HS 498 - Seminar: Histories of Intellectual Disabilities

(3.00 cr.)

Focuses onn intellectual disabilities in global and historical perspective. Challenging the notion that intellectual disabilities and their opposite, intelligence, are objective and unchanging realities, we examine how different societies throughout history have understood this relationship. Topics include the impact of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism on treatment of people with intellectual disabilities in premodern times, the invention of IQ tests, eugenics, involuntary sterilization laws, institutionalization, the extermination of intellectually disabled people during the Nazi Holocaust, the rise of special education, and the global disability rights movement. The course ends in Baltimore with a study of well-established local organizations like The Arc and of the infamous Rosewood Center, which operated from 1888 to 2009. Written or electronic permission of the instructor.

Prerequisite: One HS 100-level course, one HS 300-level course.
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Varies

Interdisciplinary Studies: IHE/IPJ