The Body in Art and Disability Studies
| Module title | The Body in Art and Disability Studies |
|---|---|
| Module code | AHV3018 |
| Academic year | 2024/5 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Alexandra Courtois de Vicose (Lecturer) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 15 |
|---|
Module description
Depictions of the human body have been central to art history, a discipline largely concerned with corporeality and embodiment. Established European art historical narratives, for instance, trace how representations of the body have changed from European academies, advocating the emulation of classical ideals to the perceived iconoclasm of the avant-gardes. This module supplements these narratives by considering disability as both a subject and a factor in artistic creation. Disability Studies’ potential to alternatively analyse and contextualize artworks disrupts well-rehearsed art historical narratives, powerfully questioning processes of making, notions of “modernity,” “authorship,” “beauty,” and “reception” among others. You will be introduced to art demonstrating the rhetorical potential of the non-normative body, and what it reveals about cultures from antiquity to the present, from a global approach. You will also discuss mandates of accessibility in exhibition spaces. Who gets to view art, and how?
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module aims to:
-introduce you to the young field of disability studies, and how powerful a methodology it can prove as an art historical approach.
-provide you with tools to cogently discuss artworks dealing with disability.
-help you develop an understanding of art history as a field with evolving concerns, through a combination of lectures, in-class discussions, and readings.
-develop your abilities in sustained close-looking and visual analysis through in-class discussion, written and audio assignments.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Develop an understanding of seminal disability studies definitions, principles, and texts.
- 2. Develop a sense of the shifting cultural construction of the disabled body across time and space, through pictorial case studies.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Demonstrate an ability to convey the visual/viewing experience into words, using specific, evocative language, and more broadly following the principles of visual analysis.
- 4. Demonstrate an ability to interrelate texts, artworks and theoretical discourses explored in other classes with the disability studies ones to which you will be introduced in this course.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Through essay writing and practical exercises, demonstrate a basic capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose.
- 6. Through seminar work and group presentations, demonstrate communication and project management skills, and an ability to work creatively and imaginatively both individually and in groups
Syllabus plan
The module will consist of a series of lectures and seminars, including engagement with works of art, and theoretical texts.
Topics may include:
-Why disability studies and art history?
-The “ideal” and the “norm”
-Disability in antiquity (Case studies from ancient Indian and Greek Art)
-Disability in the early modern period (case studies from Peruvian pottery and European Christian art)
-Caricature – pictorial vs. physiological deviations from the “norm.”
-Art and Science (medical illustration case studies from China, the US and France)
-Surrealism and the defamiliarization of the body in art.
-Photography and Freakery
-Contemporary art and disability advocacy
-Museum accessibility and universal design.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 11 | Lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 10 | Seminars these will be led by a tutor. You will need to prepare for each seminar by thoughtfully doing the assigned reading. |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 1 | Tutorial guidance for reading, research, and essay writing |
| Guided independent study | 10 | Study group preparation and meetings |
| Guided independent Study | 10 | Seminar preparation (group and individual) |
| Guided independent study | 108 | Reading, research and assessment preparation |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual analysis | 500 words | 1-6 | Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 70 | 3200 words | 1-6 | Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up |
| Audio Description | 15 | 3-minute audio recording | 1-6 | Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up |
| Accessibility audit group work and seminar presentation (15-20 minutes, depending on group size) | 15 | 15/20 minutes, depending on group size | 1-6 | Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (3200 words) | Essay (3200 words) | 1-6 | Referral/Deferral Period |
| Audio Description (3-minute audio recording) | Audio Description (3-minute audio recording) | 1-6 | Referral/Deferral Period |
| Accessibility audit group work and seminar presentation (15-20 minutes, depending on group size) | 1-1 presentation (5 minutes) / 500 word document | 1-6 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Disability and Art History: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century, eds. Ann Millett-Gallant and Elizabeth Howie (Routledge, 2022).
- Routledge Companion to Art and Disability, eds. Keri Watson and Timothy W. Hiles (Routledge, 2022)
- Disability Studies Reader, Ed. Lennard J. Davis.
- Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, “Disability and Representation,” PMLA, Vol. 120, No.2 (March 2005)
- Lennard J. Davis, “Crips strike back: The Rise of Disability Studies,” American Literary History (Autumn 2009)
- Georgina Kleege, “Touch Tourism,” More than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art (Oxford, 2018)
- Julien Bogousslavsky and Laurent Tatu, “Edouard Manet’s Tabes Dorsalis: From Painful Ataxia to Phantom Limb,” European Neurology, May 2016.
- Katherine Sherwood, “How a Cerebral Haemorrhage Altered my Art,” Frontiers in NeuroscienceI, April 2012.
- Amanda Cachia, “Disabling Surrealism: Reconstituting Surrealist Tropes in Contemporary Art,” Disability and Art History, (Routledge, 2016).
- Ann Millet-Gallant, “Disarming Venus,” The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 28/01/2024 |
