GG4246 Geographies of Disability

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

A ballot system operates for all optional modules in Geography.

Planned timetable

Mon 10am-1pm

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr M B Sothern

Dr M B Sothern
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Matthew Sothern

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

The Body has become a key site (and sight) for contemporary cultural geography. This module does not frame the disabled body as an empirical question (although this is the context within which the module is situated); rather, our objective is use what Rosemary Garland-Thompson calls "the extraordinary body" as a place from which to critically interrogate geographies of power. How have disabled bodies been made meaningful? What are the logics which frame the representations of disabled bodies? How do we understand political approaches to disabled bodies? What kinds of geographies do critical disability studies challenge us to imagine. In other words, starts from the assumption that the category of disability is always an outcome of discourse even as it is real and lived.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS 'GG2011 AND GG2012' OR SD2001 AND SD2002' OR GG2013, GG2014 AND SD2100' OR SD2005, SD2006 AND SD2100'.

Anti-requisites

YOU CANNOT TAKE THIS MODULE IF YOU PASS GG3221 OR TAKE GG3221

Assessment pattern

Coursework = 100% (50%= Essay, 50%= Final project)

Re-assessment

100% coursework. 100% time limited cap-stone essays

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1hr Lecture (x10 weeks), 2hr Seminar (x10 weeks). 1x 1hr personal supervision on bespoke essay topic.

Scheduled learning hours

33

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

260

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Engage critically with disability studies as an interdisciplinary field and map its impacts on geography
  • critically interrogate the limitations of disability identity politics claims, simple inclusion claims and appreciate the complexity of calls for "justice"
  • make explicit connections to how epistemological evolution in Geography and other Social Sciences inform different models of disability: Medical, Social, Cultural
  • Mobilise core theoretical arguments to analyse a contemporary disabled politics claim