Keynote speakers: David Lederer, Maynooth University; Donna
Trembinski, St. Francis Xavier University; David Turner, Swansea
University
In recent decades, dis/ability history has become an important field
in its own right, standing at the crossroads of the social history of
medicine, the history of minorities and the history of everyday life.
Conceptions of and attitudes to physical and mental wellbeing and to
difference are and have always been key elements in any human society,
while the lived experience of dis/ability has varied across societies
and time periods, but also depending on the person’s socioeconomic
status, age, gender, and the nature of the impairment. Experiences of
disability, whether personal or communal, have long continuities in the
past, but they have also changed dramatically with the development of
medical science and institutionalized care.
This conference aims to concentrate on the experiences of those with
physical or mental impairments and chronic illnesses, with special
reference to the period between the late Middle Ages and the
mid-twentieth century. We understand dis/ability in a broad sense,
covering a wide range of physical, mental and intellectual impairments
and chronic illnesses. How, then, were various dis/abilities lived and
experienced, how did communities shape these experiences, and what
similarities and changes can we detect over the course of time? An
important viewpoint is also that of methodology: how can a modern
scholar approach the experience of those living in the past?
We thus invite papers that explore the ways in which ‘disabilities’
have been lived and experienced, in all stages of life, and by people of
different social status and background. The conference aims to promote
dialogue between disability historians across national and chronological
borders and we welcome papers presenting new research and work in
progress.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- How to approach the experience of dis/ability (sources, methodology)?
- Different categories of dis/ability experience, or what counts as experience of disability?
- How have society, religion and practices of care and cure defined the experience of disability?
- Lived religion and dis/ability
- Medicalization, institutionalization and everyday life
- The impact of gender, age and social status on the experience of dis/ability
- Lived welfare and everyday experiences of people with disabilities,
e.g. living at home, in a workhouse or mental institution, the impact of
various welfare systems.
To submit a proposal, please send title and abstract of 200 words,
with your contact information and affiliation by February 15, 2019, at https://www.lyyti.in/disabilityexperience2019_callforpapers
Conference website: https://events.uta.fi/disabilityexperience2019/
Participation is free of charge, and includes lunches and coffees for speakers.
The conference is organized by the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX, https://research.uta.fi/hex/)
at the University of Tampere and the group “Lived Religion” and has
received funding from The Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation (https://wihurinrahasto.fi/?lang=en) and HEX. For more information, please write to the organizers (jenni.kuuliala@uta.fi and riikka.miettinen@uta.fi)