Disability Studies Minor | Academic Advising Handbook
This Disability Studies minor is undergoing a transition, due to recent faculty retirements. Some courses listed in the catalog are currently unavailable, but course substitutions are possible during the 2020-21 academic year. Contact Jana Peterson-Besse for individual advising during this transition.
The Disability Studies Minor at Pacific aims to:
- demonstrate historical knowledge of how disability has been perceived and treated;
- analyze how social and cultural representations of disability have effected its perception in the past and present;
- discuss the major issues facing people with disabilities today.
The Disability Studies Minor welcomes students pursuing any major. For those interested in health care, Disability Studies complements their science courses by focusing on the social, cultural, and political issues in their future careers; and by concentrating on a population of people that many professions are established to serve.
Students majoring in the social sciences or humanities will be interested in Disability Studies’ analysis of the most fundamental concepts of our culture: body and mind, normality and difference, freedom and rights, beauty and wholeness. All of these ideals and their profound importance may become clearer in classes devoted to exploring their impact on our beliefs, laws, schools, hospitals, and day-to-day lives. Students majoring in education, social work, and public health will benefit from critical consideration of the many ways our policies and institutions impact people with disabilities.