189 001: Disability, Ethnography, and Design

Instructor: Karen Nakamura

Term: Fall 2019

Time: Tu, Th 12:30 pm – 1:59 pm

Room: 101 2251 College

This course explores disability worlds in the Bay Area through the ethnographic field methods, visual anthropology, and design anthropology. What does it mean to be disabled? How are disability organizations in the Bay Area trying to accomplish social and political change? What is the disability world? Through close participant observation and iterative design, students will work closely with local organizations and disabled individuals on projects ranging from the creation of ethnographic and documentary films, the construction of assistive devices, and the documentation of disabled lives and history. Aside from the weekly meetings, students will be expected to spend considerable time embedded in the community and to work on joint and individual projects for the course.

Requirements Class Fulfills:

  • Meets Social & Behavioral Sciences, L&S Breadth

Service category