CTSJ 203 Disabilities, Schooling, & Sports
How do schools and sports construct, police, and sometimes liberate disabled embodiment? This course links disability justice and critical theory to examine the intertwined institutions of education and athletics. We trace histories of eugenics, special education, and “normalcy”; analyze IDEA/ADA compliance as both protection and surveillance; and study IEPs, testing regimes, and behavioral management through lenses of biopolitics, racial capitalism, and crip theory. In sport, we investigate the Paralympic movement, adaptive athletics, Title IX, NIL and commodification, prosthetics and tech, risk, injury, and the politics of “fairness” (classification, sex/gender categories, trans inclusion). Readings span Fanon to Kafer, Mbembe to Puar, along with case studies from K–12, NCAA, and community programs. Students will conduct a community-engaged project or policy brief critiquing access, accommodation, and equity in a local school or athletic context, and create a media analysis of disability representation in sports culture. The focus of this course is on policies and practices in the United States and the ways that diverse US communities experience (dis)ability.