Syllabus 📖

Table of Contents

  1. Course Description 🧐
  2. Learning Outcomes ✅
  3. Required Materials 💰
  4. Technology/Platforms 🌐
  5. Grading Breakdown 💯
  6. Policies for WS 297V & Pace
    1. WS 297V: Accessibility & Student Support ♿
    2. WS 297V: Attendance Policy 🙋
    3. Pace: Writing-Enhanced Course (WEC) ✒️
    4. Pace: Antiracism Education (ARE) ✊🏾
    5. WS 297V: Academic Integrity & Brain-Only Writing 🧠
    6. Pace: Writing Support & Learning Commons 🧑‍🏫
    7. Pace: Safety Statement 🦺

Course Description 🧐

This syllabus is cross-posted in Classes\Content\Syllabus and on Discord #welcome.

The syllabus and calendar for this class are living documents and may be modified to better fit the needs of our class. I’ll announce any changes I make in #classroom and Classes\Announcements.

WS 297V invites you into academic and activist conversations about different forms of feminist disability justice. You’ll be introduced to antiracist, feminist, queer, and trans frameworks to explore how systems of oppression, medicalization, and normalization shape disability and disabled experience and advocacy, e.g.:

  • how embodied differences are constructed, interpreted, and acted upon in medical, social, educational, and professional contexts
  • how disability becomes a site for the exercise of disciplinary power and social control
  • and how we might reimagine embodied resistance, care work, and collective liberation.

We’ll center disability as a complex, context-dependent social construct instead of a pathologizing, deficit-based label and destigmatize aspects of disabled experience and activism. Finally, we’ll create practical toolkits for daily survival in ableist, sexist, racist, and otherwise bigoted environments.

Learning Outcomes ✅

The idea that anyone masters anything in a semester is a myth. But you’ll leave the class with at least a sense of:

  • Different perspectives on and models of feminist disability justice
  • How systemic ableism, sexism, and racism stigmatizes, medicalizes, and delegitimizes anomalous embodiment, shaping how disabled people are treated
  • How disability justice challenges curative logics
  • How to critically analyze able-bodyminded privilege and academic ableism
  • How to strategize and mobilize using disability justice frameworks to prioritize the needs and demands of marginalized communities
  • How to teach-back critical conceptual vocabulary from key theories we take up in this class

Required Materials 💰

All required readings are provided for free. They’re uploaded to Classes\Content and are linked on the Calendar on this website.

Technology/Platforms 🌐

This is an online synchronous course that meets once a week using Discord for sync sessions and sync/async text chats. We’ll typically meet on Wed in sync text chat in #classroom from 9AM-10AM followed by sync voice chat from 10AM-12PM, but will have some fully sync or fully async sessions.

Outside of class, you’ll read, write, and prepare for our sync class sessions, during which I’ll facilitate discussion, answer and float questions, and help you interactively generate prompts and ideas for your writing.

The server invite link is on Classes\Content\Syllabus. If you’re new to Discord, check out our Discord Tutorial or the Beginner’s Guide to Discord to get started and reach out if you need help!

We won’t use Classes except for me to do enrollment verification, collect your high-stakes writing, and share your grades with you.

We’ll use 2 platforms (plus occasional use of Classes) this semester:

  • Discord: Discussion forum for sync class sessions, sync and async text chats, low-stakes writing assignments, workshops, announcements
  • Course Website: This website, where course content is posted
  • Classes: Platform for submitting assignments and viewing grades

Grading Breakdown 💯

For a full description of written work, the alt-grading system, and participation and attendance policy, click the descriptions linked below or check out the full Alt-Grading System page.

Participation20%
Low-Stakes Writing20%
High-Stakes Writing60%

Policies for WS 297V & Pace

Make sure to read the policies specific to this course! You’ve probably read Pace’s policies a thousand times, but they’re provided here again in case you ever need the info. I’ve labeled them “WS 297V” and “Pace” in case you want to skim/skip Pace’s boilerplate stuff.

