This course explores the emergence of disability as a social and political category in the last few decades in the U.S. By foregrounding the creative potential of disability arts and culture, Cripping the Arts will provide a framework for critical analysis and practices of reading difference. Considering crip as a theoretical perspective, identity and a cultural/artistic practice which reclaims and re-signifies the slur "cripple," this course will examine the generative nature of disability. Course material includes a trans-disciplinary engagement with art objects, choreography, poetry, theater, essays, and films.