In his book Disability Rhetoric, Jay Dolmage writes, “I see rhetoric as the strategic study of the circulation of power through communication.” This definition of rhetoric pulls from numerous rhetorical traditions to think about how various meaning-making resources allow people to do things with one another. For Dolmage, bodies, and disabled bodies in particular, are central vehicles for this meaning-making work and the circulation of power.
Taking Dolmage’s definition of rhetoric as a starting point, we will take a particular focus on disability rhetoric. Disability rhetoric here has two key definitions. The first considers the meanings that people, especially disabled people, make of and with disability; the second considers how disability shapes how we use and negotiate rhetorical resources to do things in the world.
Some of the questions you'll explore in this class include:
- What meanings do we associate with disability (and related terms including accessibility)? How are these meanings built, communicated, amplified, shifted, transformed, etc., in different places, contexts, and times?
- What are our relationships with disability and accessibility? How do these relationships shape the meanings we make of and with disability and/or accessibility?
- How and in what ways do disability and accessibility become available for noticing in different contexts, in different times, in different places, in different relationships and with what sensory and perceptual tools?
- Why does it matter how and when we notice and communicate about disability and accessibility? What are the stakes and ethical considerations of these rhetorical practices?
In-class activities will form a large part of the work of this class. These activities will include in-class art and craft creations, games, regular freewriting and small- and large-group conversation with peers, excursions outside of our classroom to different parts of campus. Assignments will include creating multimodal "Encounters with Disability Rhetoric," an opportunity to "Switch the Script" with an accompanying mini-film festival, and an in-person group final exam.
Email kersch@uw.edu with any questions!