Section outline

  • MON
    10/26
    In-class midterm
     
    WED
    10/28
    Anti-Psychiatry and Disability Activism
    How did disability rights and anti-psychiatry activists build on the social movements of the 1960s and early 1970s?
    SLIDES TO COME

    Primary Sources

    • Gary Alinder, “Gay Liberation Meets the Shrinks” (1970) [PDF] [Alternate version through Internet Archive here]

    Secondary Sources

    • Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, dir. James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham (2020) [1 hr 46 min] VIDEO

    Reading Questions

    1. How does the protest by the Gay Liberation Front echo the actions of the women's health movement and/or the Young Lords? What seems different or new?

    2. Crip Camp is organized around the experience of campers and counselors at Camp Jened--a summer camp for teenagers with disabilities--and argues that the experiences of the campers and counselors was one key (if not the key) starting point for the disability rights movement. Based on the film, what was so important about Camp Jened? Please make note of any particular scenes. Do you think that the film overstates the importance of Camp Jened? Why or why not?

    3. What other social and cultural movements seem to have shaped Camp Jened and the development of the disability rights movement, either directly or indirectly?

    4. Judy Heumann and other disability rights activists focused on section 504 of the federal rehabilitation act as a potential path to secure greater access for people with disabilities. How is this focus on rights and legal change similar to or different from other activist movements we've looked at so far this semester? To what degree would you characterize the disability rights movement as a radical liberation movement, like gay liberation or radical feminism? And to what degree is it a more "liberal" movement -- more like the civil rights movement? How are their actions similar to or different from the actions of the women's health movement or the Young Lords?