CfP: Disability in the Early Modern Mediterranean World
“Disability
in the Early Modern Mediterranean World”, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference,
2023 (26 - 29 October, Baltimore, MD, USA
We are
looking for papers for one or more sessions under the broad title, “Disability
in the Early Modern Mediterranean World,” for the Sixteenth Century Studies
Conference, to be held in Baltimore, MD in October, 2023.
For the
past forty years or so, disability studies theories have suggested
understanding of human bodies and minds and their place in histories and
cultures. Studies by scholars such as Tobin Siebers, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson,
and David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder illuminate the importance of giving
attention to varied human bodies, minds, and sensoria and to what
Garland-Thomson has called “the social process of disablement”. Of course, the
conditions of life in the early modern period led to a wide variety of
impairments from birth; from accident, injury, or corporal punishment; from
war, childbirth, illness, and hunger.. The impacts of those circumstances on
people in the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries has, indeed, been the
subject of focused study particularly of England, the Netherlands, the Holy
Roman Empire, and other parts of northern Europe–as seen in the work of
scholars such as Elizabeth Bearden, Jess Bailey, Barbara Kaminska, Irina
Metzler, and Rosamund Oates.
While there
has been some very good work on the Mediterranean world, the picture in the
region remains incomplete. We need more scholarship on less-studied regions
that can connect with related issues such as embodiment, emotions, infirmity,
and madness. We seek papers on any aspect of disability and on any aspect of
human variance in bodies, minds, and sensoria in the Mediterranean world. In
particular, we welcome papers from a wide variety of disciplines and
methodologies that understand and use disability studies theories to analyze
history, culture, artwork, and literature.
Please send
questions and/or proposals by email to Jana Byars and Julia DeLancey by 7
April, 2023. Please include:
- Name
- Email
address
- Paper
title
- Abstract
of 250 words
- Note of affiliation: name of
affiliate institution or independent scholar
- Presenter Biography or Brief
CV. Provide a 3- to 4-sentence (max 150 words) biography that includes
affiliation, rank and one or two important publications or other evidence
of scholarship.
- A note of any audio-visual
needs
Contact
Info:
Jana Byars
and Julia DeLancey