Deconstructing Autism: A View from the Inside

Course Description

This seminar provides first-year students with an opportunity to explore “autism” from the inside-out rather than from the outside-in. The seminar provides an opportunity to learn about autism by exploring texts that reveal the perspectives and experiences of people diagnosed as autistic. By the end of the seminar, students are able to identify, analyze, and deconstruct paradigms for understanding autism, learn ways in which disability comes to be socially and culturally constructed from the outside and the inside, appreciate perspectives of people who are often marginalized, and articulate and reflect on their own assumptions.