Part 1: Mosaic at Temple University 8

Part 1: Mosaic at Temple University 8

Testament: The Story of Samson 8

Lesson 2: Uninformed Consent:

Medical Testing on Vulnerable Populations 12

Lesson 3: The Disability Movement and

The Souls Of Black Folk 15

Lesson 4: Freud, Disability and Sexuality 17

Lesson 5: Freud and Disability 20

Lesson 6: On the Streets and in the School Yards:

Jane Jacobs’ The Death & Life of Great

American Cities 22

Part 2: The Humanities 26

Lesson 8: Disability and Education 29

Lesson 9: Disability and the Media 35

Lesson 10: Disability and Writing 39

Part 3: Resources 42

PowerPoint for Lesson 2 52

PowerPoint for Lesson 3 56

PowerPoint for Lesson 4 62

PowerPoint for Lesson 5 67

PowerPoint for Lesson 6 77

Disability Studies Texts 81

Part 4: About the Authors 83

Beverly Frantz

Ann Keefer

Joshua Lukin

Carol Marfisi

Jeremy Schipper

Part 1: Mosaic at Temple University

Lesson 1

“Disability in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The Story of Samson”

Jeremy Schipper, PhD, Department of Religion, Temple University

HUMANITIES/BIBLICAL LITERATURE

Numbers 6; Judges 13-16

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED

Biblical and Other Ancient Near Eastern Literature

Rationale for the Lesson

From antiquity to the present, disability imagery often appears in literature, art, and film to express and embody a variety of literary themes, including personal or collective tragedy, moral and poetic justice, alienation, heroism, and so on. Yet, disability imagery is rarely used to describe or narrate the actual experiences of people with disabilities. This lesson explores this phenomenon, using the story of Samson in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as important example that highlights the distance between the literary representations of disability and the lived experiences of disability.

Goals/Aims

The disability imagery in the story of Samson serves as a literary device to structure the beginning and end of the story and develop the theme of Samson’s alienation and separation in the story and its tragic consequences

The disability imagery does not tell us much about how people with disabilities actually lived their everyday lives in the ancient world

Disability in the Samson story is a literary device. It should not be confused for a medical or legal or any other type of depiction of disability in the ancient world

We should not assume the literary themes of alienation and separation automatically reflect the real everyday lives of people with disabilities in the ancient or contemporary world

We should not assume that people with disabilities live tragic lives just because disability is often used to develop tragic themes in literature

Background information

Judges 13-16 contains the only biblical account of the life of Samson. Beginning with his miraculous birth to his previously infertile mother and ending with his fatal revenge for his blindness, disability imagery helps provide structure to this narrative and articulate some of its central themes. Since Samson is referred to as a Nazirite, some scholars have read his story against the backdrop of the instructions for Nazirites in Numbers 6.

Resource Materials

Avalos, Hector, Sarah Melcher, Jeremy Schipper, eds. This Abled Body: Rethinking Disability and Biblical Studies. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.

Dorman, Johanna. The Blemished Body: Deformity and Disability in the Qumran Scrolls. Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit, 2007.

Moss, Candida and Jeremy Schipper, eds. Disability Studies and Biblical Literature. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming.

Olyan, Saul M. Disability in the Hebrew Bible: Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Raphael, Rebecca. Biblical Corpora: Representations of Disability in Hebrew Biblical Literature. New York: T & T Clark, 2008.

Schipper, Jeremy. Disability and Isaiah's Suffering Servant. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Schipper, Jeremy. Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible: Figuring Mephibosheth in the David Story. New York: T & T Clark, 2006.

Materials

PowerPoint presentation in Guide

Activity/Action Project

1. Prior to class, ask students to read Numbers 6 and Judges 13-16. Instruct students to list all of the verses in which a character is described physically and think about the way that they visualize the characters while reading the story. Ask them to write up a detailed description of how they imagined these characters. Instruct them to locate the verses in Judges 13-16 which support or challenge the way that they imagined the characters looked.

