Shakespeare’s Globe is inviting proposals for an interdisciplinary conference bringing together literary and performance scholars, historians, archivists, and disability scholars and activists around the theme ‘Disability and the Archives’. This two-day hybrid event will be held in London on 23 - 24 January 2026 and will explore how disabled lives have been­—and continue to be—recorded, erased or obscured. The conference will also provide a forum in which to share and discuss new methodologies for inclusive archival practices.We particularly encourage proposals from scholars and practitioners who identify as disabled on topics that interrogate the following: the politics and ethics of archival inclusions and exclusions; the challenges around creating new archives; and the tensions between institutional records—often shaped by medical or legal frameworks—and the lived experiences and perspectives of disabled individuals. We are also interested in proposals that connect early modern studies with broader narratives of disability and embodiment.How does disability appear—or not appear—in literary, performance, historical and institutional records? How do gender, race, sexuality and class influence these narratives? How do institutional records reflect, distort or obscure social constructions of disability? What tools or approaches might help us to recover or reframe archival silences? Topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Disability, access and the ethics of archival research
• Intersectional critical approaches to how disabled individuals have been documented and displayed in archives
• Occluded or redacted narratives of disability
• Inclusive archival design and practices
• Disability and early modern institutional archives (e.g., legal documents, medical records, parish registers)
• Representations of disability in early modern literature and performance archives (e.g., drama, ballads, playbooks, playbills)

 We welcome proposals for 15 to 20-minute papers, as well as alternative formats including workshops, roundtables and creative-critical interventions. 

Submissions are being accepted via this online form: airtable.com/apptGfmYN1DLQ7ZBk/shrI27LgDJGFJ1nZh

Please email education.events@shakespearesglobe.com if you require to submit in an accessible format. The deadline for proposals is 31 July 2025. Applicants will be notified via email of the Globe's decision in September.