This panel seeks most broadly to facilitate discussions regarding disability and various forms of corporeal and cognitive impairment in medieval and early modern Europe. Although research on medical aspects of disability is certainly welcome, we especially invite investigations that push the study of disability beyond the biological, exploring the political/legal, religious, literary, and social valences of the nonstandard body. Papers might consider changes in constructions of disability over time; how cultural conversations about disability affected the lived experience of people with disabilities in medieval/early modern Europe; the relationship of health and the "able" body to disability during these eras; the difference between disease and disability; and the influence of medieval and early modern constructions of disability on later eras.

We welcome papers that consider these—and other—issues from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Please send a title and abstract of 250 words to both of the following email addresses: rowheyvl@canisius.edu and dwood@nmu.edu by December 5th, 2012.

Lindsey Row-Heyveld, Canisius College
David Houston Wood, Northern Michigan University