Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages

Jonathan Hsy is Associate Professor of English at The George Washington University, USA. His books include Trading Tongues: Merchants, Multilingualism, and Medieval Literature (2013) and he has published widely on disability issues.Tory V. Pearman is Associate Professor of English at Miami University, USA. Her previous books include Women and Disability in Medieval Literature (2010) and Disability and Knighthood in Malory’s Morte Darthur (2019).Joshua R. Eyler is Director of Faculty Development and Lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi, USA. His books include How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching (2018) and Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations (2010).

This volume stands as a testament to the work being done to connect medieval history to the broader field of disability studies to create a better understanding of disabilities as a transhistorical social construct.

• List of IllustrationNotes of ContributorsSeries PrefaceIntroduction: Disabilities in Motion, Jonathan Hsy, George Washington University, USA Tory V. Pearman, Miami University, Hamilton, USA and Joshua R. Eyler, Rice University, USAChapter 1: Atypical Bodies: Seeking after Meaning in Physical Difference, John P. Sexton, Bridgewater State University, USAChapter 2: Mobility Impairments: The Social Horizons of Disability in the Middle Ages, Richard H. Godden, Louisiana State University, USAChapter 3: Chronic Pain and Illness: Reinstating Crip-Chronic Histories to Forge Affirmative Disability Futures, Alicia Spencer-Hall, Queen Mary, University of London, UKChapter 4: Blindness: Evolving Religious and Secular Constructions and Responses, Edward Wheatley, Loyola University Chicago, USAChapter 5: Deafness: Reading Invisible Signs, Julie Singer, Washington University in St. Louis, USAChapter 6: Speech: Medieval Representations of Speech Impairments, Kisha G. Tracy, Fitchburg State University, USAChapter 7: Learning Difficulties: Ideas about Intellectual Diversity in Medieval Thought and Culture, Eliza Buhrer, Colorado School of Mines, USAChapter 8: Mental Health Issues: Folly, Frenzy, and the Family, Aleksandra Pfau, Hendrix College, USAAuthor and Editor BiographiesReferences Index