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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Premodern Disability
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260731
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260801
DTSTAMP:20260605T080349Z
CREATED:20260605T080349Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260605T080349Z
UID:1966-1785456000-1785542399@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Collections Uncovered: Disability at the British Library
DESCRIPTION:Call for Presenters! \nCollections Uncovered: Disability at the British Library – 27th November 2026 – 10am-4:30pm\nPresentations in-person (at the British Library) and online (via Teams/Zoom)\nThe afternoon session is in-person only. \nJoin the UK Disability History and Heritage Hub and the British Library to explore disability histories. Presentations will highlight disability stories within the British Library collections\, creating space for conversations around access\, history\, and future directions. \n\nIn the afternoon\, you will get hands-on with selected material from the British Library collections in an interactive session! You will be invited to think creatively: making zines or collages\, sharing stories\, and discussing themes that emerge. The focus will be on co-creation and collaboration\, giving everyone the opportunity to reflect on how disability surfaces in the collections. Discussions will hopefully help shape the agenda for a future PhD placement at the British Library\, which will draw focus to disability histories in the collections. Due to the nature of the activity\, the afternoon session will be in-person only. \nWe welcome contributions on topics or projects including (but not limited to): \n\n\nDisability histories in the British Library collections \n\n\nDisability histories in national collections \n\n\nLibrary collections and disability history \n\n\nAccessibility and collections \n\n\nCataloguing and finding disability histories \n\n\nPhysical space/access \n\n\nCareers in the sector \n\n\nConnections between the past and present \n\n\nDisability publications – activist magazines\, community newsletters\, charity periodicals \n\n\nSomething in the British Library collections that has really excited you (relevant to disability and disability histories) \n\n\n\nSubmission deadline\, Friday 31st July 2026\, by email (details below) \n\nWe welcome diverse presentation formats from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.  Academic papers\, conversation or interview styles\, artistic presentations – your imagination is the only limit! Preferred presentation lengths are either 5 minutes or 15 minutes. Please let us know your preferred length\, and if you will be presenting virtually or in-person\, when you submit your proposal. Please note\, if you are attending in-person\, you will need to fund your own travel. \nWe’ll work with you to ensure attending and presenting at the event is accessible\, and to prevent any technical problems arising. We hope to provide both British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation along with Speech-to-Text captioning (STTR) – we currently have funding for one\, and are seeking funding to be able to provide both. Please get in touch to discuss access requests. \n\nPlease submit proposed presentations to ukdishistheritagehub@gmail.com titling the email ‘Collections Uncovered.’ Just send us a short summary (around 200 words) and a bit about you/your organisation (around 100 words). We are also open to video submissions\, covering the same details\, that are no longer than 3 minutes. If there are any accessibility concerns regarding submissions\, please contact us.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-collections-uncovered-disability-at-the-british-library/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,Webinar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260803
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260805
DTSTAMP:20260507T100710Z
CREATED:20260507T100653Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260507T100710Z
UID:1963-1785715200-1785887999@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Early Modern European Neurodivergence conference
DESCRIPTION:If you missed our initial registration form but would still like to attend Early Modern European Neurodivergence on the 3rd and 4th of August 2026 either in-person at Swansea University or online via Zoom\, please complete the following registration form!📝 https://forms.office.com/e/RDmhiWqpna
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/early-modern-european-neurodivergence-conference/
CATEGORIES:Conference,Early Modern,Long 18th Century,Webinar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260815
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260816
DTSTAMP:20260616T113910Z
CREATED:20260616T113910Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260616T113910Z
UID:1969-1786752000-1786838399@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Disability History and the Life Course
