Thesis
Disability studies, young adult literature, and the classroom
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102488
Abstract
The greatest question for the field of Disability Studies is, where do we go from here? Creating a space for Disability Studies within academia simply requires acknowledging its importance in determining social and cultural identity. As Catherine J. Kudlick writes, "one need not identify oneself as disabled in order to reap the benefits of this up-and-coming field," but instead Disability Studies can help scholars "ask and attempt to answer the overarching questions central to our mission as scholars and teachers in a humanistic discipline[s]: what does it mean to be human? How can we respond ethically to difference? What is the value of human life? Who decides these questions, and what do the answers reveal?" (764). Disability Studies can no longer be disregarded as a necessary discipline and I join this field and its previous scholars in arguing that it is a crucial conversation for every "body," as disability will affect everyone at one point or another within their lifetime, whether only temporarily, through policy change, or simply through age. The policies and laws that dictate what happens to and how society views a disabled body need to be constructed by informed voters, politicians, medical personnel, and citizens and this will only occur through education. Currently, Disability Studies is only found when, as Kudlick points out, "you begin to look for it" (772). Getting education systems to see disability as more than just a medical definition, as more than just a law requiring "special education," as more than just an accommodation, or as more than a definition that only applies to the disabled body is the objective of the field and the main argument of this paper.
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Details
- Title
- Disability studies, young adult literature, and the classroom
- Creators
- Rachael Renee Wolney
- Contributors
- Roger Whitson (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900524864901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis