Sick, Fat, Ugly, Useless: Disability and Fat Studies
Harvard Summer School
SWGS S-1270
Section 1
CRN 35995
We are now in the twenty-first century: why do we still have so much prejudice about bodies that differ from the so-called norm? What, indeed, is the norm and why is it so important to us? In this course, students are introduced to fat studies and disability studies in tandem to explore the politics of the body. We examine questions drawn from disability studies about bioethics, community organization, and the use of technology; and we examine questions drawn from fat liberation about the construction of aesthetics, the history of fatphobia and racism, and the way we layer symbolic meaning on the body. We look at stereotypes of disabled and fat people in media studies, examine prejudice in sociology, and ask some hard questions about the persistence of eugenics through the lens of bio-power and necropolitics.
Registration Closes: June 16, 2025
Credits: 4
View Tuition Information Term
Summer Term 2025
Part of Term
Full Term
Format
Flexible Attendance Web Conference
Credit Status
Graduate, Noncredit, Undergraduate
Section Status
Open