include:
- Cochlear ear implants and hearing aids
- Prosthetic arms and legs
- Exoskeletons
- Text-to-speech interfaces
- Apps for ipads aimed at a people with disabilities
- Closed captioning
- ADA specifications
- Mobility aids (wheelchairs, crutches, scooters, canes)
We will pay close attention to the historical and social contexts within which technologies are aimed at disabilities, resistance to and acceptance of technologies, and identity and passing in the context of technologies. In all these things, we will take disabled people as experts on the experience of disability and on disability-related technologies.
Accessibility for all students
Disability rights are civil rights, and disabled people fought hard to secure the rights to your accommodations in the classroom and workplace. Those people who fought for your accommodations were spit on, arrested, isolated, and dismissed, but they wouldn’t take less than they deserve when it came to securing your rights to access education and other public goods. They are my heroes, and their work also works to accommodate me within our classroom as a multiply disabled university employee. You can bet that I really want you to use your accommodations, or help you get them if you don’t have any in place, or find a system that works for us if you don’t care to go through the official channels. Most requests are easy – and you don’t have to be disabled or diagnosed to request from me; I am happy to distribute any in-class readings in larger or otherwise more accessible fonts, disability issue or not! And, if you need text-to-speech software to read aloud with you, I would love to introduce you to my friends in Accessible Technologies and then make sure you get the formats you need to use the AT.
Assignments:
1) Syllabus Quiz. Due by Tuesday Sept. 3. Worth up to 50 points, you can re-take it until you get 100%.
2) Question Formation Exercises. Due every week.
Part 1, the questions, is due by 5pm Wednesday. Ask two (2) “how” or “why” questions about your readings for that week. Each question should be about a different sub-topic that you chose for that week (e.g. if for week 2 you chose the Institutions and Stigma sections to cover, one question would be about the Institutions readings, teh other about the Stigma readings). You should include which section your question is about either in the header to your post or on the first line of the post. Follow your questions with a quoted and cited passage from the readings that inspired the question, and a 150-300 word explanation of why the question is a good/important one.
Part 2, answering 2 other questions, is due by the end of the day on Friday of that same week. Posit an answer to 2 of your classmates’ questions. At least one question you answer should be from a section you did NOT read that week. You should skim the piece from which the question was taken in order to gain some good context for the question itself. You should reference at least one of the readings (it can be the same one the question was about, but any quote you use should be different that the one used by the asker), but I urge you to try to use the readings you did to answer the question about the readings you didn’t. This should help you draw connections between the different reading sections. Please spend 150-300 words on your answer.
Worth up to 100 points per week (25 points per post (question or answer)), for a total of 600 for the semester.
3) Photo Essay. Take 3-5 pictures of various spaces to which you have relatively easy access (including being able to keep 6ft of physical distance from others). These pictures should capture some part of the built environment or infrastructure that you consider to be discriminatory to disabled people. Only one picture may be of any kind of discriminatory architecture (e.g. you can only have one picture of a set of stairs). Describe the image, and describe who it discriminates against, how it discriminates against them, and how it might be built otherwise to be non-discriminatory. Post your essay to the appropriate discussion board by 11:59pm Friday, July 24th. Worth up to 150 points.
4) Reflection 1.
You are all here for a reason. In this reflection I want you to look inward, and reflect on that reason. Write me a short piece which describes why you are here in this course. Yes, I know, this course covers certain requirements for your majors, minors, and graduation, but why this course? In writing about this, please try to cover the following questions:
- What do you want to get out of this course? Beyond the checkmark for CLE area, Pathways, or major requirement. You chose this course instead of other possibilities. What do you feel like it will bring to you that others wouldn’t?
- What do you understand the relationship between disability and technology to be?
- What relationship do you have, if any, with disability? This can be personal (you identify as disabled yourself), relationship (a family member or friend might be disabled), or something else. You can be vague here if you would prefer not to disclose specifics to me, but if you do so, try to investigate why you wish to be vague, and what that might mean to you and to society.
There is no word minimum or maximum for this assignment. Please be as descriptive as you feel you need to be, but do not feel you are required to send me a 5-page paper. A 3-sentence, 200-word piece will probably not be enough to satisfy me, but neither would said 5-page manifesto. 1-2 pages should be sufficient (400-1000 words).
Grading for this assignment is almost binary. If you turn in something sufficient, you will get full points (i.e. I’m not going to nitpick about grammar, spelling, and structure). If not, I will return it with feedback so you can re-submit for full points.
This paper is due by 11:59pm Sunday, July 12. Please submit it on Canvas.
Worth up to 50 points.
5) Reflection 2.
Return to your first reflection. Read through it and consider your experience in this course. Did it turn out like you thought it would? Do you have a different perspective now than you did when we started? Write me a short piece about the differences between what you expected coming in and what you experienced. In doing so, please answer the following questions:
- Did you get from this course what you thought you would? Do you feel what you learned was valuable for you (personally or within your major or minor)?
- Did your view of how technology and disability are related change at all? If so, how?
- What sections of the course did you find particularly interesting? Why?
- What sections did you find less interesting? Why?
- Do you feel like your relationship to disability has changed through this course? If so, how?
As with the first reflection, there is no minimum or maximum word count for this essay. Be as descriptive as you need to. Obviously a 200-word piece will not be sufficient, but neither should you send me a massive tome.
This essay is due by 11:59pm Friday, August 14.
Worth up to 150 points.
Possible total points: 1000
Extra Credit:
Life happens. We get sick, we drink too much, we burn out and need a mental health day… it happens to us all. To that end, should you be so unfortunate to miss an assignment, or didn’t do as well on one as you would have liked, I allow for unlimited extra credit. You will need to pitch a project to me, discuss it in person or over email, along with a possible point total and rubric before you turn it in. Any extra credit must line up with the themes of the course, but in theory you could do none of the work assigned and still get 100% if you do enough extra credit. That said, the amount of effort per point for extra credit will usually be higher than your average assignment from the syllabus.
Principles of Community
Virginia Tech is a public land-grant university, committed to teaching and learning, research, and outreach to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world community. Learning from the experiences that shape Virginia Tech as an institution, we acknowledge those aspects of our legacy that reflected bias and exclusion. Therefore, we adopt and practice the following principles as fundamental to our on-going efforts to increase access and inclusion and to create a community that nurtures learning and growth for all of its members:
- We affirm the inherent dignity and value of every person and strive to maintain a climate for work and learning based on mutual respect and understanding.
- We affirm the right of each person to express thoughts and opinions freely. We encourage open expression within a climate of civility, sensitivity, and mutual respect.
- We affirm the value of human diversity because it enriches our lives and the University. We acknowledge and respect our differences while affirming our common humanity.
- We reject all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including those based on age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, and veteran status. We take individual and collective responsibility for helping to eliminate bias and discrimination and for increasing our own understanding of these issues through education, training, and interaction with others.
- We pledge our collective commitment to these principles in the spirit of the Virginia Tech motto of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).
Honor Code
The Undergraduate Honor Code pledge that each member of the university community agrees to abide by states: “As a Hokie, I will conduct myself with honor and integrity at all times. I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor will I accept the actions of those who do.”
Students enrolled in this course are responsible for abiding by the Honor Code. A student who has doubts about how the Honor Code applies to any assignment is responsible for obtaining specific guidance from the course instructor before submitting the assignment for evaluation. Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the University community from the requirements and expectations of the Honor Code.
For additional information about the Honor Code, please visit: https://www.honorsystem.vt.edu/Links to an external site.
To add to this statement, please ask questions as we go if you want clarification on what is expected in this course.
Mandatory Reporting
Please be advised that, as a faculty member at Virginia Tech, I am a mandatory reporter, which means that I am obligated to notify the Title IX Office at Virginia Tech if I am given knowledge about sexual assault or violence by other employees and students. Confidential sources, those who do not have to report to the Title IX Office, include staff members at the Schiffert Health Center, the Cook Counseling Center, Virginia Tech Mental Health Centers, and The Virginia Tech Women’s Center.
Course Schedule
Week 1, July 8-10: Disorientations
Wednesday, July 8:
- Read Magic Wand by Lynn Manning
- Watch “Examined Life: Judith Butler’s Walk with Sunaura Taylor (Links to an external site.)“
- Read Chapters 1: Disability, 42: Normal, & 58: Technology from Keywords for Disability Studies (2015)
Thursday, July 9:
- Read: “Care Webs: Experiments in Creating Collective Access” from Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018). pp 32-68.
- Watch: Cripborgs Resist (Part 1), by Dr. Ashley Shew on Disability Tropes
Friday, July 10:
- Watch Stella Young – I’m Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much.
- Read: Goering – Rethinking Disability: The Social Model of Disability and Chronic Disease
- Watch: Cripborgs Resist (Part 2), by Dr. Ashley Shew on Models of Disability and the limits of technological intervention.
Week 2, July 13-17: Violence Against Disabled People; State, Systemic, and Individual
Choose two (2) or more subsections to cover.
Science as Violence
- Read Adam Cohen Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck (2016), Introduction and Chapter 1.
