Interdisciplinary Disability
Studies
Celebration of Achievement
April 30, 2009
Welcoming remarks from Dr. Stephen French Gilson, Professor
of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies and Social Work
This
has been a remarkable year with wonderful classes and students.
I speak not only to our DIS 470 students, who we celebrate
today, but to all students who are studying with us. This year,
we took a major intellectual risk in our courses by assigning
difficult and complex primary sources to support some unique
assignments. As an example, we asked our students to read
selections from Galen Cranz’s book, The Chair, where the origin
and history of the chair were examined over time. Disability was
not directly discussed in this book. Without identifying the
rationale for such readings before the students encountered
them, we asked students to link disability studies with the
esoteric, but important concepts present in multiple fields.
Immediately, the students understood how chairs and seating not
only have aesthetic and hierarchical purposes, but can be
disabling to the bodies that sit in them. Addressing embodied
impairment is a small slice of disability studies. Looking more
broadly at the fit of persons within environments provides
potent and powerful experiences and tools for students to
counter denial of civil rights.
In our classes, we look at objects that were originally
fashioned for disability accommodation but have become widely
used by all people, for example, captioning. This work allowed
students to examine how disability is arbitrary and if located
within the broader arena of diversity can inform and provide
benefit for of all.
We asked students to struggle with the consequences of
specialized legislation, that on the surface may seem
liberating, but in its perpetuation, continues to parse the
population into disparate groups.
We applaud the graduates of the concentration and look
forward to honoring you tonight. And we look forward to
celebrating the accomplishments of all of our students in the
coming years.
Go to IDS 2009
Celebration Photo Gallery
Go 2009 IDS Celebration news story
