- The community of memes
- To analyse how disabled people have established communities online, crip space online and how it functions, its benefits and limitations, how comedy and the relatability of memes are used to foster unity and even spread information.
- To what extent have memes within online spaces help foster disabled communities?
- I want to think about online crip space, online disability communities and the thought process behind comedy and memes, and how this is used to create rhetoric. I personally will be going through the process of making memes myself to better understand how they are made and I will also use examples of other memes made by the community. I will analyze their rhetoric and also the general community and the role that online space has in influencing how we think and talk about disability.
- Product design
- Digital design with collage of images interlaces with analysis (maybe consider making a video essay?)
- Use several sources, both primary and secondary. Scholarly and non-scholarly.
- Examples of actual online rhetoric by and from these spaces.
- For a text-imaged based project:
- Start with an introduction, general information, and use memes when supporting a certain topic.
- Analysis is more focused on the online space and communities and less the memes, maybe also dig into how comedy is used to foster community
- Or:
- Start with the memes then explain their rhetoric, use further in-depth analysis of their meaning to transition into the more scholarly stuff
- Analysis is more focused on comedy and art, shared knowledge and community
- Try to connect memes and evolution to disability and “normalcy”
- For if I want to do a video essay
- The writing would be more casual, or at least hold more of my speaking voice and less my academic voice.
- I would need to use a lot more images and footage.
- Start with an attention grabbing intro, then analysis of memes and finish with a “so-what?” or what they do for online spaces, and why this is important for disabled people.
- I have no idea how long it would actually be.
- Production plan
- Read parts of “Bending over Backwards” first
- Then look into information about the actual communities, what is the general vibe of subreddits, tumblr posts, tweets, etc.
- Look for memes: I want to look at chronic pain, migraine and insomnia memes first.
- Then look into bigger communities, like the autistic community (look into #actually autistic on tumblr).
- Have the memes by second meeting, or at least some examples
- Have a rough draft by the 29th.
- If I do a video essay, I need to find footage for the visuals, then record the commentary. I also don’t know how many words would make a minute, this depends on how fast I talk, how I edit the video, what pauses I make, etc.
- Consultation
- I’m okay with meeting at the week already planned to have the second and third meetings. The source “Bending Over Backwards” is going to be very helpful for me, and any other sources about online crip space and online disability community would also be really helpful.
- I don’t know how to cite social media posts, if you could maybe get me a guide to how to do that, that would be really helpful.
- Citations
- “Bending over Backwards” by Lennard J. Davis
- “Access Imagined: The Construction of Disability in Conference Policy Documents” by Margaret Price
- “Celebrating Crip Bodyminds” by Cobett Joan O’Toole (they/them)
major project
Arntzen Sucks and It’s Zine Time
Three years ago, I helped with the annual Global Health conference on Western’s campus. The theme was Criminalization of the Body, meaning we investigated why, how, and in what ways certain demographics experience marginalization of the body. One of the demographics we spent time on was the disabled community. Ironically, the conference was held in Arntzen Hall, arguably the most ableist building on campus. From there forward, I took notice of the potentially inequitable structures on campus, and I was appalled by what I noticed (that I don’t have to navigate in my bodymind).
For my project, I will be compiling a zine that elaborates on the ableist characteristics of Arntzen Hall. Arntzen Hall was built in the late 60s and still stands as one of the most trafficked buildings on campus. It houses the largest lecture hall on campus, making it a hub for intro classes. Arntzen Hall stands as an example of the discriminatory rhetoric of space at WWU. There are countless other examples that piece together a message for Western staff, students and visitors, and that message is, “if you don’t fulfill our constraining, ableist ideals, you are not welcome here.”
The zine I am making will break down these institutionalized ideals and offer insight on rhetoric of space. Rhetoric of space is so important to me, personally. I find deep relation to the space I inhibit and value in the power of design. In class, I was struck by the chapter in Disability Visibility, The Beauty of Spaces Made by and for Disabled People. This chapter emphasized the importance of space and what it tells us. Space means so much more than just the architecture of a building the design of a sofa. It is atmospheric and transcendent. It is rhetorical. And for that reason, I will be looking at not only physical space, but educational and social/relational space as well.
My final product will be handmade! I will cut a piece of printer paper, fold it, and fill each page with nuggets of gold from my research. Because a zine can only hold so much information, I hope to write a short essay elaborating on my findings as well.