- Read Chapter 23: Eugenics in Keywords for Disability Studies.
- Read The Science of Human Perfection (2012) Epilogue
- Read: David Perry: We’re Failing our Test Run for CRISPR.
Institutions:
- Read Chapter 35: Institutions from Keywords for Disability Studies.
- Read this piece on the incidence of disability (not including mental illness) in Prison populations: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2016/07/18/141447/disabled-behind-bars/ (Links to an external site.)
- Read this piece on the incidence of Mental Illness in prison populations: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/numbers-mental-illness-behind-bars (Links to an external site.)
- Read this piece on Disability, Aging, and Nursing Homes: https://qz.com/1872956/is-there-a-better-alternative-to-nursing-homes/ (Links to an external site.)
- Read The Disability Gulag by Harriet McBryde Johnson
Law:
- Read Susan Schweik The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public (2009) Introduction
- Read this Guardian Piece on how Up to Half of People Killed by US Police are Disabled.
- Peruse/listen to these NPR reports on the Americans with Disabilities Act, 25 years after its passing: https://www.npr.org/series/425918451/the-americans-with-disability-act-at-25
- Skim the ADA Checklist for New Facilities.
Stigma:
- Read Chapter 37: Stigma from Keywords for Disability Studies.
- Read Imani Barbarin: Things I’ve Learned in this Disabled, Black, Female Body
- Read Kim Sauder: When Accessibility Gets Labeled Wasteful.
- Read Bill Peace on why the MDA (aka “Jerry’s Kids”) Telethon is bad: https://badcripple.blogspot.com/2009/09/mda-telethon-is-destructive.html.
- Alice Wong writes about Straw Bans: https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities
Interpersonal Violence (All of the Trigger and Content Warnings)
- Read Forever Small: The Strange Case of Ashley X (2015) by Eva Feder Kittay
- Peruse the website on the Disability Day of Mourning here: https://disability-memorial.org/
- Read or listen to this NPR report on sexual assault of Disabled People: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/08/570224090/the-sexual-assault-epidemic-no-one-talks-about
Week 3, July 20-24: Infrastructure and the (Built) Environment
Choose two (2) or more subsections to cover.
Infrastructure
- Peruse the Project Sidewalk website.
- Read: Do Artifacts Have Politics by Langdon Winner
- Read/Listen to this piece on Curb Cuts: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/curb-cuts/
The Built Environment
- Watch David Laposky tours the new Ryerson University (Canada) Building.
- Read Callous Objects (2018) by Robert Rosenberger.
War and the Military
- Read Chapter 4: “Will Not Let Die” from The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability by Jasbir K. Puar (2017)
- Peruse the Wikipedia pages on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), it’s subsidiary the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization.
- Read this piece on using Virtual Reality to treat PTSD in soldiers.
The Environment
- Read Chapter 6 Bodies of Nature: The Environmental Politics of Disability from Feminist, Queer, Crip (2013) by Alison Kafer
- Read: Sunaura Taylor, “Vegans Freaks, and Animals: Towards a New Table Fellowship” (2013)
- Read this report on Climate Change’s disproportionate effects on disabled people.
Week 4, July 27-31: Digital Technologies and Media
Choose two (2) or more subsections to cover.
Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants, Audism and d/Deaf culture
- Watch Sound and Fury
- Watch this TED talk by Heather Artinian, the young girl from S&F, 13 years later.
- “Stop Sharing Those Feel-Good Cochlear Implant Stories”
- Sara Novic’s A Clearer Message on Cochlear Implants
- Peruse this Page on Alexander Graham Bell and his association with Eugenics and Oralism regarding d/Deaf people. Follow some of the links, and see where they take you.
Speech, Text, & Captions
- Read: Better Than Well (2003), Chapter 1: The Perfect Voice
- Read: Go Carolina, from Me Talk Pretty One Day
- Read this piece on YouTube’s (terrible) auto-captions
- Read this piece on Advocacy for using alternate forms of communication.
Social Media
- Peruse the Twitter hashtags #DisabilityTaughtMe, #DisabledAndCute, #a11y (which stands for accessibility, not ally), #DisabilityDongle, #SuckItAbleism. Try to find other disability hashtags, what are those about?
- Also, peruse the twitter accounts of Imani Barbarin (@Imani_Barbarin), Alice Wong (@DisVisability & @SFdirewolf), Jaipreet Virdi (@jaivirdi), Matthew Cortland (@mattbc), and Ashley Shew (@ashleyshoo). What topics are they discussing? With who?
- Peruse the podcast Disability Visability. Find 2 or 3 that you find interesting and listen to them.
- Revisit Care Webs (from week 1), paying particular attention to how social media is used in creating these webs.
Representation in Media
- Watch Code of the Freaks on representation in media.
- Peruse the Disability Tropes on this website, pay particular attention to ones like “Abandon the Disabled,” “Blind Seer,” “Bury your disabled,” “Disability as an excuse for Jerkassery,” “Disabled Means Helpless,” “Eunuchs are Evil,” “Mental Handicap, Moral Deficiency” and the like. Which of your favorite shows and movies are listed?
- Read this piece on the portrayal of disabled people by nondisabled actors.
Futurism
- Watch Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement
- Read Let COVID-19 Expand Awareness of Disability Tech by Ashley Shew.
- Listen to Flash Forward podcasts: Bodies: INKRX, and Bodies: Ghostbot
Week 5, August 3-7: Prosthetics and Transmobility
Choose two (2) or more subsections to cover.
Prosthetics
- Raman Srinivasan’s “Technology Sits Cross-Legged” (full paper posted on CANVAS)
- Donna Walton’s “What’s a Leg Got to Do With it?”
- Catherine Campbell’s “Giving up a 3-D Printed Prosthetic for a Different Vision of Perfect”
- Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s “Hands” From Staring: How We Look (2009)
- Jen Lee Reeves’s “Prosthetics Do Not Change Everything”
Sport
- Read The Audacity of Oscar Pistorius by Fred Barbash
- Watch Murderball
- Peruse the Wikis on the Paralympic Games, and the Special Olympics
- Additional Sports coverage: We’re the Superhumans (Rio 2016), Rights Not Games Response, Adweek Coverage with Clips form individuals in the video. Also check out recent Toyota ads.
Transmobility
- Nelson et al., “Transmobility”
- Jillian Weise’s “Common Cyborg”
- Haimrai & Fritsch: Crip Technoscience Manifesto
Exoskeletons
- Zoltan Istvan’s “In the Transhumanist Age, We Should Be Repairing Disabilities, not Sidewalks”
- Rose Eveleth’s “The Hidden Burden of Exoskeletons for the Disabled”
- Kim Sauder’s “When Celebrating Accessible Technology Reinforces Ableism”
- Emily Ladau’s “Fix Discriminatory Attitudes, Not Sidewalks”
Disability Dongles & Lifehacks
- Read Electric Moms and Quad Drivers by Bess Williamson
- Read s.e. smith’s piece on Disability Dongles. (Links to an external site.)
- Read Liz Jackson’s We Are the Original Lifehackers. (Links to an external site.)
Week 6, August 10-14: Neurodiversity and Crip Futures
Choose two (2) or more subsections to cover.
Autism and ABA
- Julia Bascom’s “Quiet Hands” (CW: abuse, forced compliance)
- Amy Sequenzia’s “Normalcy is an Ableist Concept”
- “ABA” by Sparrow Rose (CW: abuse)
- “Why I Left ABA” by Anxious Advocate (CW: abuse)
- ADAPT on the Judge Rotenberg Center and ADAPTers tweet with the hashtags #stoptheshock and #ADAPTandRESIST.
Madness & Intellectual Disability
- Read Diagnosis and High-Functioning chapters from The Collected Schizophrenias
- Watch Intelligent Lives via PBS
- Read Mad Studies and Neurodiversity: A Dialogue
Genes and Futures
- Sheila Black’s “Trying to Embrace a ‘Cure’” and “Passing My Disabilities On to My Children”.
- HMJ’s “Unspeakable Conversations”
- Chris Kaposky’s “Do We Really Need An Even Better Screening Test for Down Syndrome
- Katie Booth’s “What I learned…”
- Alice Wong’s MEDx talk
CRIPS! IN! SPAAAAAAACE!!
- Deaf Poets #CripsInSpace CFP Video with Sam de Leve
- Crip Futurism Pep Talk by Cyree Jarelle Johnson
- The Case for Disabled Astronauts by Sheri Wells Jensen
- Damien Patrick Williams: Heavenly Bodies: Why it Matters that Cyborgs Have Always Been About Disability, Mental Health, and Marginalization.
Disability in Fiction
- Read Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)Ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction, Introduction, Conclusion and 1 other chapter of your choice. Plus one of the following books:
- Kindred by Octavia Butler (For Chapter 1)
- Stigmata by Phyllis Alessia Perry (For Chapter 2)
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (For Chapter 3)
- The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemison (For Chapter 4… this is the second book in a trilogy, fyi)
STS and Pop Culture
Coming Soon.
Engineering Cultures
Coming Soon.