2. After class, ask students to write a 3-5 page paper which analyzes other examples of disability in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. They might want to focus on the concept of barrenness/infertility in the line of Sarah and Abraham in Genesis. They could even analyze the story of Job, in which Job has a skin disease. They may want to cite secondary sources referenced in the attached bibliography of critical sources on disability in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, or use their own close readings. Instruct them to use whichever citation style the professor indicates, and make sure they provide proper citation for all quoted material in their papers.

Reflection

Why do you think disability imagery is often used in literature, from antiquity to the present, to express tragic, moralistic, or other literary themes? How might the representation of disability in literature, art, or film influence the way that we may view the everyday lived experiences of people with disabilities today? How might it affect how we value people with disabilities?

Lesson 2

Uninformed Consent: Medical Testing on Vulnerable Populations

Ann Keefer, PhD, Institute on Disabilities, Temple University

HUMANITIES/HISTORY OF SCIENCE TEXT

Edward Jenner, Vaccination Against Smallpox

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED

Medical testing, American history, history of institutionalization, Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, poliomyelitis, Holmesburg Prison experiments, Belmont Report

Rationale for the Lesson

People with disabilities, including institutionalized children, have often been used as subjects for medical research, posing questions of consent, vulnerable populations, and medical ethics. This lesson explores a brief history of medical testing in America, using the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Jonas Salk’s poliomyelitis vaccine trial, and various tests on inmates at the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, PA as important points in the timeline of the reform of medical testing.

Background information

Edward Jenner’s discovery that milkmaids who had been exposed to cowpox had an immunity to the similar but more destructive smallpox, led him to test his hypothesis in a clinical trial. His first test subject was the four year old son of his gardener, who by today’s standards could not have given informed consent. Jenner used other children in his experiment, along with members of the working class, to prove that his hypothesis was correct. His monograph Vaccination Against Smallpox records his scientific method as well as his thoughts about the proper preparation of vaccine and an argument with another scientist whose method was deemed inferior and possibly harmful.

References

Moreno, Jonathan D. Undue Risk: State Secret Experiments on Humans. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Hornblum, Alan M. Sentenced to Science: One Black Man’s Story of Imprisonment in America. University Park, PA: The Penn State University Press, 2007.

Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. New York: The Free Press, 1981.

Kluger, Jeffrey. Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004.

Wikipedia: The Nuremberg Code, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, The Belmont Report.

CITI Program: www.citiprogram.org

American Experience: The Polio Crusade http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/polio/player/

Goals/Aims

Students will describe the concept of social stigma and be able to apply it to historical events

Students will learn how people with disabilities and members of other minority groups have been used as medical experimentation subjects

Students will reflect on the creation and reinforcement of codes and regulations for the ethical treatment of people in human subjects research

Materials

PowerPoint presentation in Lesson 2 in the Guide

Video Sample Presentation: “Uninformed Consent”

Jenner’s Text

Activity/Action Project

1. Prior to class, ask students to read the Nuremberg Code and watch selected portions of the PBS program American Experience: The Polio Crusade. Ask them to define for themselves whom they feel would be a “vulnerable population” and therefore should be excluded from medical testing and experimentation. What are their criteria for determining who is or is not a vulnerable population? Can they think of a modern public health crisis similar to poliomyelitis in terms of the widespread fear and public willingness to support the search for a solution or cure?

2. After class, have students read the Belmont Report (1979) and compare it with the provisions of the Nuremberg Code (1949).What had changed in the intervening thirty years to prompt the writing of the Belmont Report? How are the rights and safety of human test subjects protected today?

A good overview of the Belmont Report can be found here: http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html

Reflection

Why do you think people with disabilities, particularly children with physical and intellectual disabilities living in state institutions, were considered appropriate subjects for medical research? Can we justify the participation of people with disabilities in medical experiments and drug trials today? How does the concept of social stigma affect how we value people with disabilities?

Lesson 3

The Disability Movement and The Souls of Black Folk

Joshua Lukin, PhD, English Department, Temple University

HUMANITIES/HISTORY TEXT

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED

Disability Rights, Models of Disability, Stigma, African-American History, Stereotypes in Entertainment Media, Disability and Rhetoric

Rationale for the Lesson

Once people with disabilities are recognized to be an oppressed group that has organized for its civil rights, the temptation is great to frame disability as “like race” and understand it through analogies to the African-American civil rights movement. Such analogies are valuable tools. But to avoid oversimplification of one movement or the other, and to avoid appropriating one people’s struggle as a metaphor for another, a thorough examination of those analogies and of the tension between those movements is necessary.

