Madness in America It's a mad, mad course.  In this course we will focus on representations of madness from colonial to late 20th century America, emphasizing the links between popular and material culture, science, medicine, and institutions. We will consider how ideas about madness (and normalcy) reflect broader (and shifting) notions of identity. Thus, issues of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, community, class, and region will play significant roles in our discussions and critiques. To complement foundational readings, this course will draw on American literature, documentary and entertainment films, music, and materials from the college's special collections.

Issues in Critical Disability Studies: U.S. and the World Disability as a category and as lived experience plays an important but often overlooked role in national, transnational, and global contexts. In this course we will explore disability’s changing meanings in the United States and around the World. Comparative and transnational approaches will draw our attention to disability’s many meanings across wide-ranging historical, cultural, and geographical settings. Foundational concepts and principles, including ableism and Universal Design, shape our critical inquiry. Key themes frame the course: access, language, power, violence, normalcy, identity, community, institutions, and rights and justice. We will engage with diverse primary sources, from memoirs and documentary films to advertisements, material objects, and oral histories.

American Deaf Culture and History In this course we will explore America’s “DEAF-WORLD” from the early 19th century through the present day. Creative, community-based, and scholarly readings, as well as memoirs, TV shows, films, and material objects will illustrate diverse traditions of “deaf,” including religious, biomedical, and social-cultural forms. Central themes will guide our work: language and communication, community and identity, cultural values and practices, education, artistic and popular representations, technology and bioethics, and activism. Through these themes we will learn about audism and ableism—foundational concepts in deaf studies—as they relate to other systems of power and privilege. Intersecting social identities within deaf cultural worlds also will draw sustained attention. We will engage in a highly collaborative learning process. Small group research projects and interactive class discussions will contribute to deeper learning about continuity and change, and varying perspectives in and about America’s “DEAF-WORLD.” This course does not require knowledge of American Sign Language.

American Disability Studies: History, Meanings, and Cultures In this course we will examine the history, meanings, and realities of disability in the United States. We will analyze the social, political, economic, environmental, and material factors that shape the meanings of "disability," examining changes and continuities over time. Students will draw critical attention to the connections between disability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and age in American and transnational contexts. Diverse sources, including films and television shows, music, advertising, fiction, memoirs, and material objects, encourage inter and multi-disciplinary approaches to disability. Central themes we consider include language, privilege, community, citizenship, education, medicine and technology, and representation.

U.S. Disability Rights & Hist “Nothing about us without us”—the 20th century banner of American and global disability rights movements—insists that disabled people fully participate in all aspects of life. In this course we will trace the lineage from U.S. disability rights through disability justice across the 20th - 21st centuries. We will consider how ableism interlocks with settler colonialism, capitalism, misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia. Through focused readings and project-based work, we will unpack work around policy, service provisions, and mutual aid, and engage with themes such as access, self-determination, education, community living, institutionalization and imprisonment, employment, reproduction, and interdependence and collective care. This course draws on multi-modal sources, including scholarly articles, oral interviews, documentaries, memoirs, material artifacts, artwork, and blogs.

Love, Sex, Race, and Disability In this course we will explore the connections between gender and sexuality, race, and disability. Culture and representation, understandings of diversity and difference, and contexts (political, social, and historical) will provide central areas of study.  Comparing and integrating topics and perspectives, we will critically analyze the constructions and politics of identity (and multiple identities) and historical perspectives on gender and sexuality, race, and disability. We also will consider the impact of education and activism, as well as the meanings of intimate relationships across and between genders and sexualities, races, and disabilities.  Our work will foster a fundamental reexamination of American life and history through its study of bodies and minds, identities, languages, cultures, citizenship and rights, power and authority, what is a "natural" and "unnatural." This course will draw on diverse sources, including documentary and Hollywood films, poetry and short fiction, academic texts, such as Freakery, Gendering Disability and Disability and the Teaching of Writing, and memoirs, such as Eli Clare's Exile and Pride.

Disability in Film and Television In this course we will investigate film and television representations of disability and disabled people to gain an understanding of how these reflect prominent cultural ideas across twentieth and twenty-first century US history.  Specifically, we will trace changes and continuities in the various functions of disability in film and TV, and how disabled people have used these media to express their own lived experiences. Key themes to be covered include access, stereotype, spectacle, community, and activism. Our intersectional study will involve disability, deaf, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and age. Through readings, screenings, and engaged discussions students will gain insights into ways film and television reflect and shape the understandings of disability in American history and culture. This class includes regular screenings.

Disability, Difference, and Society In this course we explore the varied and evolving meanings of disability—as category, lived experience, and way of interpreting the world, as well as the contexts that shape these meanings. As a First Year Seminar, primary attention centers on critical reading, thinking, writing, and collaborative skills. Course materials and assignments offer different disciplinary approaches and writing styles, fostering both individual and collective work. Films, on-line exhibits, music, advertising, popular media, and the material world reflect the wide range of sources on which this course draws. Dominant issues, including representation, education, employment, bioethics, institutions, community, policies, access, and justice serve as touchstones for research, analysis, and learning. Sustained attention to interlocking identities, including disability, race, ethnicity, Indigeneity, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation and identification, and age define the field of disability studies and this course. While the United States is highlighted in this class, transnational and global components figure into our work as well.

Susan Burch

Reviews and ratings for Susan Burch at Middlebury College.Susan Burch teaches Madness in America, Disability Issues/U.S. & World, American Deaf Culture/History and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Susan Burch good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Dr. B is an amazing professor! This course taught me a lot about disability history and made me reflect on ways to improve disability policies. It is primarily based on readings and discussions, with a few major papers. Dr. B is also very accommodating. I would love to take another course with her in the future!

Professor Burch is very knowledgeable about disability studies, as she has been in this field for decades. You can join class by zoom and theres lots of participation opportunities. Theres about 4 partner assignments all semester. 

Dr. B is a fantastic professor who is enthusiastic about her work. The class is heavily discussion based but Dr. B offers various modes for participation. Grading is fair as Dr. B gives multiple chances for revision and offers assistance. The course content is engaging as well. 