So far, I have done research and light sketching. I know the general format that my zine will take and am gathering the content. I spent some time researching rhetoric of space, the inequitable systems of education, and inclusive spaces. I recently went to Arntzen Hall and did some firsthand investigating. I recognize that my observations came from a singular place of ignorance. I can only gather the information I think to gather! I play a part in this research in a way that may prevent comprehensive data. I am working through that as I continue to gather data. In a true research project, I think I would hope to include perspectives of folks with disabilities, but because of timing and my current capacity to take on more work, I will have to settle with my perspective only.
Moving forward, I will finish compiling research and piecing together what I learn reading with what I experience in Arntzen Hall. I will be concise in my summary and explain my findings through storytelling and images on the 8 allotted pages of a typical zine.
Current summary of zine:
- Page 1: Title Page – Image of Arntzen Hall
- Page 2: Intro to Arntzen, Rhetorical Space, and Disability Studies
- Page 3: Outline summary of what will be included
- Page 4: Breakdown of physical space
- Page 5: Breakdown of intellectual space
- Page 6: Breakdown of social/relational space
- Page 7: Reinforce what was learned
- Page 8: Closing notes and sources
Major Project Feelings & Frustrations
Reminder:
My project is centered around the idea of relationships in/across disability. To explore this, to educate myself and others I am using mainly anecdotal pieces for perspective. Through this journey I hope to re-direct people’s minds when they think of disability or how they treat a loved one.I’m going to have main sections that will have subsections of information I find relevant for each, some might be longer than others for personal interest sake. The main sections will be Family Relationships, Romantic, Friendships, and a section on Sex/Sexuality (relationship with self). I would like to include mental and physical disabilities since I’m interested in both. Subsections might include a chosen theoretical approach to look at the subject from, important concepts not talked about enough, and why it matters to know the information or what it means. I intend to do a slideshow presentation with different complimentary embedded media forms (I.e., pictures, videos, music).
Progress:
So far, I have some resources I’m considering using for information and stories to cite. Additionally, I might try to find scholarly articles with certain statistics but I don’t want this to be heavy research-based and like a story-telling approach more.
Sexuality/Sex:
Vice’s Sexual Healing: Inside the World of Medically Assisted Sex
Robert McRuer’s Sex and Disability
Alex Taylor’s blog piece titled Disability and Dating: ‘Why do people think I’m my boyfriends’s carer’
https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/ Easterseals Blog
Romantic:
Alex Taylor’s blog piece titled Disability and Dating: ‘Why do people think I’m my boyfriends’s carer’
https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/ Easterseals Blog
*For both Family & Friendship I am trying to decide between a few YouTube videos/interviews to take from but haven’t made a final decision yet*
Worries/Questions-
One main concern is how I go about sharing the information and what I share. I want to be able to recognize my status of privilege here, and that I am not “studying” a group of people/ a community I am not a part of. With that in mind, I thought taking from certain approaches or a main one (DS and rhetorical lens as we’ve been learning about) would help reduce that impression and everything stays respectful and educational. I want this to feel insightful and interesting enough to answer certain questions while posing others. I’m having a hard time with resources that I think are solid but I also find it interesting the results I’m getting as they are telling themselves. I’m debating reflecting on it in the presentation, how ignorant some related searches were or how hurtful titles were. I believe the media will be the easiest part to incorporate and the most fun for this though which is exciting.
The Eyes of the Monster
My final project is an academic analysis of monstrosity and disability. Initially I was planning on looking at the history of the monster through a disability lens, but instead I have decided to take 3 forms of media and analyze how they use disability to portray monstrosity. Specifically, I am looking at Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera musical and the children’s book, Wonder.
As of today, I am a little less than 3000 words into this essay which aims to be about 4000 words, or 15-20 pages after formatting and citations. My goal is to get the final 1000 words before this coming Monday, and then work on reformatting and adding additional citations as needed. I am using the theoretical framework of the “recognition” (and by proxy, misrecognition) theory in politics and using it under a disability framework as well as work from Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and her work with freaks, staring, and disability. I really like the theory of misrecognition, as it gives power to the viewed and talks about the nature of bias and power dynamics in literature and media.