Goals/Aims

Students will describe the emotional appeals made through images of disability in narrative

Students will recognize how images and rhetoric of disability are used in political arguments

Students will reflect on the risks of “sliding stigma”: how the liberatory claims of an oppressed group can mobilize or perpetuate stigma against another group

Students will identify what various freedom movements might have in common and learn about from one another

Background information

Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, in the fiction, memoir, and history that constitute his book-length essay The Souls of Black Folk, attempts to persuade American readers of the early twentieth century that freed slaves and their descendants are in urgent need of support and that black Americans must be allowed access to all areas of American life, the arts and professions as well as the trades and menial jobs. In addition to depicting the oppression suffered by rural African Americans in the U.S. South, Du Bois also details the spiritual toll that stigma takes upon the educated African American. His argument consistently uses the language of disability to depict the condition black Americans have been reduced to by slavery and poverty; and he uses images of health and able-bodiedness to depict the aspirations of black Americans.

References

Carr, Robert. Black Nationalism in the New World: Reading the African American and West Indian Experience. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2002.

Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. 1904. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

James, Jennifer C. A Freedom Bought with Blood: African American War Literature from the Civil War to World War II. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2007.

Longmore, Paul. “Screening Stereotypes.” In his Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2003.

Lukin, Josh. “Black Disability Studies.” February 2006. http://disabilities.temple.edu/programs/ds/facultyherald2.shtml

Shakespeare, Tom. “The Social Model of Disability.” in Lennard J. Davis, ed. The Disability Studies Reader, 3^rd Edition. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Materials

PowerPoint presentation in Lesson 3 in the Guide

Pictures of ideal African American male bodies

Du Bois’ book

Lesson 4

Disability and Sexuality

Carol Marfisi, MA, Institute on Disabilities, Temple University

HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXT

James Strachey, Sigmund Freud: The Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1989.

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED

Human sexuality, disability, myth

Rationale for the Lesson

Since human sexuality is a part of everybody’s nature, it is necessary to understand that even if a person’s mind and body appears and functions differently, this does not indicate that they cannot experience, enjoy and provide pleasure to another. Sexuality is a characteristic that cuts across all nature and levels of ability and disability.

Goals/Aims

Students will be provided with the theoretical notions of Freud in terms of sexuality and understanding how Freud did not consider sexuality and sex from the perspective of people with mental or physical impairments.

Students will be encouraged to think about how society views sex and sexuality as antithetical to disability.

Students will be given an experiential reflection to understand sex and disability which are merely socially constructed attitudes which are often times misunderstood. Students will also understand that whether or not a person is sexually active in a given point in their lives does not mean that their sexual nature ceases to exist.

Students will be made aware that people with physical and mental impairments engage in the same spectrum of sexual orientation and activities as do their non-disabled counterparts.

Background information

Sigmund Freud’s lectures on psychoanalysis described the psycho soma composition of an individual and how sexuality influences all areas of one’s life. The lecture raises the issue of the social bias towards those viewing people with disabilities as sexual beings and having the personal right to express and enjoy sexuality in the manner that they prefer just as those individuals who are able bodied. While the lecture uses the example of a female with a disability, most of the principles and concepts that are addressed apply to both disabled male and female.

References

Strachey, J. (1989). The Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.

Materials

PowerPoint Lesson 4 in the Guide

Video Sample Presentation: “Dear Dr. Freud”

Strachey’s text

Lesson 5

A Freudian Perspective: Sexuality and Disabilities

Beverly Frantz, EdD, Institute on Disabilities, Temple University

HUMANITIES/HISTORY OF SCIENCE TEXT

Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

Part III. General Theory of the Neuroses

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED

Psychosexual theory, libido, hysteria, perversion, narcissism and disability, historical models of disability including the biopsychosocial model

Rationale for the Lesson

Sexuality is defined by the World Health organization as a result of the interplay of biological, psychological, social -economic, cultural, ethical, and religious/spiritual factors. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in who we are, what we feel, think and do. This lesson explores Freud’s essays on The Development of the Libido and Sexual Organization and The Libido Theory and Narcissism, specifically his definition and classification of perversions as it relates to his understanding of disabilities; and the paradox between his theories and his own sexuality and disability.

