Call for Papers: Disability History and the Life Course edited by Chelsea Chamberlain and Caroline Lieffers Life 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…
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…
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. Despite 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.…
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. The presentation presents a growing collaborative archival and counter-archival practice that follows perceptions of disability from pre-colonial, post-independence and present…
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…
Annual Virtual Conference | April 23 and 24, 2027 Here and There, Then and Now: Disability Studies at the End of the World Call for Papers Note: A text-only version of the information below is available as a Google Doc at this link. Amidst escalating political repression, imperialist violence, climate crisis, and warfare, how do…
Session I: Inexplicable, Indescribable, Inconceivable MonstersSponsors: MEARCSTAPA Organizers: Mary Leech and Thea Tomaini This 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…
nna Gili 22 September 2026 – 5 PM (CEST) Given 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…
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. Neurodiversity Studies in the humanities and cultural sciences already have a permanent place in the English-speaking countries and in Scandinavia. Since the 2000s, the…
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. Much traditional scholarship on maritime healthcare has focused…
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…
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…
