EGMT 1530: Being in a Body

This course invites you think about how bodies and bodily difference come to matter. Starting from the premise that bodies are always in flux, we will explore how shifting bodily experiences shape how we encounter the world, and how the world, in turn, is organized around particular assumptions about bodies and minds. 

Everyday spaces and objects determine how we feel in relation to our bodies and minds. Staircases, classroom layouts, medical documents may make some bodies feel comfortable and capable, while posing obstacles to others. Drawing on critical disability studies and neurodiversity studies, we will ask how environments and social systems define which bodies are seen as “normal,” which are labeled “disabled” or “neurodivergent,” and how these distinctions matter.
 
Engaging texts such as Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” the course uses stories of bodily transformation to examine what it means to live in a changing body and to ask how ideas of normalcy and difference emerge. Students will reflect on their own experiences, developing new ways to think about embodiment and difference.