Goals/Aims

Students will reflect on the impact, if any, of Freud’s disability on his family, his writings, and personally.

Students will reflect on the influence of the period with Freud’s theories on sexuality and disability.

Background information

Freud used libido to indicate the energy correspondent to the psychic side of the sex drive. Carl Jung, however, defined libido in a more comprehensive view. That is, he believed that psychic energy was present in all ‘desire towards,’ and not necessarily sexual. Libido, or sexual desire, is different from sexual arousal. Simply put, sexual desire is an attraction toward an object; and sexual arousal is a state with specific feeling. There can be sexual arousal without sexual desire, and sexual desire without arousal. Freud characterized non-genital sexual contact as a perversion, and included people with disabilities as “pervert” since Freud did not recognize that people with disabilities can choose to have sexual genital contact with other people. Freud’s marriage, his family involvement, and his own physical disability are in contrast to many of his theories, especially around perversion (perverts), libido, and sexual desire.

References

Brill, A.A. (Ed.). (1995). The Transformation of Puberty. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (pp. 572-597). New York: Random House.

Brill, A.A. (Ed.). (1995). The Tendencies of Wit. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (pp. 656-676). New York: Random House.

Cheausuwantavee, T. (2002). Sexual Problems and Attitudes Toward the Sexuality of Persons With and Without Disabilities in Thailand. Sexuality and Disability, 20(2), 125-134.

Chodoff, P. (1982). Hysteria and Women. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 139(5), 545-551.

Freud, S. (1922). On The Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love. http://www.ncf.edu/hassold/FinDeSiecle/freud_debasment.htm

Gay, P. (1998). The Map for Sexuality. Freud: A Life for Our Time (pp.142-149). New York: W.W. Norton.

Gray, R. (1978). Sex and Sexual Perversion. The Journal of Philosophy, 75(4), 189-199.

Graziottin, A. (2000). Libido: the biologic scenario. Maturitas.34, 9-16.

Levy, D. (1980). Perversion and the Unnatural as Moral Categories. Ethics, 90, 191-202.

Lewis, H. B. (1988). Freudian Theory and New Information in Modern Psychology. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 5(1), 7-22.

Nagel, T. (1969). Sexual Perversion. The Journal of Philosophy, 66(1), 5-17.

Person, E. S. (2005). As the Wheel Turns: A Centennial Reflection On Freud’s Three Essays On the Theory of Sexuality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 53, 1257-1282. doi:10.1177/00030651050530041201.

Taleporos, G., & McCabe, M. P. (2001). Physical Disability and Sexual Esteem. Sexuality and Disability, 19(2), 131-148. doi:0146-1044/01/0600.

Tepper, M.S. (2000). Sexuality and Disability: The Missing Discourse of Pleasure. Sexuality and Disability, 18(4), 283-290.

Thomas, K.R., & Stiller, J. (1999). Object Loss, Mourning, and Adjustment to Disability. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 16(2), 179-197.

Wilton, R. (2003). Locating physical disability in Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis: problems and prospects. Society & Cultural Geography, 4(3), 369-389. doi: 10.1080/1464936032000108968.

Materials

PowerPoint presentation in Lesson 5 in the Guide

Video Sample Presentation: A Freudian Perspective: Sexuality and Disabilities

Activity/Action Project

1. Prior to class, ask students to read Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face. Ask them to compare and contrast the medical options available to Freud and Grealy, and how their cancer influenced their attitudes and their writings.

2. After class, have student’s discuss their understanding of the differences between the medical and biopsychosocial models of “disabilities.” Ask students to reflect on recent public figures, such as Roger Ebert, to explore the degree to which loneliness or self-imposed isolation impact their sexuality.

Reflection

How do you think people with physical disabilities would critique Freud’s definition and classification of perversion?

What impact do Freud’s theories on the libido, perversion and disability have on understanding his General Theory of the Neuroses?

