January 11, 2016

Gerardine Wurzburg, 2014-15 Visiting Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies.

How do we perceive the ability of students who learn differently? This seminar will explore our preconceived notions of competence focusing specifically on students diagnosed with autism.  Class discussions will be guided by selective readings and film screenings.

READINGS:

Harvard Educational Review, The End of Intellectual Disabilities

Select Readings from: Autism & The Myth of the Person Alone

FILMS:

Wretches & Jabberers 

Autism is a World

Gerardine Wurzburg was a 2014-15 Visiting Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies.  She is an Academy Award(TM)-winning producer and director of documentary films. Over the last thirty years, she has focused on trends in disability rights, advocacy, social justice, education, science and health. Since the 1980s, she has focused her talents on the advancement of full inclusion for persons with disabilities and the promotion of self-advocacy. Her major works in disability rights include: Regular Lives, Educating Peter, Graduating Peter, Autism is a World, and Wretches & Jabberers. She is the Founder and President of State of the Art, Inc., a communications company in Washington, DC whose work focuses on the use of media to promote change in education and health. Other honors include: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Syracuse University, Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow, and Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton.