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X-WR-CALNAME:Premodern Disability
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://premoderndisability.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Premodern Disability
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DTSTART:20250101T000000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260902T170000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260902T180000
DTSTAMP:20260902T101934Z
CREATED:20260902T101934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260902T101934Z
UID:2079-1788368400-1788372000@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Early Modern Race and Disability: Intersections and Beyond
DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, the study of early modern literature and culture has become increasingly informed by the insights of critical race studies; in a parallel development\, scholars are also showing a growing commitment to exploring disability in the early modern world. This conversation puts premodern critical race studies and early modern disability studies in conversation — to explore not only the specific intersections between race and disability\, but also to theorize how the two fields’ shared commitment to interrogating forms of early modern difference might be mutually-informing more broadly.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/early-modern-race-and-disability-intersections-and-beyond/
CATEGORIES:Early Modern,Panel,Roundtable,Roundtable,Webinar
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260910
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260911
DTSTAMP:20260622T132042Z
CREATED:20260622T132042Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260622T132042Z
UID:1982-1788998400-1789084799@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Deafness in the Premodern Mediterranean (VivaMente Conference in the History of Ideas)
DESCRIPTION:This VivaMente Conference explores deafness and the figure of the deaf person in the Mediterranean Antiquity and pre-modern ages through historical\, medical\, and socio-cultural perspectives. \n\n\n\n\n\nDespite its historical significance\, this topic remains underexplored within disability history and Deaf culture studies\, although recent scholarly interest in ancient disabilities has expanded to include social and cultural dimensions. In fact\, in recent years\, academic interest in disabilities in the ancient world has undergone a significant renewal\, bringing to light new research perspectives that move beyond the traditional pathology-centered approach to encompass a broader consideration of social and cultural dynamics: see e.g. C. Laes (ed.)\, Disability in Antiquity (London – New York\, 2017); C. Laes\, Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World. A Social and Cultural History (Cambridge\, 2018); C. Laes (ed.)\, A Cultural History of Disability in Antiquity  (London\, 2020); A.F. Morris\, H. Vogel (eds.)\, Disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology. All Our Yesterdays (London – New York\, 2025). \n\n\n\n\nThe history of deafness and deaf individuals represents a field of study that requires an interdisciplinary approach\, capable of integrating historical sources with the latest advancements in linguistics\, medical history\, and the sociology of disability. In this framework\, we believe that tracing the historical roots of deafness—both from the objective perspective of medical history and from the subjective viewpoint of social perception—can provide a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions on the topic. The analysis of documentary and literary sources allows us to identify representations and narratives of deafness in various historical and geographical contexts\, highlighting how societies have perceived\, classified\, and interacted with deaf individuals over the centuries. \n\n\n\n\nThe conference is also set within a broader context of increasing recognition of Deaf culture at both public and academic levels. The official recognition of Italian Sign Language (LIS) in 2021 represented a fundamental step in affirming the rights of deaf individuals\, as did the establishment of the degree program in Italian Sign Language Interpreting at the University of Parma in 2023. This program\, one of only three currently active in Italy\, has been founded and chaired for three years by Davide Astori\, co-organiser of this conference. This academic initiative aligns with a broader scholarly trend aimed at enhancing the historical\, cultural\, and communicative aspects of Deaf communities. \n\n\n\n\nAt the same time\, the conference is intended to situate deafness within the broader framework of the history of ideas. Rather than treating deafness only as a social condition or as an object of modern Deaf culture studies\, the conference will examine the changing intellectual categories through which deafness was defined\, explained\, and classified in ancient and medieval societies. Particular attention will be paid to the historical transformation of concepts such as hearing\, speech\, silence\, impairment\, education\, communication\, and disability\, and to the ways in which these categories were shaped by philosophical\, theological\, legal\, linguistic\, and medical discourses. \n\n\n\n\nThe goal of the conference is\, therefore\, to foster dialogue among scholars from different disciplines in order to construct the most comprehensive and multifaceted picture possible of deafness in premodern history. This reflection\, beyond shedding light on specific aspects of ancient and medieval culture\, also aims to encourage a critical debate on the persistence of certain historical conceptions in contemporary perceptions of deafness and disability as a whole. \n\n\n\nOrganisation\n\n\nScholars working on any area relevant to the conference are invited to submit a proposal consisting of a title and an abstract. Proposals should not exceed 250 words and should be accompanied by a short biographical note. Contributions may address any aspect relevant to the conference’s theme (ancient\, medieval\, and early modern)\, as well as broader comparative or methodological approaches. \nThe deadline for submission is 10 September 2026. \nThe organisers will select the proposals with a view to both the conference programme and the publication of the proceedings. Selected speakers will be invited to complete the registration process after acceptance. The conference proceedings will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication in the series Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine. \nBursaries to attend the conference are available under the competitive Comel Grant scheme.\n\n\nConference type: Hybrid\nDates: 17-18 November 2026\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProposal Submission: 10 September 2026
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-deafness-in-the-premodern-mediterranean-vivamente-conference-in-the-history-of-ideas/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,Classical,Conference,Early Modern,Medieval
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260920
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260921
DTSTAMP:20260627T081933Z
CREATED:20260627T081933Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260627T081933Z
UID:1989-1789862400-1789948799@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Society for Disability Studies Annual Virtual Conference
DESCRIPTION:Annual Virtual Conference | April 23 and 24\, 2027\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHere and There\, Then and Now:\nDisability Studies at the End of the World\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCall for Papers\nNote: A text-only version of the information below is available as a Google Doc at this link. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmidst escalating political repression\, imperialist violence\, climate crisis\, and warfare\, how do we practice disability studies at the end of the world? What can disability studies and the disability community teach us during a time of rampant fascism and global collapse? How might we amplify disabled expertise and crip wisdom – centering ways of living with injury and interdependence – as a way of refusing the ableist nihilism that underwrites apocalypse’s finality and its fixation on healing\, cure\, and redemption? How do we draw on reservoirs of collective crip memory that persist in the face of dispossession\, precarity and debilitation\, that brim with ideas\, dreams\, hopes\, visions\, and critiques that survive even as many of our bodies do not? What might we gain from centering disability as a site of valuable knowledge\, embodied wisdom\, and radical creativity in our current political moment? \nStriking at apocalyptic forecasts that assert “unprecedented times\,” Indigenous\, Black\, postcolonial\, and transnational disability studies challenge this temporality of the world’s seeming end\, reminding us that\, for many\, the world has already ended and begun again many times over. How might the experience and concept of disability help us re-frame what the end of the world means? How have our disabled ancestors accessed the end of the world as the beginning of another? How might radical\, diverse\, and distinct crip knowledges help us attune to possibilities of and for other worlds?  \nFinally\, what is the role of “study” and “studies” in the ending and remaking of worlds? What does a “field” like disability studies need to do in this current political\, environmental\, and affective moment? What shape can world-making projects take in a “field” such as ours\, which coalesces across and through hierarchies of labor\, citizenship\, health\, gender\, sexuality\, race\, mobility\, discipline\, age\, and access? How might we envision community\, care\, and collaboration in a time of stoked division?  \nIn keeping with the legacy of the Society for Disability Studies’ annual conference as a site for gathering\, reckoning\, and pause\, we invite proposals that take up these questions and other related\, novel provocations. We particularly welcome sessions reckoning with the past\, present\, and future of the “field” that broadly address its “state” through unresolved conflicts\, emergent positions\, and methodological commitments in disability studies\, disability justice organizing and advocacy\, and disability art. Proposals that aim to bring new interlocutors into dialogue and foment new coalitional possibilities across academia\, advocacy\, activism and the arts\, are especially encouraged.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-society-for-disability-studies-annual-virtual-conference/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,Conference,Webinar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260922
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260923
DTSTAMP:20260919T072607Z
CREATED:20260919T072607Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260919T072607Z
UID:2122-1790035200-1790121599@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFPs (deadline extended): Three ICMS Sessions on Monsters and the Monstrous
DESCRIPTION:Session I: Inexplicable\, Indescribable\, Inconceivable MonstersSponsors: MEARCSTAPA\nOrganizers: Mary Leech and Thea Tomaini \nThis session seeks to explore the implied monstrosity of characters through their deeds and/or words with physical features left out or minimally described. Through this approach\, this session will analyze how monstrosity is not just a physical attribute\, but also related to behaviors that threaten to undermine the underlying identity of a community. Other approaches to this topic include implied monsters or monsters within the community that are not initially seen as monsters. Participants should explore what identifies a monster beyond physicality. \n\nSession II: Monsters on the Stage: Interdisciplinary Examinations of Alterity in TheatreSponsors: MEARCSTAPA\nOrganizers: Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan \nTheatrical performances create a space where monsters can directly slither\, breathe\, roar\, live\, die\, and interact with their audiences. This session meditates on how theatre produces or elicits a relationship to monstrosity that might otherwise not be possible through different mediums. This session invites 20-minute papers that consider monstrosity on the stage both hailing from the Middle Ages and its afterlives in medievalism. Far from just fantastical creatures\, “monstrosity” may also refer to racialized\, gendered\, queered or otherwise othered bodies within normative society. \n​ \nSession III: Patris\, Matris\, Monstri: Depictions of Monstrous Parents and Parental MonstersSponsors: MEARCSTAPA\nOrganizers: Cortney Anne Berg \nWhat makes a parent\, what makes a monster\, and what makes a parent monstrous? Can any parents escape the charge? How do these categories intersect in depictions\, and what can the overlap tell us about descent\, human nature\, inheritance of traits\, individual will\, reproductive biology\, and the definition of the human? This session calls for 20-minute papers examining medieval depictions of monstrous parents\, or parental monsters — literal\, behavioral\, or metaphorical. We encourage proposals that crack open essentializing definitions.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfps-deadline-extended-three-icms-sessions-on-monsters-and-the-monstrous/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,Conference,Medieval
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