¹ Graziottin, A. (2000). Libido: the biologic scenario. Maturitas.34, 10.

Lesson 6

ON THE STREETS AND IN THE SCHOOLYARDS

Diane Nelson Bryen, PhD, Temple University

HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXT

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, 1961

“People like to live, not just be, in such lively neighborhoods. Youngsters and elders alike need such surroundings. But she scoffs at our understanding of these requirements; for we continue to put up civic centers, low density residential areas and housing "projects" segregated by income [and by ability-disability]. All these developments, she complains, combine to produce boring homogeneous cores which generate traffic for limited periods and then lapse afterward into dead or dangerous districts. Worse still, the new buildings with high rents squeeze out the marginal activities, the small business man just getting a start, the colorful shop with strange and exotic waves, the little restaurants and bars, almost everything deviant, bohemian, intellectual or bizarre-- in other words, all that the author believes lends spice, charm and vigor to an area Rodwin, 1961).”

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED

City planning, education, diversity, accessibility, disability as diversity

Rationale for the Lesson

Much of life’s lessons that are learned as a young child are learned “on the streets” and in the school yard. If public spaces, including neighborhood housing and neighborhood schools, are inaccessible, then children growing up will have little contact with their peers with disabilities.

Goals/Aims

2. Students will list the main principles of city planning as described by Jacobs

3. Students will describe how the principles of great cities relate to diversity and inclusion of people with disabilities

4. Students will learn that if principles underlying city planning are to support diversity in structures, uses, and people, that disability must be part of the narrative.

5. Students will reflect on how these principles are applied in their own university.

Background information

Jane Jacob’s principles for sustaining great cities include the following:

Create neighborhoods designed to contain a diverse range of housing

Create neighborhoods designed to contain a diverse range of jobs

Create neighborhoods that are walkable

Create neighborhoods that are diverse in use and population

Design for the pedestrian and accessible transit as well as the car

Cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions

Based on these principles, the following is likely to occur:

Sidewalk contact and safety, together, can thwart segregation and racial discrimination

Increase the likelihood that students with disabilities are supported in their education in neighborhood schools

Resource Materials

Chouinard, V. (1999). Life at the margins: disabled women's explorations of ableist spaces, pp. 142-156, In E. Teather (Ed.) Embodied Geographies: Spaces, Bodies, Rites of Passage. London: Routledge.

Davidson, M. (2010). Universal design: The work of disability in an age of globalization. In L. J. Davis (ed.). The Disability Studies Reader, 3^rd Edition. New York: Routledge.

Johnson, R.A. (1986). Access to the City Means More Than Curb Cuts: The Disabled, pp. 162-175, In J. K. Boles (Ed.), The Egalitarian City: Issues of Rights, Distribution, Access, and Power. Toronto: Praeger.

Prince, M. J. (2008). Inclusive city life: Persons with disabilities and the politics of difference. Disability Studies Quarterly, 28 (1). Can also be retrieved from http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/65/65

Rodwin, L. (1961). Neighbors are needed. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/17/reviews/jacobs.html on February 7, 2011.

Urban design. (2011, February 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:37, February 7, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Urban_design&oldid=412187515

Materials

PowerPoint Lesson 6 in the Guide

Jacob’s book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1963.

Activity/Action Project

After class, have students tour their campus with a focus on two relevant questions raised by Jacobs:

1. Did the campus incorporate old and new buildings? If so, how does it enhance the sustainability of your college campus? If, not, what does it say about the “sustainability” of your college campus?

2. Do the buildings and artifacts on your college campus support the diversity of faculty, staff, and students? Are any groups of students marginalized? If so, how are they marginalized and how might you remedy this?

Reflection Questions

As a small child where did you grow up? City? Suburbs? Small Town or Village? Rural Community? As a young child (4 to 8 years old), where did you meet and develop your friends? What important lessons about life did you learn in the streets, sidewalks, and in your neighborhood schoolyards?

Jane Jacobs proposes several principles about the life of cities. In her book, she never mentions disability. Why do you think she failed to address this rather large community? How might her focus on diversity address the absence of these important city residents?

Can Jane Jacobs’ principle of integrating old and new buildings address the need for architectural accessibility?