DESCRIPTION:Call for Papers: Disability History and the Life Course\nedited by Chelsea Chamberlain and Caroline Lieffers \nLife stages including the fetal stage\, infancy\, childhood\, adolescence\, “reproductive age\,” adulthood\, retirement\, elderliness\, and death are crucial ways of experiencing and making sense of both the bodymind and temporality\, but they can also be vectors of power. Life stages shape and are shaped by ideas about disability and (ab)normality\, as well as other intersecting systems of power\, such as racism\, colonialism\, and compulsory heterosexuality. Recognizing that disability and the life course are culturally and historically mediated\, this volume aims to explore entanglements of disability and life stages in different historical contexts. In doing so\, we hope that this volume will advance historical and theoretical understandings of both disability and the life course. \nPossible approaches include but are not limited to: \n\nDisability\, (inter)dependency\, and care at different stages of life\nInfantilization or precocious sexualization of people with disabilities\n“Poster children” and the image of the disabled child\nDisability in historical children’s toys\, games\, and media\nUnderstandings of “maturity” and “capacity to consent” in people with disabilities\nQuestions about chronological vs. “mental” or “developmental” age\nThe idea of “school-age” or “college-age” and expectations about education for people with disabilities\nPuberty/adolescence as understood by/in people with disabilities\nDisability and queer temporalities/futurities\n“Aging out” of government programs\, services\, and institutions for disabled people\nAnxieties around “reproductive age\,” criminality\, and disability\nPregnancy and concerns about fetuses with prospective disabilities\nParenting with a disability\nExpectations of productive labor during “working years”\nThe concept of the “health span” vs. life span\nDisabled people growing old vs. aging into disability\n“Grey Power” and disability activism among seniors\nDisability after death\, including commemoration and cemeteries\nChanges in disability and disabled identity/experience over the life course (e.g. post-polio syndrome\, re-evaluation of disabled and/or Deaf identities\, psychiatric conditions re-understood in old age)\n\nWe are interested in diverse geographical\, intersectional\, and chronological areas of focus. Interdisciplinary submissions are welcome\, but abstracts should pay close attention to historical context and take seriously the potential of age\, stage of life\, or the life course as analytics in disability history. Reflective and/or narrative pieces and co-authored pieces are also welcome. \nPlease submit an abstract (300-500 words)\, a CV\, and a short bio to the editors (lieffersc@macewan.ca and chelsea.chamberlain@wilkes.edu) by August 15\, 2026. \nInitial decisions will be issued by approximately October 15\, 2026\, and manuscripts will be due by April 2027. Final manuscripts are expected to be approximately 8000 words\, including citations.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-disability-history-and-the-life-course/
CATEGORIES:Conference
END:VEVENT
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
END:VEVENT
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:20260911
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260928
DTSTAMP:20260909T123120Z
CREATED:20260909T123120Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260909T123120Z
UID:2103-1789084800-1790553599@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Exhibit: Menaut Waktu. Merekam Jejak. (Threading Time. Archiving Traces.)
DESCRIPTION:From 11 to 27 September 2026\, Framer Framed hosts the presentation Menaut Waktu. Merekam Jejak. (Threading Time. Archiving Traces.)\, displaying the outcome of artist Jay Afrisando’s work as part the Atelier KITLV-Framer Framed residency programme.\nThe presentation presents a growing collaborative archival and counter-archival practice that follows perceptions of disability from pre-colonial\, post-independence and present day Indonesia. It examines the complex factors that have shaped disability discourses through the arts\, archives\, body-minds and collaborative practices between artists\, researchers\, communities and disabled people. It intends to be a meeting site for the past and the present\, for conventional archives and undocumented experiences and for the inter-human. \nMenaut Waktu. Merekam Jejak. (Threading Time. Archiving Traces.) is the outcome of Afrisando’s archival research at KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) and his field research in Indonesia as part of the Atelier KITLV-Framer Framed Artist in Residence 2025-26. Instead of merely presenting the archival findings\, Afrisando collaborates with Ba(WA)yang Production\, Teater Braille\, SAPDA (Center for Advocacy of Women\, Disabled and Children) and Sedikit Terlibat to curate\, respond to archival findings and create a counter-archive together. \nIn this presentation\, disability is seen from the perspectives of decolonisation\, anti-ableism\, and through inter-paradigm and -disciplinary methods. It invites the public to understand why and how stigma\, medicalisation\, segregation and practices based on pity still exist until now. Doing so also allows visitors to investigate discrimination and inequality that happens even to those who do not identify themselves as disabled\, and open perspectives into various constructions of knowledge and practice full of inequality and partiality. Therefore\, (re)reading disability means not only reading the world\, but imagining and realising a different future. \nPlease join us for the opening on Friday 11 September at 18:00\, during which Afrisando introduces his work. Sign up here. \nDSL interpretation is provided during Afrisando’s speech and exhibition tour on the opening day from 18:00-19:00.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/exhibit-menaut-waktu-merekam-jejak-threading-time-archiving-traces/
LOCATION:Framer Framed\, Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71\, 1093 KS\, Amsterdam
CATEGORIES:Classical,Early Modern,Exhibit,Long 18th Century,Medieval
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260914
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260915
DTSTAMP:20260808T115318Z
CREATED:20260808T115318Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260808T115318Z
UID:2037-1789344000-1789430399@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Community and the Uncanny: Neurodivergent Inclusion and Exile in the Middle Ages (IMC 2027)
DESCRIPTION:Despite the importance of community for human wellbeing\, the neurodivergent experience of what community has meant throughout history has often differed greatly from that offered by neuronormative societies. Building on the success of our 2026 series\, Neurodivergent and Neuroqueer Temporalities\, we once again invite scholars working in neurodiversity studies and neuroqueer theory within medieval studies to present papers on the IMC’s 2027 theme\, ‘Communities’.   \n  \nThis series invites proposals for papers that examine aspects of medieval and medievalist communities through a neurodivergent or neuroqueer lens. This includes\, but is not limited to:  \n-Exploration of the social interactions of neurodivergent individuals in medieval communities.  \n-Examination of the relationships between neurodivergent and neurotypical characters in medieval literature.  \n-Discussions of the experiences of neurodivergent scholars in medieval studies.  \n-Exploration of the formation of neurodivergent or neuroqueer communities across time with figures or concepts from the Middle Ages.  \n  \nPaper proposals should be under 200 words and accompanied by a bio of no more than 150 words. Proposals should be sent to D.M.Coultas@leeds.ac.uk for the attention of Dan Coultas and Ash Paley no later than Monday\, 14th September 2026.  \nSuccessful applicants are reminded that they remain responsible for their own conference registration and fees. 
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-community-and-the-uncanny-neurodivergent-inclusion-and-exile-in-the-middle-ages-imc-2027/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260922T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260922T180000
DTSTAMP:20260808T122521Z
CREATED:20260808T122521Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260808T122521Z
UID:2039-1790096400-1790100000@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Beyond Contagion: Rethinking the History of Leprosy in the Medieval Mediterranean
DESCRIPTION:nna Gili\n\n\n22 September 2026 – 5 PM (CEST)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGiven the variety of its pathological manifestations\, leprosy was difficult for physicians in the past to recognise. They attempted to provide different pathological descriptions\, distinct aetiologies\, and varied clinical portraits to grasp its nature. Even the proposed treatments\, although often influenced by the Galenic discovery of theriac\, show considerable variation. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis talk explores some of the texts composed in the medieval Arabic\, Latin\, and Greek worlds that sought to capture this multifaceted pathology\, with the aim of providing a commentary that goes beyond the narrow focus on contagion typical of scholarship on the subject. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDrawing on my recent book Leprosy in the Mediterranean Medical Literature (De Gruyter\, 2025)\, I examine these texts through the combined lenses of philology and the history of medicine to reconstruct a history of leprosy that is\, at the same time\, a history of authors\, texts\, translations\, and cultural exchanges. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAt the centre of the talk will be al-Majūsī’s Kitāb al-Malakī\, a work that both draws upon and goes beyond antique and late antique doctrines on the nature and treatment of the disease. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis text will be placed in dialogue with earlier Arabic works such as Sarābiyūn’s Compendium\, al-Ṭabarī’s al-Muʿālajāt al-Buqrāṭiyya\, and al-Zahrāwī’s Kitāb al-Taṣrīf. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI will then turn to the Latin and Greek translations of the Kitāb al-Malakī to examine how the Arabic author’s biologically grounded\, non-moralising approach to the disease was conveyed by its translators. \n\n\n\nAbout the Speaker …\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnna Gili is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padua working on the project “The Construction of Collective Memory in Byzantium” (CoMByN). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn February 2026\, she obtained her PhD in Latin and Arabic philology at the University of Padua and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (cotutelle de thèse). Her main research interest is the transmission of medical knowledge from Greek into Arabic and from Arabic into Latin during the Middle Ages. In 2025\, she received the Santorio Gobal Fellowship\, to study with Sarah Tulalan and Catherine Rider at the University of Exeter on a project titled Fertility Concerns in the Early Twelfth Century and published the bookLeprosy in the Mediterranean Medical Literature (De Gruyter).
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/beyond-contagion-rethinking-the-history-of-leprosy-in-the-medieval-mediterranean/
CATEGORIES:Book Event,Lecture,Medieval
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260930
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261001
DTSTAMP:20260620T095441Z
CREATED:20260619T143213Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260620T095441Z
UID:1977-1790726400-1790812799@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Workshop: Neurodiversity in the German-speaking world
DESCRIPTION:The digital workshop on 12. November 2026 invites researchers to exchange information on neurodivergence\, disregard and neurodiversity studies. Short contribution proposals can be up to 30. September 2026 will be submitted. \nNeurodiversity Studies in the humanities and cultural sciences already have a permanent place in the English-speaking countries and in Scandinavia. Since the 2000s\, the field of research has differentiated itself – starting from the autistic community and Judy Singer’s neurodiversity paradigm. Whether Critical ADHD or Tourettic Studies: The critical examination of neurodivergent realities and concepts of “backlash” is closely interlinked with disability and mad studies.\nIn the German-speaking countries\, on the other hand\, theoretical foundation and academic networking on this topic has so far hardly been pronounced. A new\, interdisciplinary workshop now wants to change that. \nOn 12. November 2026 a first digital networking meeting will take place via Zoom. The aim is to bring together researchers from all career stages and to initiate an open exchange on methodological/theoretical\, scientific-historical and socio-political issues.\nAs a keynote speaker\, Bridger Bartlett (Swansea) was acquired and will provide insights into the transnational literary project AMEND (eArly Modern European NeuroDivergence). \nWe are looking for short impulse lectures (5–10 minutes) from the literary\, media\, cultural or social sciences\, which deal with neurodivergence from an intersectional and critical perspective. Unfinished\, exploratory considerations and artistic contributions are just as welcome as notions of (finished) projects. Proposals can go up to 30. September 2026 will be submitted to the organizers. For further information\, please refer to the attached CfP. \nIn order to make the workshop as accessible as possible\, agreements on assistance requirements can be made in advance. Pulses can also be presented\, for example\, by script by the organizers or submitted as prepared audio-video material. \nContact: Julie N. Heinrichs (EAI Cologne) and Laura Basten (Berlin/Cologne) \nCfP_Workshop_Neurodiversityet_im_deutschsprachigen_Raum.pdf 43 KB
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-workshop-neurodiversity-in-the-german-speaking-world/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260930
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261001
DTSTAMP:20260903T062912Z
CREATED:20260903T062856Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260903T062912Z
UID:2092-1790726400-1790812799@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:CFP: Health\, Welfare\, and Mutual Support in Maritime Communities\, 1550 – 1850
DESCRIPTION:The focus of this one-day workshop/symposium on 14 January 2027 at the National Maritime Museum is the disciplinary crossroads between medical\, social\, and maritime history. We aim to bring researchers interested in these fields together to present research and create connections across an area of emergent research. \nMuch traditional scholarship on maritime healthcare has focused on the Navy\, hospitals\, and elite medical practitioners\, imagining the establishment of permanent naval hospitals as the positive conclusion of inevitable progress. \nRecent scholarship has challenged this narrative\, emphasising the partial and socially restrictive aspects of increasingly institutionalised systems of maritime health care. Medical humanities have increasingly incorporated approaches of social history\, but this has only recently begun to address the specific histories and concerns of maritime communities. \nOverview of the workshop\nThis workshop aims to place naval and institutional medical care within a broader context of informal healthcare and mutual support within maritime communities\, informing and encouraging future research in this developing field. \nWe conceive ‘maritime communities’ to include not only mariners working in the Navy or commercial shipping\, but also those working in shipbuilding and other maritime industries on land\, as well as their related familial and social networks. \nWe invite researchers to share work on these topics ranging from the early modern period onwards (approximately 1550-1850). Specific themes are listed below\, and we welcome submissions on all areas connected to the broader themes of the event. \nHosted by the National Maritime Museum\, the workshop will include opportunities for focused discussion in a number of panels. We anticipate that the event will provide opportunities to develop an ongoing network of researchers working in this emerging field. \nThanks to the generosity and support of the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme and National Maritime Museum\, there will be no registration fee for this event. \nLimited financial support for speakers is available; details will be provided upon acceptance. \nWorkshop themes\nProposals may address or connect to\, but are not limited by\, the following themes: \n\nFormal and informal systems of healthcare in relation to maritime labour (i.e. in naval and commercial shipping\, but also in land-based maritime industries such as shipbuilding)\nStructures of welfare and poor relief within maritime communities\nSocial networks and mutual support within maritime communities\nExperiences and conceptions of disability in maritime communities\nThe impacts of trauma and wider experiences of mental health in maritime communities\nApproaches to ageing and life-cycle poverty in maritime communities\nPractitioners and recipients of care within maritime communities\nThe institutionalisation of care and its effects upon maritime communities\n\nHow to submit a proposal\nPlease submit your proposal to research@rmg.co.uk with the subject line: ‘Health\, Welfare\, and Mutual Support in Maritime Communities proposal‘. Please include the following in a single document: \n\nTitle\n250-word abstract\n100-word bio\n\nDeadline for submissions: 23.59 BST on Wednesday 30 September. \nAttending the workshop\nWorkshop date and location: 14 January 2027 at the National Maritime Museum. \nFormat: Please note that this is an in-person (not hybrid) workshop. \nRegistration fee: None. The workshop is free to attend\, and you can sign up as an attendee from the start of November (subject to change)\, once the programme has been confirmed. \nEligibility: This conference is open to all\, regardless of institutional affiliation\, discipline\, or career stage. We are particularly keen to attract CDP\, PhD\, and Early Career Researchers alongside those working more broadly in the fields of Medical Humanities and Maritime History.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/cfp-health-welfare-and-mutual-support-in-maritime-communities-1550-1850/
CATEGORIES:Call for Papers,Early Modern,Long 18th Century,Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20261007T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20261007T140000
DTSTAMP:20260909T123930Z
CREATED:20260909T123930Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260909T123930Z
UID:2106-1791374400-1791381600@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Talk: Reading Neurodivergence in Old Norse Literature
DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of neurodivergent representation in all forms of media\, including literature. Realistic representation is vital to providing relatable content for neurodivergent readers as well as challenging harmful stereotypes. Whilst authors today can continue to improve neurodivergent representation in their work\, it is also important for neurodivergent people to see themselves reflected in historical literature. The neurodivergent experience is nothing new; we have always been here\, and yet reading neurodivergence in historical texts can be particularly challenging\, especially when they were written at a time when human understanding of neurodiversity was limited. \nThis paper will provide a neurodivergent reading of Egill in Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar and Óðinn in the Prose and Poetic Eddas. It will argue that in Egill\, we find a character often considered the archetypal ‘Viking’ who can also be read as the archetype for neurodivergent medieval literary characters. It will then examine how a neurodivergent reading of the deity to which Egill is devoted can offer further insights into how medieval texts can resonate with neurodivergent audiences. Rather than attempting a diagnostic approach\, which would be fraught with methodological and moral problems\, this paper will build on methodologies used in queer theory to identify neurodivergent coding: patterns of speech\, behaviour\, and the reactions of others\, to argue that neurodivergent readings of literary characters such as Egill and Óðinn are possible. This approach will lay a foundation for neurodivergent readings of characters in the literature of a diverse range of cultures and periods in which neurodivergence was not necessarily deliberately written into the text but can nonetheless be read into it\, opening a whole new field of neurodivergent representation. \nBio Dan Coultas is a third-year Post-Graduate Researcher in the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. His research\, funded by the School of History\, focuses on neurodivergent readings of medieval literature in Old Norse\, Old English\, and Middle \nHigh German. He is also the chair of the UoL PGR Diversity Steering Committee\, Secretary of the LUU Medieval Society\, and a Student Assistant with the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society\, working on a project to bring the Wakefield Court Rolls to a younger audience. Prior to returning to academia\, Dan served for 13 years as a Submarine Warfare Officer in the Royal Navy and was the first official chair of the Defence Pagan Network. \nPlease register here! https://tinyurl.com/readingNDinoldnorselit
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/talk-reading-neurodivergence-in-old-norse-literature/
CATEGORIES:Lecture,Medieval,Webinar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261007T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261007T170000
DTSTAMP:20260808T114557Z
CREATED:20260808T114557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260808T114557Z
UID:2034-1791392400-1791392400@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:'Disability: A History of Resistance' - David Turner in conversation with Jude Rogers
DESCRIPTION:Despite there being more than 16 million disabled people in the UK today\, disability rarely features in mainstream accounts of our past. That absence is not down to any lack of evidence: it is a forgotten\, suppressed history – the result of deliberate choices about whose histories matter. For the first time\, this book puts disabled lives at the centre of the story of modern Britain. \nIt tells a story of resistance and ingenuity\, and often one of flourishing\, full of people who refused to be silenced or pitied. We meet the seventeenth-century labourer\, who fights accusations in court that he’s faking his disability – and wins; the eighteenth-century painter who signs her miniatures for royalty ‘without hands’; the nineteenth-century one-armed textile worker who turned his injury into activism\, demanding reform in Parliament. From the mid-twentieth century\, we see how disabled people got together to demand equality in education\, housing\, transport and the workplace – fighting for their right\, not to be treated specially\, but to lead ordinary lives like everybody else. \nFor this ground-breaking and campaigning book\, David Turner has unearthed countless forgotten voices and tales. He tells a story not about ‘progress’ led by doctors or philanthropists\, but a ground-up history of ordinary people demanding dignity and justice. And by putting disabled people back into the national story\, reveals a much fuller and richer history of modern Britain. \nDavid Turner is an award-winning social and cultural historian\, with expertise in disability\, medicine\, gender and the body. Based at Swansea University\, he is the first person in the UK to be promoted to a professorship based on their work on disability history\, and his research has appeared in publications such as iNews and BBC History Magazine. David also co-devised the BBC Radio 4 series Disability: A New History. \nJude Rogers has been a journalist and critic for the Guardian and the Observer for twenty years\, writing about arts\, culture and society\, and also makes documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Wales. She was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year for her 2022 memoir\, The Sound Of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives. Born in Swansea and now living in Abergavenny\, she is delighted to be back in her hometown tonight. \nCopies of the book will be available (card only) from our partner bookseller ‘Cover to Cover’ \nA Cultural Institute event in partnership with Vintage / Bodley Head\, Cover to Cover\, and South Wales Miners’ Library \n*Please note: Event delivered in English
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/disability-a-history-of-resistance-david-turner-in-conversation-with-jude-rogers/
LOCATION:South Wales Miners’ Library\, Y Storfa\, 277-278 Oxford St\, Swansea\, SA1 3EL\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Book Event,Early Modern,Long 18th Century
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20261008T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20261008T140000
DTSTAMP:20260924T114614Z
CREATED:20260924T114614Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T114614Z
UID:2133-1791464400-1791468000@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Stimmy Herbert - talk by Amrita Dhar
DESCRIPTION:Where: In-person on Swansea University Singleton Campus\, Talbot Building\, Room 980 (1st floor\, accessible from the Faraday Building main entrance)\nWhen: 8th October 2026 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm\nThis seminar will consider George Herbert’s collection The Temple (1633) as a neurodivergent work. I don’t at all propose to be diagnostic about it (and I am not interested in contemporary medicine as a lens through which to read poetry)\, but I was teaching some of Herbert’s poetry recently\, and I was struck anew by how much discussion there is in the poems about pain\, about Herbert’s sheer nervousness around poetic craft\, and indeed\, by how stimmy some of the poems are. (If ever there was a poet in early modernity of whom we really should speak in terms of their bodymind\, it is surely Herbert.) In this seminar\, I want to read a selection of (4-5 pre-circulated) poems from The Temple to think about where poetry becomes a grounding and a return for a neurodivergent poet; of pain that may only be bearable in poetry; what neurodiversity studies can offer Herbert; and what Herbert can offer neurodiversity studies. \nHosted by the AMEND project\, funded by Wellcome. \nRegistration beforehand requested.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/stimmy-herbert-talk-by-amrita-dhar/
CATEGORIES:Early Modern,Lecture
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261015
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261016
DTSTAMP:20260828T115244Z
CREATED:20260828T115244Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T115244Z
UID:2074-1792022400-1792108799@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Application Deadline: Dartmouth College - Assistant Professor in Latin American Medical Humanities
DESCRIPTION:The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Dartmouth invites applications for a full-time tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor in Latin American Medical Humanities. The position is open to specializations in any historical period and in any Spanish-speaking region of Latin America and/or the Caribbean\, including hemispheric\, transatlantic\, and transpacific comparative approaches. Applicants for this position should demonstrate how their scholarship and teaching engage with the intersections of language\, literature\, culture\, and history with health\, wellness\, and the body as they are defined by scientific and medical discourses. A strong theoretical foundation and full professional fluency in Spanish are required. In addition to teaching courses in their area of expertise\, all faculty members are expected to teach all levels of literature\, culture\, and language and participate in the department’s extensive study abroad programs. Required: PhD\, or ABD with PhD received by the time of appointment\, in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies or related disciplines in the Arts and Humanities. For a complete position description\, visit Interfolio [https://apply.interfolio.com/192064]. Review of applications will begin on October 15\, 2026.\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nContact Information\n\nFor questions regarding this position\, please contact: Department Administrator Greg LeBlanc at Greg.LeBlanc@dartmouth.edu.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/application-deadline-dartmouth-college-assistant-professor-in-latin-american-medical-humanities/
CATEGORIES:Application
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261208T150000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261208T170000
DTSTAMP:20260925T115358Z
CREATED:20260925T115358Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T115358Z
UID:2136-1796742000-1796749200@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Research Talk: Eccentric Lives and Neurodivergent Histories in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- Century England
DESCRIPTION:Research talk by David Turner of Swansea University. Part of the PG-led Speaker Series with the University of Warwick Centre for the History of Medicine\, Science and Technology. \nTuesday\, 8 December\, 15:00-17:00 \nHybrid: online and FAB 5.0 at the University of Warwick
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/research-talk-eccentric-lives-and-neurodivergent-histories-in-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century-england/
CATEGORIES:Lecture,Long 18th Century,Webinar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270114
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270115
DTSTAMP:20260924T113830Z
CREATED:20260924T113819Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T113830Z
UID:2130-1799884800-1799971199@premoderndisability.com
SUMMARY:Workshop/Symposium: Health\, Welfare\, and Mutual Support in Maritime Communities\, 1550 – 1850
DESCRIPTION:A one-day workshop/symposium on 14 January 2027 at the National Maritime Museum\, focusing on the disciplinary crossroads between medical\, social\, and maritime history. \nThe focus of this one-day workshop/symposium on 14 January 2027 at the National Maritime Museum is the disciplinary crossroads between medical\, social\, and maritime history. We aim to bring researchers interested in these fields together to present research and create connections across an area of emergent research. \nMuch traditional scholarship on maritime healthcare has focused on the Navy\, hospitals\, and elite medical practitioners\, imagining the establishment of permanent naval hospitals as the positive conclusion of inevitable progress. \nRecent scholarship has challenged this narrative\, emphasising the partial and socially restrictive aspects of increasingly institutionalised systems of maritime health care. Medical humanities have increasingly incorporated approaches of social history\, but this has only recently begun to address the specific histories and concerns of maritime communities. \nOverview of the workshop\nThis workshop aims to place naval and institutional medical care within a broader context of informal healthcare and mutual support within maritime communities\, informing and encouraging future research in this developing field. \nWe conceive ‘maritime communities’ to include not only mariners working in the Navy or commercial shipping\, but also those working in shipbuilding and other maritime industries on land\, as well as their related familial and social networks. \nWe invite researchers to share work on these topics ranging from the early modern period onwards (approximately 1550-1850). Specific themes are listed below\, and we welcome submissions on all areas connected to the broader themes of the event. \nHosted by the National Maritime Museum\, the workshop will include opportunities for focused discussion in a number of panels. We anticipate that the event will provide opportunities to develop an ongoing network of researchers working in this emerging field. \nThanks to the generosity and support of the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme and National Maritime Museum\, there will be no registration fee for this event. \nLimited financial support for speakers is available; details will be provided upon acceptance.
URL:https://premoderndisability.com/event/workshop-symposium-health-welfare-and-mutual-support-in-maritime-communities-1550-1850/
LOCATION:National Maritime Museum\, Romney Rd\, Greenwich\, SE10 9NF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Conference,Early Modern,Long 18th Century,Workshop
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR