HWS News
28 February 2024 New Bodies, Disability, and Justice Major Offered
Kicking off the new Bodies, Disability, and Justice major, the department will host Penn State Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Hil Malatino for a discussion titled “Trans, Weird, Mad: Lessons from the Reed Erickson Archive” in April.
The Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice is excited to offer a new major: Bodies, Disability, and Justice. Building on Hobart and William Smith's long history as the first in the nation to offer an undergraduate degree in LGBTQ+ Studies, and its historical leadership in gender and feminist studies, the new major places the body at the center of inquiry, preparing students to explore mental health, emotional and physical wellbeing, questions of access and belonging, and embodied difference as key concerns for both individuals and communities, historically and in our contemporary moment.
Course work in Bodies, Disability and Justice provides students with a critical and ethical basis for understanding and intervening in issues of embodied and collective wellbeing. Expanding on the existing minor, the major provides an interdisciplinary approach to the body as a site for justice. It is relevant to students interested in a myriad of career trajectories, including, for example, physical and mental health, education, fitness and movement, community advocacy, social work, law, and the arts.
“Bodies, Disability, and Justice brings together new and existing coursework in disability studies across campus, emphasizing GSIJ’s connection to Educational Studies, Public Health, Dance, Theater, and English, among others” says Chair and Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice Michelle Martin-Baron.
“We added this major in part to respond to the high volume of alumni who have pursued careers in a wide variety of mental health and physical health fields in a justice-centered framework. While students were already getting a lot of this training through our existing programs, this new major allows us to offer more in-depth contexts and experiences for students, providing a more robust engagement with body-centered theories, methods, and debates that they can draw upon in their future careers,” Martin-Baron explains.
As a part of the celebration of the new major, GSIJ is partnering with the Philosophy department, Public Health, and Psychological Sciences, to host Penn State Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Hil Malatino for a public talk titled “Trans, Weird, Mad: Lessons from the Reed Erickson Archive” on Wednesday, April 17 at 5 p.m. in the Vandervort Room.
Malatino is the author of Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) and Queer Embodiment: Monstrosity, Medical Violence, and Intersex Experience (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), and Trans Care (University of Minnesota Press, 2020).
The talk is free and open to the public. More information can be found here.
To learn more, visit the Bodies, Disability, and Justice page or contact Michelle Martin-Baron.
Top: Chair and Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice Michelle Martin-Baron talks with students during a class.