Right now my biggest challenge is getting everything to sound academic. My ultimate goal is to get this completed to submit for graduate application. I am struggling to get all of my analysis to sound coherent, but I do have quite a bit of analysis complete, especially for The Phantom of the Opera.
This project is showing me that there are a lot more cases of monsters as othering for literature and beyond. I really struggled narrowing down my sources and what works I wanted to focus on. It gives me hope if I end up pursuing this as a doctorate thesis, I have a lot of works to choose from and even more frameworks to view them through.
My questions would be:
How do you view facial deformity? Do you have any references of monsters in literature that act as characters of disability?
Some work that I have already completed, I will spare you 3000 words worth of work. So here is a bulleted example of some analysis that I am looking at for my work.
This is from my introduction:
When one thinks of the monster as a deformed body or a portent of misfortune, it draws connections to the Victorian entertainment of the Freak Show. The Freak Show was often put on as a traveling expedition featuring monsters and freaks of nature, creatures who were not meant to exist but walk among the populace. The “beings” featured in these Freak Shows were often people with visible, physical disabilities. Ranging from dwarfism, to limb difference, to the “stretchy skin” side effects of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, the majority of the attractions of the freak show were not monsters or freaks, but in fact people with disabilities. These shows were invitations to stare at the other, creating a barrier between the “normal” audience and the abnormal, “monstrous” freaks that lay spectacle.
This is from the analysis of the Phantom of the Opera:
- The Phantom is accustomed to such reactions, later even mentioning that his own mother reacted in a similar fashion. From birth the Phantom is misrecognized as a monster, a creature, a phantom. Phantom is defined as a ghost or a figment of the imagination, simulating that because of Erik’s disability, he isn’t even granted the semblance of humanity’s existence and is instead immediately recognized as a monster.
- Throughout the opera, the phantom is given metaphors of being “of the night” which can be understood as both being hidden, away from the light, and the only things that happen in such dark places are acts of evil. So by proxy, the phantom is evil through his existence and his disability.
If you want to see more, I have tons. Let me know!
Disability in the Laboratory
I’m working on writing a paper on accessibility in Chemistry labs. It was a broader topic, but I decided to narrow it down to my discipline because a general overview of disability and science is too broad, but hopefully a look into the specific branch of chemistry, and more specifically on Chemistry labs, that I might be able to learn something interesting. Here’s what I’ve got so far, which isn’t very much and definitely not complete, but it’s something.
Introduction
People with disabilities have been a long part of the scientific discourse and discovery for centuries. John Dalton (1766-1844), who was colorblind, was one of the first people to scientifically study colorblindness and it’s causes, as well as being an influential chemist, physicist, and geologist. Charles Steinmetz, a mathematician, and physicist, had Kyphosis, a condition that made him look according to the Smithsonian, “four feet tall, his body contorted by a hump in his back and a crooked gait, and his stunted torso gave the illusion that his head, hands and feet were too big.” He was the first to describe the law of hysteresis, which was influential in the development of alternating- and direct-electrical current technology (AC and DC). And yet, perhaps the only disabled scientist you probably know is Stephen Hawking.
I was brought into this discussion with an essay presented in the book “Disability Visibility” written by Wanda Diaz-Merced titled “How a Blind Astronomer Found a Way to Hear the Stars” (the essay was originally presented as a Ted talk, an astronomer who developed blindness during her college studies, and found a way to translate graphical data to sound, a process called sonification.
- A look around the narratives presented by American Chemical Society
- Krystal Vasquez, “Excluded from the Lab”
- Krystal Vasquez does talk about access in conferences, which is a good tie in with Margaret Price’s “The Construction of Disability in Conference Policy
- Annemarie Ross
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpLzkDdulw
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hni7BxQM7c8
- Krystal Vasquez, “Excluded from the Lab”
- A look at the guidelines presented by the ACS
- Perhaps a look into the chemistry labs and how they make their labs accessible. (Field Trip! This could fun!) See how Western complies with these guidelines.
- Here’s some picks of the disability amenities presented in the lab that I work in:
Stress and Overthinking
So my project is going pretty well. I decided on my topic and I decided to write more of an essay/informational piece on disability as a consequence of war. I decided to add another creative non-fiction essay on the topic as well and the experience/terror that comes with children being harmed by war.
