Non-normative Bodies

Course Description

Summary

This course will combine theory and practice to explore representations of non-normative bodies and corporeal difference, their impacts on embodied experience, and the role artistic work can play in expanding and/or challenging limited and often harmful notions of normativity. This class is designed for students interested in the intersections of embodiment, art, corporeality, activism, and critical theory. Employing concepts from Disability Studies and queer theory as a lens, we will consider some of the paradigm-shifting propositions in these powerful fields of study, with a particular emphasis on the intersectionality of marginalized identities. We will learn to recognize and critique the circulation of normative standards of bodily comportment and image which permeate contemporary culture, and consider the various strategies that scholars, activists, and, in particular, dance and performance artists, employ to create space for more inclusive representations of body and self. We will also engage in movement and embodiment practices to activate and actualize course concepts. Students will be invited to create original works in any medium (prior dance or performance experience welcome but not required) to reflect on these course materials. Additionally, guest artists/speakers will occasionally share their work. In this class, we will engage with scholarly, activist and theoretical texts; view, analyze and discuss the work of various artists; engage in movement practices relating to the material; and create our own original work(s) in response. Students are expected to do a considerable amount of reading, writing and viewing of work outside of class hours. Some formal writing will be required, as well as the development of original creative work. Students will produce a final independent project that will apply course concepts to their own academic and/or artistic research.