By Maya Kirkpatrick, and Mario Martinez
Faculty mentor: Dr. Julia DeLancey
9:00-9:50am HCC 327
The aim of this project was to develop a chapter in the style of Anne D’Alleva’s Methods and Theories of Art History, a seminal text in the ARTH 303: Methods of Art History course. D’Alleva’s text provides an introduction and overview of research methodologies and theoretical frameworks used in the field of art history. However, her text does not cover disabilities studies, an emerging field with its own methodology and theories. Our research focused on reading pivotal texts within disability studies, such as David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder’s Cultural Locations of Disability (2006), Robert McRuer’s Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability (2006), Tobin Siebers Disability Theory (2008), and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s Staring: How We Look (2009) to name a few. This project granted us a new level of awareness of some emerging ideas within disability studies, such as the cultural model of disability and the concept of ‘embodiment.’ Additionally, we explored how art historians are engaging with disability studies, how museums are curating new ‘touchable’ collections, and the relation between disability studies and the disabled community. The final product also includes an example of how to apply disability studies for the analysis of an art object, as well as a list questions to guide the reader’s exploration of disability within an artwork. This text will be available to the Art and Art History faculty for use in future offerings of ARTH 303: Methods of Art History.
