A minor in Critical Disability Studies allows students to examine how society influences our understanding of ability and disability while also exploring the value of diverse ways of experiencing and engaging with the world. The minor offers an interdisciplinary exploration of disability, with a focus on challenging deficit models of disability and understanding how society values some bodies and minds and devalues others. Students will prepare to critically engage with issues of accessibility, advocacy, and inclusivity in various professional and community settings.
This program explores diverse models and narratives of disability; examines debility, or the ways in which social, economic, and political conditions can create vulnerabilities; recenters the voices and experiences of disabled persons; and emphasizes disability as a vital aspect of diversity and identity. Courses examine both personal and collective responses to difference, including the interaction of disability with other forms of oppression such as age, race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, national origin, veteran status, and class.
Southern is the only public university in Connecticut that offers a Critical Disability Studies program at the undergraduate level.