Introducing POLS 430: Disability, Identity and Politics.
Disability raises many difficult questions, which this course will try to answer. Who is disabled, and by what? What (if anything) do people with various physical and/or mental differences have in common with each other? How does disability intersect with other kinds of identity? Is disability in some sense political, and if so how and in what ways? Beginning to answer these questions for ourselves raises many more: What is the relationship between loving oneself and wanting to change one’s body or mind in profound ways? Is there room for the idea of “false consciousness” in today’s politics, and if there is not, does that mean giving up on cultural criticism? Is transhumanism (the desire to use technology to transcend the present limitations of humanity) a friend to the disabled, an enemy or some combination of the two?
Join the conversation. POLS 430 meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:10 to 4 p.m. during winter 2023. For more information, please contact Professor Matthew J. Moore at mmoore02@calpoly.edu.
