A $10,000 grant will allow two Shippensburg University faculty members and the history department to integrate disability studies into the general education curriculum.
The grant from Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities was to Dr. Allison Carey, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, Dr. Christine Senecal, associate professor of history and philosophy, and the history department. It will provide department members training in including the history of disabled people in its curriculum and to develop new materials that can be used in future World History I and World History II courses.
Carey said the grant allows development of models on how to include disability studies in first-year experiential classes. “They will pick a couple of lectures and highlight the experiences of people with disabilities and how they have changed through times and place,” said Carey.
Carey, who previously worked for the Temple institute, said she was contacted by individuals there and decided to enter the competitive process to receive the grant. “It is such a great opportunity, and (Shippensburg University) has been working really hard these past couple of years to make the campus more disability friendly,” said Carey. “It fits into a much larger project.”
Senecal has been working closely with Carey to integrate disability knowledge into history classes. “Our history department is highly enthusiastic about the prospect of receiving training in how to infuse the study of disabilities into our curriculum, and how to best sensitize our teaching so that we can foster connections with disabled students,” she said.
According to Senecal, “With this kind of enrichment, both students with disabilities and those without will benefit from an increased awareness about the existence of disabled people and the ways in which societies have interacted with these ever-changing groups.”
