Hey guys!

Attached is my midterm on portrayal of disability in film. I have created a short video (about 4 minutes) and an accompanying written analysis.

Unfortunately, because I do not have access to optimal editing software (that I was planning on using at Haverford), the video is not as clean as I would like it to be. Having made do with what is available at home, though, I hope you all enjoy and are prompted to think about cinema in a different light.

Best wishes,

Lauren

https://vimeo.com/397355750

Please let me know if there is any trouble viewing!

Here's my midterm! Unfortunately Bryn Mawr doesn't provide access to the most current DSM, so I had to use the one from the 90s :(

Also a disclaimer: I wrote this essay with the understanding that using drugs while pregnant is always inadvisable. That being said, the cases in which it occurs become incredibly racialized and moralized, and that is what I'm writing about. 

Please let me know your thoughts/ what might be cool to explore further in my final project! 

Here is the link to my midterm project, to be updated with any feedback from my sister! I tried to use cognitively accessible language and found it more difficult than I had anticipated to avoid jargon but maintain my persuasive voice. I'd love feedback on that or anything else you notice!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Js-Apyfm6xpeYYygPz9vRPuecGaQI81IrVMcVObJZM/edit?usp=sharing

Have a great break!

I have attached both my midterm paper discussing statistics and research in Morocco and the Washington Group Short Set of Questions on Disability. The Washington Group Short Set of Questions on Disability was used in a government-sanctioned census on disability. 

Enjoy!

Here's the webpage link to my midterm:

https://sites.google.com/view/mymindatbrynmawr/home

Happy spring break :) 

The material that drew my interest the most in this past week's reading was the idea of how much we miss out on when we as a society often fail to give individuals who identify as neurodivergent a chance to tap into their creative potential in a healthy and accessible way, and to share that creativity with the world. The term Neurocosmipolitanism is the most interesting to me because of the beauty it ecompasses. A quote from Nick Walker's webpage on Neurocosmipolitanism reads, "The neuro cosmopolitan seeks to actively explore, engage with, and cultivate human neurodiversity and its creative potentials..." Creativity seems to be a common theme in discussions relating to neurodiversity in any form.

I found the article about cognitive accessibility in academic spaces really interesting. And I think that the reminder that highly technical or unnecessarily complex language can be a barrier to the “nothing about us without us” goal of disability advocacy. But I also think that the idea of language as an access barrier is one that has been weaponized within academia and within popular culture as a reason to discount academic/other work that goes against the status quo.

While reading Nick Walker’s blog titled “Neurodiversity: Some Basic Terms and Definitions” I had a few questions relating to the adoption of the term “neurodivergent”. The term is defined as, “having a brain that functions in ways that diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of ‘normal’.” Just by reading this, it is an easy to grasp concept. However, when put into the social context of our society, where if the line of ‘significantly’ drawn? If all human mines are part of a large neurodiverse scale, where is the definition of those that would be considered divergent? Ideally, this would not have to be questioned if all minds were treated equally. But what if we also factor in a medical perspective?