WS 297V: Accessibility & Student Support ♿

If something might affect or is affecting your academic performance, please talk to me ASAP so we can work together to meet your needs and the course reqs. I want you to succeed! You don’t need documentation to proactively talk to me about issues impacting your learning, whether it’s because of disability, mental health challenges, work, family, stress, etc., and you don’t need to disclose personal info, either. Barring emergencies, I need as much advance notice as possible to effectively accommodate you. You don’t need to disclose any more details than you wish. You can just tell me you’re dealing with stuff, and we can strategize ways for you to fulfill the course requirements while taking care of yourself. I’ll do my best to accommodate you, but please be aware that my own capacities only extend so far.

If you select the “Check in Weekly” role on Discord in #get-roles, I’ll encourage you to participate each week by DMing you every Monday with basic questions about how you’re doing, if you’re confused about the materials, and if you’d like to chat sometime. If you need help surmounting any anxiety about reaching out to your professors, choose this role, and reply to me when I reach out to you to get the conversation going!

To request an official accommodation for a qualifying disability, a student must self-identify and register with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) for his/her/their campus. NYC SAS may be contacted at 212-346-1199 or 161 William St, 10th Floor. PLV SAS may be contacted at 914-773-3201 or the Administration Center, 861 Bedford Road, Pleasantville.

WS 297V: Attendance Policy 🙋

In this class, attendance doesn’t mean showing up and passively existing. You have to actively participate to be counted as present. If a ballpark number helps, aim for 2-3 contributions during each sync session; in weeks when you’re quieter in class, or if you’re looking to boost your overall participation, aim for 2-3 substantive text chats outside of class (in addition to homework posts).

The pandemic isn’t over. For information on how to affordably protect yourself from infectious diseases, refer to this informational resource I put together on pandemics and public health, which includes info on current strains, long-term costs of COVID-19 and post-COVID syndromes, where to buy PPE affordably, and an abbreviated course policy on illness.

Life is stressful: We’re dealing with changes in government and social policy — cuts to open education, equity initiatives that support women, BIPOC, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ folks, social welfare, FEMA, the VA; bans on public health and science communications; attacks on citizenship and ICE raids — and ongoing problems like the rising cost of living; weather extremes and environmental disasters; gun violence; GenAI’s destruction of environment, human intentionality, and reliable information; food recalls; medication shortages; and an uptick in anti-intellectualism and bigotry.

Naturally, all this can impact your class performance, gradually or suddenly. Your participation might also falter due to sickness, religious holidays, and/or Pace-affiliated extracurricular activities. At the same time, because much of our knowledge-making happens during class sessions, your attendance is critical to your success.

Since a large part of your course grade comes from consistent, active participation, the more you post, react, and chat with each other in and out of class, the better — and since actively participating is how learning happens, it’ll help you do better on assignments, too! If you miss a class, you’re responsible for reaching out to me in a timely fashion to arrange alternate deadlines and make sure you’re on the right track, and for submitting any written assignments, reviewing the week’s materials, and asking for notes or help on Discord.

If you get sick or experience some other health challenge, communicate with me early so we can make a plan to make a plan when you’re better. We’ll get you caught up when you’re well enough to resume participating. As a high-risk disabled individual myself, if I become sick, especially with COVID-19 or another serious illness, I’ll need to aggressively rest. You’ll have the materials and each other on Discord to help you continue with your learning. I’ll rejoin when I’m well enough.

I don’t want any of us risking our well-being for this class, but I can only overextend myself so much — meaning I can’t give unlimited extensions if everyone keeps getting sick. The more you reduce your risk of getting sick, the more likely we are to finish the course without significant interruptions to course continuity and your learning.

Remember, communal care, mutual aid, and compassion will get us through!

Pace: Writing-Enhanced Course (WEC) ✒️

This class is writing-enhanced, so writing and revision are central to learning content and achieving course goals. You’ll receive detailed written handouts for each writing assignment, specifying grading criteria and clearly setting forth expectations. Writing will be thought of as a process whereby you generate ideas, receive feedback, and then revise. You’ll practice their writing through a combination of low stakes, informal writing and more formal assignments. You’ll receive instructor-generated feedback for revision on at least one writing assignment prior to a second submission and subsequent grading. Final drafts will be evaluated based on evaluative criteria from a checklist or rubric.