Something I’m struggling with is the creative essay. I want to put pieces of my own life into it as well as my reaction and feelings towards children disabled by war. It’s hard to put the information along with emotion in an effective yet creative way. The informational part of the project is a lot easier, it’s just interpreting and analyzing a bunch of research. I’m trying to think of it in terms of an analysis response through the lens of a student and the second is an emotional response as a Palestinian youth. I feel like I am overthinking it a little too much, it could also just be the stress part. I feel like it’s hard to gage how long a paper is enough or how much information is enough. I don’t like not having enough parameters and at the same time I love having so much creative freedom. I know it’s all going to turn out great and how I want it too, I’m just stressed about it.
The Major Project so far…
My project is a visual and touch focused exploration of how identity, society and Masquerade interact. My concept is a three-layered decorative mask, in which each layer addresses an aspect of a person’s identity and how they present this layer. As planned, currently, only one mask layer out of three is constructed and I am prepping to finish the others in the next couple of days. My main concern is the size of the masks and the dialog. I started constructing the mask with the first layer to ensure I had the room to work on details and to accurately estimate the size of the whole mask. However, the first layer ended up taller than I expected meaning all the layers will be larger than I originally planned. This will make finding the appropriate container more difficult.
As for the dialogs, I am nervous to write them. I tend to not write creatively well, and the dialogs will require some creative writing. The dialogs should lend themselves well to the audio requirements of the major project, so I will not abandon them, something I had started to consider. Honestly, this project does not feel like a class project, but more like something I decided to make for my own enjoyment. My main take away from this project is “I should do things like this more often”. Admittedly, I chose a project that heavily involves my main hobbies so any work I do on the project is incredibly enjoyable. I am hoping to keep this pace up, so I only have the finishing details left to add after the upcoming fall break.
Photos of the first layer:
I am waiting to add colors until the other layers are completed.
Relationships Across Disability
- In this exploration, I want to discover the different types of relationships that exist in the disability community and how they intertwine, what they mean, and how they are misunderstood/misrepresented. With that, it will touch on distinct subjects that can lead to common themes and easily interact with terms or concepts we’ve already tackled in class previously. What happens when we challenge standard conceptions of romance, sexuality, and friendship in disability circles and let individuals tell their stories?
- Interactive slideshow presentation with music and other media (potentially short clips and images) as well as questions for the intended audience (which is anyone really, most likely those ignorant to disability culture)
- Use Loom or Canva, some program friendly with creative presentations and media being implemented
- For the media specifically I’ll most likely incorporate a different type every slide or every other slide. Citations will be provided on the slide or at the very end of the presentation.
- It will be broken into different sections: Romantic, Platonic/Friendships, Family, Sexual/Sexuality (casual relationships). I intend to cover personal narratives I find to provide info from folks lived experiences rather than just data type analysis. Each section will most likely be able to point to either one text we’ve read or a new piece that others can take from my presentation.
- There shouldn’t be a clear, concrete conclusion for this but rather main points and themes that educate the audience while showing my own learning process too. I want to provide interesting resources that someone can go to afterwards to learn more and interact with themselves.
- Week 11/15: Add more citations and details to the skeleton of the outline. Solidify the order of what is going where and why. Make sentences that can be changed/altered later on if need be. Mainly gather the big ideas w/o media for now.
Week 11/22: Make it less of an outline, have ideally half of slides completed and revised. Finalize and write down all citations in order. Start gathering all the media I will need and know where it is going. Ask Andrew any questions I have before/after class. Decide if there are issues so far and what they are.
Week 11/29: Revise all my work so far. Invite Andrew to look at what I gathered so far, how I placed everything in terms of making sense but also aesthetic. Check if the media works. Think of questions that are broad enough to have anyone answer with the level of knowledge they might have and gain from my presentation. Think of what pieces from class connect to each section in a meaningful, innovative way.
Week 12/1: Should be completed with everything. Show peers, friends, and Andrew once more for the final time before turn-in day.
- How long should this be slides and minutes wise with my format? Is there any very specific focus I might want to look at that no student has done before? How much media is too much?
- Citations:
Sex and Disability by Robert McRuer
Sexual Healing: Inside the World of Medically Assisted Sex by Vice
https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/ Easterseals Blog
Arntzen in Action: Producing and Produced by Ableism
- Title
Arntzen in Action: Producing and Produced by Ableism
- Central question
How is Arntzen Hall produced by and producing ableism and disability itself?
