DIS ST 360 A Au 26: Redesigning Humanity: Disability In Speculative Fiction

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DIS ST 360 Redesigning Humanity: Disability in Speculative Fiction

Instructor: Joanne Woiak  Contact: jwoiak@uw.edu

Fall 2026  Distance Learning

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:30-3:20pm, on Zoom 

Book cover An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers SolomonBook cover An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon

Announcements

  • NEW:  Joanne's Tues 10/27 11am office hour is cancelled. I will hold office hour after class and by appointment.  
  • Message me by email or canvas if you have any questions at all about the expectations for class this week or about the guidelines for the Facilitating Discussion assignment.  I will be in touch with Group A asap to remind you that the first facilitating day is next week, Tues Oct 27.

 

Welcome & Getting Started:

Welcome to this disability studies class on speculative fiction! This is a fully remote course, and it’s designed to provide flexibility in how you access the content and how you show your engagement with the material. Please call me Joanne. I’m looking forward to teaching and learning with you this quarter. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the course. My email is jwoiak@uw.edu

To start the class:

Joanne's Office Hours:

Distance Learning course delivery plan:

  • Tuesdays & Thursdays: Synchronous class meetings on Zoom, 1:30-3:20pm. These will be recorded for asynchronous access.
  • There are no exams or quizzes. Due dates for assignments are generally flexible.
  • Methods of instruction will encompass class discussion of readings, films, audio, short stories, podcasts, and webinars. There will be some live and pre-recorded lectures.
  • There will be synchronous and asynchronous (discussion posts) participation options, called Class Activities. It's your responsibility to check Canvas for these assignments. When you attend class you'll be able to complete the activity during class time.
    • Students always have the option to complete Class Activities asynchronously instead, after watching the recording of class. All class activities completed asynchronously are due on Sunday night of the week they are assigned. 
  • If you have any other access needs that you think may not be met by the current set-up of the course, I encourage you to contact me so that we can make any needed modifications.

Course description:

Octavia Butler's classic 1993 dystopian novel Parable of the Sower was set in the years 2024-2027, and its themes feel strikingly relevant today. How did Butler and other disabled, BIPOC, and multiply marginalized artist-activists imagine where we would be in the near future? Their interventions in the speculative fiction (SF) genre aim to “write ourselves into the future,” as visionary author Butler put it. This course will analyze SF texts - centering stories and novels by Black disabled authors, as well as several SF films - that use speculative settings and nonrealist conventions to comment on contemporary social, political, and ethical concerns.

From Frankenstein to Brave New World to Gattaca and beyond, SF has imagined the artificial creation, manipulation, and enhancement of human life. We’ll critique how SF has deployed potentially problematic tropes and metaphors that reflect mainstream attitudes about disability, race, gender, and sexuality. By focusing on the connection between speculative fiction, the field of disability studies (DS), and the work of BIPOC, queer, and trans Disability Justice (DJ) activists and scholars, the course will consider representations of disability and neurodivergence, including intersections of racism and ableism. As scholar Sami Schalk contends, disability is central to speculative fiction and SF "allows us to imagine otherwise.... for marginalized people, this can mean imagining a future or alternative space away from oppression or in which relations between currently empowered and disempowered groups are altered or improved" (Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction). Authors and readers create new meanings of accessibility, identity, community, family, justice, normal, and human. 

This course has no prerequisites. It fulfills DIV requirements, and fulfills Subfield C Diversity, Representation, Identity of the DS Major and Minor.

Learning objectives:

  • Define analytic tools for evaluating representations and metaphors of disability in cultural texts.
  • Distinguish between models of disability and theories within the field of disability studies.
  • Identify the social functions and literary conventions of speculative fiction.
  • Interpret cultural contributions and activism of disabled people.
  • Write short papers analyzing representations of disability, diversity, and intersectionality in SF.

Assignments:

  • Reading Responses (do 4) 30%
  • Film Responses (do 5) 15%    
  • Participation 15%
  • Facilitating Discussion (do 2) 15% 
  • Final Project 25%

Readings:

We will read two novels, several short stories, and several films. Copies of the books will be available for purchase at the University Bookstore on the Ave and are available as digital editions in UW Libraries. Any edition of these books is fine to use. I will provide links or pdfs of digital copies of them as well. Additional required readings will all be on Canvas.

Accommodations, access, and resources:

The instructor is trying to create an inclusive learning environment. Your experiences in the class are important to me. If you anticipate or encounter barriers participating or demonstrating your learning because of any aspect of how the course is taught, I encourage you to contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss options. This applies to all students.

We can work in conjunction with Disability Resources for Students: Disability Resources for Students (UW Seattle) Email: uwdrs@uw.edu Phone: 206-543-8924. If you have already established accommodations with DRS, please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.

Note that while this is directly applicable to students who are registered with DRS, you do not need to disclose a disability or provide an accommodations letter to discuss accessibility. Please feel free to talk with me about any aspect of accommodations or accessibility.

UW Religious Accommodations Policy:

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request.

 

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due