2009 Summer Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
The Department of English, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and West Virginia University present the 2009 Summer Seminar:
“Global Bodies: Representing Disability and Gender”
Seminar Leader: Robert McRuer, George Washington University
Dates: May 21-24, 2009
Seminar Schedule 2009
Readings for 2009 Seminar Participants
Disability activists and disability studies scholars have long critiqued the two-dimensional representations of disability available in mainstream film and literature. Hollywood film, in particular, repeatedly offers pitiful or sentimental representations of disability, or representations focused on “overcoming.” An increasingly transnational disability movement, sometimes understood as a global “crip culture,” has worked to challenge such ideas, putting forward multiple alternatives to dominant representations of disabled bodies and lives. As this movement crosses borders, however, it also invariably begins to critique the mainstream disability movement, which has until recently largely targeted Western media, and individual nation-states. Focusing on questions generated at the intersection of disability studies and gender/sexuality studies, we will consider how disability has been represented in literature, in a number of high-profile mainstream films, and in the mainstream disability movement. We will interrogate the ways that bodies have been variously represented across literary, cinematic, and critical traditions. We will then develop considerations of how those representations have shifted as activists begin to globalize disability or crip culture.
Robert McRuer is Associate Professor of English at George Washington University. His work focuses on queer theory, cultural studies, disability studies and critical theory. He investigates cultural sites where critical queerness and disability contest heteronormativity and compulsory able-bodiedness. His publications include Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability (Cultural Front Series. New York and London: New York University Press, 2006) and The Queer Renaissance: Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay Identities (New York and London: New York University Press, 1997). Crip Theory was the winner of the 2007 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, given by the GL/Q Caucus of the MLA.
Format:
The seminar will begin with a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 21st and conclude at noon on Sunday, May 24th. There are five, two-hour sessions during the seminar. In late April, registered participants will be provided with a list of readings to be completed before arrival at the seminar. Seminar sessions will be devoted to intensive discussion of the readings, with ample opportunities for further reading and informal discussions between sessions. The seminar group will also take part in film screenings, an art exhibition, and other cultural events. ASL and Voice-to-Text interpretation will be provided. We are dedicated to making this seminar as accessible as possible.
Seminar Site:
West Virginia University is located in scenic north central West Virginia about 75 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA and 200 miles west of Washington, DC. Rooms are available in accessible Lincoln Hall. Participants can choose single or double occupancy, and fully accessible rooms are available. One local hotel is within walking distance for those who prefer non-dormitory housing.
Click here to learn more about housing, travel and accommodations.
Registration Fees:
Graduate Students $250
Faculty $350
The seminar is limited to 50 participants.
To reserve a place in the seminar, a $100 deposit must be received and/or postmarked by Friday, April 25, 2009.
Click here for a registration form suitable for printingFor more information, email Marsha Bissett at marsha.bissett@mail.wvu.edu
For information about accessibility and about limited scholarship opportunities for students with disabilities, contact Jay Dolmage at jay.dolmage@mail.wvu.edu