Class reflection

         This course gave me space to connect with other students while continuing my work at Center for Creative Works. The most rewarding experience for me was working with the trees in small groups. I personally wish that we had more time to really spend holding space together with the artists and each other. It was truly amazing to help students find ways to work together with artists.

Our placement at CCW was, by far, the most meaningful part of this course for me, and the site of my most profound learning experiences. I usually struggle to situate myself in placements for classes, grappling with what it really means to have a “real life example” of the theories brought up in class. I hate feeling like I have to study people, to seek out which theories apply to which people I meet. For some reason--maybe because we spent very little time studying institutions like CCW, and maybe because we structured our time at the center around unique and complex projects unrelated to the course’s topic itself--I didn’t find myself having to face this struggle at all.

Dis/appears (2016)

Permanent marker and chest binders on clothesline

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Words of transgender, genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, and gender nonconforming individuals with autism, included in piece:

“Mama, I think that I am half boy and half girl.”

My understadning of disability has changed drastically since I began the semester because the only understanding I had was personal. My sister, my mother and I have each had experience with disability in our lives, so I have always lived in the cure-model. The idea that disability was socially constructed was crazy to me. Simi Linton's two hand model, showing the closed fist as disability and the open one as society, showed me that our focus has been completely wrong. We don't need to 'fix' the disabled population so they fit the mold of society, it is the other way around. This fact, honestly, has changed me as a learner, thinker, writer, and person and I will carry it with me throughout the rest of my academic and personal life.

Hello All! So once again I have had issues with technology. So, I have attached the 9 blog posts I made to a journal I entitled Autism "Speaks!"

If there is any issue technologically please do let me know. Thanks!

 1. This project in a nutshell https://penzu.com/p/837d6e56 

2. Autism "Speaks" https://penzu.com/p/11523f6e

3. Autism Culture https://penzu.com/p/10a3aa85

http://smalina77.wix.com/empoweringlearners16

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/sunday-review/giving-a-name-and-dignity-to-a-disability.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

 Grace in my Heart, Flowers in my Hair, a Mouthful of Shooting Stars: 

A final personal reflection on Critical Disability Studies: Theory & Practice

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

-Mumford & Sons, "After the Storm"