This course introduces students to disability history, a subfield within both history and the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. Students will use critical perspectives from disability studies to interpret how the concept of disability has changed over time and across cultures. This course understands disability as a social and political phenomenon and seeks to understand the experiences of disabled people in the past around the world. Students enrolled in this course will read secondary and primary source texts, and draw on lectures, films, memoirs, popular culture, and art to examine the social and cultural construction and experiences of disability. Students will also gain an understanding of how historians conduct research, and the methods and problems of researching disability history. Historical themes include colonialism, industrialization, war, and bureaucracy; regions and time periods studied will be selected at the discretion of the instructor.