| CODE | DBS5020 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Disability Across Cultures: Critical Dimensions | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Disability Studies | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This intensive interdisciplinary study unit seeks to move beyond global North disability studies to engage with complex social, political, geopolitical, economic, institutional and discursive issues as disability is positioned across cultures, spaces and places. It brings together perspectives from Critical Disability Studies, Postcolonial theory and Decolonial theory among others to question and discuss a range of complex issues on disability in the global South. Working didactically around key thematics (concepts, history, culture, geopolitics, and communication, fundraising and networking) the unit will carefully weave through areas such as disability models, policies, institutions, disability inclusive development, colonialism, neo-colonialism and power, ethics and research to harnesses in-depth knowledge and to think critically and responsively about disability, research and practice globally. Study-Unit Aims: This study unit aims to: - Provide a critical overview of key issues in disability across cultures and contexts; - Expand on, critique and challenge dominant global North disability studies and tenets and global North-centrism in theory, research and practice; - Provide a nuanced picture of the complexity and heterogeneity of disability across space and time; - Contribute to and support global academic movements pushing for more critical and interdisciplinary and culturally sensitive readings of disability; - Educate on the various intersectional dimensions of the disability experience; - Introduce disability and international development and key tenets such as disability inclusive development and disability mainstreaming within more generic disability studies. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Explain the key role of culture and context as well as history (including colonial encounters) in framing disability and disability experiences across space and time - Discuss key notions of personhood and how these interact with the construction of disability within context - Grasp the factors and processes that mark disability as complex and heterogeneous across space and time - Lay out macro, meso and micro dimensions including social, economic, cultural, political and geopolitical aspects and how these frame disability iunderstandings and practice in global contexts - Map the complex connections between disability and poverty, livelihoods, education, health, and other intersectional areas (e.g. gender, race and ethnicity, spirituality and religion, ageing, childhood, forced migration etc.) - Discuss the limitations of dominant global North narratives and discourses such as the social model of disability, empowerment, alongside development practices when transposed/imposed across cultures - Identify family and community dimensions and impacts of disability, including in rural poverty contexts - Discuss key emerging discourses, international policies and declarations, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and critically position these within complex and heterogeneous Southern spaces - Command key notions such as disability mainstreaming and disability inclusive development (DID) - Comprehend the international funding, organizational and 'intervention' landscape and discuss the implications for persons with disabilities within context - Grasp critical and interdisciplinary approaches such as Critical Disability Studies and postcolonial and decolonial approaches in questioning and challenging dominant and positioned disability narratives. - Discuss critical ethical and methodological issues in disability research and practice across cultures 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Think critically about disability discourse and practices as these are exported/imposed from global North to South - Differentiate between different disability models and discourses and question and challenge dominant disability narratives - Position disability discourse within the complex terrain of social, economic, cultural, historical, political and geopolitical dimensions - Critically debate key historical and contemporary international disability legislation, discourses and practices and their implications, including disability inclusive development and human rights. - Discuss key cultural, historical, social, economic, political and geopolitical dimensions and how these impact and condition the disability experience, hence challenging generalised one-size fit all discourse and narratives - Critically identify barriers to disabled people, their families and communities in a range of spaces and places and critically discuss ‘solutions’ - Demonstrate greater confidence and knowledge in engaging with cross-cultural dimensions and intersectional areas in regard to disability - Critically discuss the heterogeneity and complexity of disability across cultures and link this to other intersectional dimensions - Navigate complex ethical, discursive, research and practical terrains in disability across cultures - Engage with disability in more critical and interdisciplinary ways using perspectives from Critical Disability Studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Bezzina, L. (2019). Disability and Development in Burkina Faso: Critical Perspectives (Palgrave Studies in Disability and International Development) [not in library) - Grech, S. and Soldatic, K. (2016). Disability in the Global South. Springer All the below are open access: - Bezzina, L. Disabled people’s organisations and the disability movement : perspectives from Burkina Faso. African Journal of Disability, 8. - Devlieger, P., Albrecht GL. and Hertz, M. (2007) The production of disability culture among young African-American men. Soc Sci Med, 64(9) - Grech, S. (2009) Disability, poverty and development: critical reflections on the majority world debate. Disability & Society, 24(6) - Grech, S. (2015) Decolonising Eurocentric disability studies: why colonialism matters in the disability and global South debate. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 21(1) - Rivas Velarde, M. et al (2018) The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its implications for the health and wellbeing of indigenous peoples with disabilities: A comparison across Australia, Mexico and New Zealand. Disability and the Global South, 5(2) - Soldatic, K. and Grech, S. (2014) Transnationalising Disability Studies: Rights, Justice and Impairment. Disability Studies Quarterly, 34(2) Supplementary Readings: - Magaña, S. et al. (2019) Adapting an Education Program for Parents of Children with Autism from the United States to Colombia. Disability and the Global South, 6(1). - Soldatic et al (2018) Challenges in global Indigenous–Disability comparative research, or, why nation-state political histories matter. Disability and the Global South, 5(2). |
||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
||||||||
| LECTURER/S | Lara Bezzina Amy Joan Camilleri Zahra |
||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
|||||||||