- Product design
I plan on designing a zine/comic book personifying Arntzen Hall and illustrating a learning experience regarding ableist spaces. I believe visual representation of concepts as heady as “rhetoric of space” are helpful for comprehension.
Lay out a possible structure. If you’re making a zine, what might go in it? Where will you go for your images? How might it be broken up?
As attached below, I have drawn up a rough draft of the zine, breaking it up into 8 pages. Each page will include an illustration or design of sort, educational information that I pull from class/readings, and a bit of a storyline (the building learning more about ableism of space).
Page 1: Title Page – Image of Arntzen Hall
Page 2: Intro to Arntzen, rhetorical space, and disability studies
Page 3: Outline of what will be included
Page 4: Physical space
Page 5: Intellectual space
Page 6: Some other space (still working on it, hopefully will come from the reading
Page 7: Further outlining of what Arntzen learned
Page 8: Sources
If you have more than one idea, fully invest in at least one here, rather than only saying a few things about each of them.
Essentially I have one key idea, but I am breaking it up into 3 sub-ideas that provide further detail.
- Production plan
How will you go about creating this product? What are the steps you have in mind? The big dates to keep in mind:
I will sketch and doodle ideas in my free time (as far as the design aspect goes).
Week Nov. 1: Complete project proposal
Sign up for meeting with Andrew
Week Nov. 8: Read through chosen readings (listed below) and pull out information
Compile notes/readings from class that pertain
Complete data collection before meeting with Andrew on Nov. 11
Nov. 11: I will meet with you with the information I have found and maybe we can go over how I can best summarize/find what’s most important to include.
Week Nov. 15: Visit Arntzen Hall and do some (first hand) research on the space
Summarize findings and prepare written responses
Write-up of my research (what I found in short essay format)
Week Nov. 22: My work-in-progress will include a full rough draft of the zine and a short essay write-up of my findings. All design aspects will be present, but not refined.
Week Nov. 29 – Dec. 6: Finishing touches on zine and final edits on paper and bibliography
Dec. 8: Due date
- Consultation
You already helped me find readings. In our meeting (early on), I would like to discuss what information should be included in the zine (based on what I have found) and how the storyline should be set up (so that I can include as much information as possible without overdoing the pages). I’m hoping you will guide me to include any forgotten details and fill in the missing parts of the zine.
Ask me specific questions of things you want to know about the assignment or information you want me to fill in about particular topics. I might be able to answer them or not, depending on how specialist your topic is
I hope to talk with you about the rhetoric of space and how I can tell it like a story. I have a few questions on atmospheric space and the structures of education specifically in the social sciences at Western.
- Citations
Give three possible readings you might reference in your project in some way. No need to say anything about them now.
The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning
Keywords of Disability Studies // Chapter Space, Access, Communication, Design, Education, Institutions
What is Metis // Jay Dolmage
Major Project Proposal – “Disability and Science”
Disability and Science
An examination on rhetoric and science implemented by disabled people, written in a somewhat formal style reminiscent of ACS writing standards for scientific papers, but not strictly conforming to the guidelines.
Questions:
- What is the rhetoric of disability in science?
- Popular examples:
- Stephen Hawking – Physicist, motor neuron disease
- Temple Grandin – Animal behaviorist, autistic
- Solomon Lefschetz – Mathematician, lost both hands.
- John Forbes Nash Jr. – Mathematician, mental illness (Beautiful Mind)
- Albert Einstein – Physicist, believed to be autistic
- Other examples
- Wanda Diaz-Merced
- Caroline M. Solomon
- Popular examples:
- How has their disability been reflected in their scientific pursuits? (What disciplines do they go for? How does their disability affect how they see their field of interest?)
- Pop. sci vs. Academia (science tinged with personal stories vs. strictly factual analysis)
Potential Resources:
- Disabled Scientists Are Often Excluded From The Lab; Copyright © 2021 NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000869161/disabled-scientists-are-often-excluded-from-the-lab
- Science and Disability: Interviews in the General Collection
- Our Disabilities Have Made Us Better Scientists; By Gabi Serrato Marks, Skylar Bayer on July 10, 2019
- Celebrating scientists with disabilities – The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/scientists-with-disabilities/