Pace: Antiracism Education (ARE) ✊🏾

This class is an antiracism education course and fulfills the ARE requirement, so diversity, equity, race, and ethnicity are central to learning content and achieving course goals. In the context of our course content, you’ll learn about commitments to eliminate racism, receive exposure to a variety of perspectives, and acquire an antiracist toolkit that you can use in future classes or workplaces or for social justice causes. Antiracism education is considered necessary for career readiness, so this class will also help you prepare for your future world of work.

WS 297V: Academic Integrity & Brain-Only Writing 🧠

You’re responsible for following Pace’s Academic Integrity Code. Don’t invent research data, lie about engaging with a text, fabricate a source, pass off another human’s responses as your own, or use GenAI. In accordance with university policy, all violations of academic integrity will be reported to your academic adviser and the Academic Conduct Committee.

Writing is the process of thinking and learning, so do your own work! If you use sources, including the assigned texts, cite them whether you’re paraphrasing (translating the text into your own voice) or quoting (using the text’s words). If a submission sounds “off” for any reason, and if you’re unable to walk me through the writing choices you made and why (what you hoped to accomplish, how your thoughts and wordsmithing were supposed to get you there), then I’m unlikely to accept that submission for credit.

And because writing is thinking, large language models (LLMs) and generative AI (GenAI) technologies — which are accelerated text prediction machines designed for engagement, not learning — have no place at any stage of the writing process. Writing is painstaking work we do to refine our ideas and communicate them to others. LLMs are designed to produce plausible sounding permutations of text, with no ideas or thought behind them. They violate academic integrity. They encourage delusion. They destroy the environment. They do all this to produce synthetic, mediocre text in the name of capitalistic imperatives. They reduce your capacity for thought, across human activity. They reduce human intentionality.

The use of GenAI for any purpose isn’t permitted in this class. For reasons of copyright infringement, you may not upload material from this class (my materials or your peers’ submissions) to GenAI models.

If you choose to risk using an LLM in this class, you need to effectively fact-check, rewrite to fit the assignment’s rhetorical context and genre, provide attribution for all the sources GenAI is using, and be prepared to explain your craft choices in terms of the writing ecology they belong to.

Read the rest of the Writing without AI policy and philosophy here. And remember: GenAI/LLM use might be trendy but isn’t inevitable. You do harm to yourself and to the aims of social justice by using it. If you’ve been using it, use this course to experiment with getting back to brain-only writing.

Pace: Writing Support & Learning Commons 🧑‍🏫

Writing support is available for all students at Pace University. We offer confidential one-to-one appointments (on-site or on-line), group sessions, and drop-in sessions free of charge. Students can bring writing from all disciplines and at all stages of the writing process, from outlines to completed drafts. Students are encouraged to bring all types of writing, including resumes, internship and graduate school applications, and personal creative work. We are dedicated to developing independent learners through purposeful interactions with trained, well-qualified peer and professional staff. Check out our writing services and current hours of operation and use TracCloud to schedule an appointment.

The Learning Commons uses an array of programs and a holistic approach to assist students with academic skills and content knowledge. We are dedicated to developing independent learners through purposeful interactions with trained, well-qualified peer and professional staff, such as:

  • Content Support Services: Content tutoring, exam review sessions, and content preparation/support workshops.
  • Academic Skills Services: Small group peer mentoring, academic skills workshops, and individual academic development.
  • Writing Support Services: Writing tutoring and writing preparation/support workshops.

Questions? Please email LC_PLV@pace.edu or LC_NYC@pace.edu, or visit (PLV: Mortola Library 3rd Fl; NYC: 15 Beekman 7th Fl).

Pace: Safety Statement 🦺

Faculty (like me) are non-confidential resources and have an obligation to report any information about sexual assault to the Executive Director of Institutional Equity/Title IX Compliance and Title IX Coordinator, Bernard Dufresne, who may be reached at 914-923-2610 or by email. The Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX Compliance is responsible for investigating violations of the sex-based misconduct policy.

If you’ve experienced a threat to your safety or been physically or sexually assaulted, there are confidential resources available at the university to assist you: