Rethinking the Student Body: Mary Bowers at TEDxIthaca College

Disability has long been considered an objective condition of the mind and body. However a new way of thinking about disabilities and the people who are seen as having them is emerging which poses disability as a social construction, comparable to race, sex and gender. Using this theoretical model, a social history of disability, and data gathered through my original field research, I examine what implications this might have for college students with disabilities today. Ultimately my goal is to help change the ways disability is defined in our culture in order to improve the ways that it is experienced. Essentially, I posit disability as primarily a subjective social construct as opposed to an objective medical category, thus enabling the repositioning of people with all types of disabilities as productive, capable and complete human beings.

Mary Bowers enjoys reading, people-watching, being outdoors and has a weakness for Doritos and bad puns. In May 2013, she became a proud alumna of Ithaca College having earned a degree in Anthropology and minors in Writing and the Humanities & Sciences Honors Program. During her years at IC, Mary's educational focus was on the social and economic determinants of health disparities, which she plans to continue studying in graduate school next fall. Eventually Mary plans to become a community organizer in the field of public health. What she loved most about her education so far is how it has simultaneously complicated and clarified her understanding of the world, blurring boundaries such as those between self and other, physical and social, and real and unreal... yet strengthening her belief that significant change is possible and attainable. This process is at the heart of her research referencing the experiences of college students with disabilities and is the idea Mary will be sharing with the TEDx community.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)