Department of Educational Science Department of Educational Science

Mag. Doris Arztmann Mag. Doris Arztmann
Mag. Eva Maria Egermann Mag. Eva Maria Egermann
Mag. Jonah Isa Garde Mag. Jonah Isa Garde

603812

(Im-)Perfect Man. Theory and Critique of Normality

SE 2

6

weekly

annually

German

The objective of the course is to develop critical research perspectives on normalcy based on (Queer) Dis/ability Studies and Crip Theory. In discussing key texts and artistic interventions into cultural patterns of representation, we will trace “disability” and “illness” as well as their imbrications with imaginations of “normality” and “health”. Thereby, the necessity of alternative, anti-ableist and self-determined representations and research is demonstrated.

 

 

“Stereotypes (…) can lock people inside of images…” (W. J. T. Mitchell). Cultural Representations shape social relations. Shifting the perspective onto conflicts and ambiguities enables alternative imaginaries, readings and representations.

 

As Tobin Siebers (2010) and others have shown, the cultural field is pervaded by an ableist gaze. This results in the disqualification of bodies and minds marked as “disabled”. Furthermore, representations of “disability” often serve as a “narrative prosthesis” (Snyder/Mitchell 2001) by (re)producing the very ideas of “wholeness”, “health”, and “normalcy”.

Based on an introduction in Cultural Dis/Ability Studies, Crip Theory and „Crip Materials“ (Egermann 2015) through the Crip Magazine, we reflect on ideas of “health”, “normalcy”, and “aesthetics” to sharpen the analysis of cultural representations of “disability”. Together we develop a theoretical and practical toolkit to enable your research group analysis of different representations of “disability” as well as of forms of resistance.

 

Possible research-topics:

-          visual archives of emancipative and emancipatory disability rights movements

-          crip youth- und pop-culture, possibilities to invent oneself otherwise, apart from stigma and paternalism, categorizations and preconceptions

-          problematics of representations of “disability” in mainstream media

-          “undamaged aesthetics” in art, cultural production and counter strategies

 

A variety of instructional methods will be employed, including Inputs (by the lecturers), a Guest-lecture (by Elisabeth Magdlener, Verein CCC**), class discussions, group work and presentations. Different materials are brought in and will be reflected on collectively. Active participation at the Crip Magazine Convention (June 2nd. & 3rd. 2017, Kunstpavillion Innsbruck) is mandatory.

 

 

Course with formative assessment, i.e., students are graded on the basis of written and/or oral tasks assigned regularly over the term.

Continuous attendance and active participation, presentation of the findings of your research group, including a handout and a written reflection-paper.

Mitchell, W. J. Thomas, “Seeing Disability“ in: Public Culture, Volume 13, Number 3, Fall 2001, pp. 391-397, Duke University Press

Further literature will be announced in the first session.

 

 

-          Fri, May 19^th, 2-6 pm (preliminary discussion and introduction)

-          Fri + Sat, June 2^nd + 3^rd (Guest lecture by Elisabeth Magdlener, Crip Magazine Convention)

-          Fri + Sat, June 16^th + 17^th, 12 – 6 pm

 

Lecturers:

 

Doris Arztmann, studies political science, history, women’s- and gender studies as well as Russian at Vienna University, University of Gothenborg and the law academy of Odessa. Works on the dissertation project in the realm of inclusion and education.

 

Elisabeth Magdlener, chairperson of CCC** - Change Cultural Concepts, is lecturer in the field of Queer DisAbility (Studies) and body discourses. She studie(s)d pedagogics and Gender Studies at the University of Vienna and is dancer and member of the community dance movement DanceAbility and A.D.A.M. (Austrian DanceArt Movement). Occasionally she works in activist-academic projects and writes in several contexts about these topics.

 

Jonah I. Garde studied Development Studies at the University of Vienna and is currently working on a PhD project on (Un)timely Bodies. Their book Cripping Development? Ambivalenzen ‘Inklusiver Entwicklung’ aus crip-theoretischer Perspektive (2015) was rewarded the Peter Lang exceptional price for Humanities

 

Eva Egermann, artist based in Vienna, has been working in different medias and collectives (e.g. the Manoa Free University or other). Aside from artistic projects she initiated publications (for instance, "Regime" or "Class Works" or the “Crip Magazine”), curated exhibitions “On Uncanny States and Bodies” or, “2 or 3 things we’ve learned. Intersections of Art, Pedagogy and Protest…” She has been teaching at Art Academies in Vienna, Linz, Zurich, Lucerne and Aarhus and was researcher in the project “Model House-Mapping Transcultural Modernisms”. She was research fellow at U.C. Berkeley (2014) and awarded with the Theodor Körner Prize for Art & Science (2015) (for her PhD project “Crip Modes of Artistic Research”). She is currently lecturer at University Lucerne (Dept. for Art & Design) and fellow of the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen in Innsbruck.

 

***

 

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