The EDID (Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Decolonization) Committee of the CSM/SCM invites papers for a session that will explore disability in the medieval past and/or the ways in which disability studies and medieval studies fruitfully intersect. The session welcomes papers that consider understandings of non-standard human bodies from the medieval past and/or reflect upon the ways in which, as Godden and Hsy write, “the study of disability in the Middle Ages challenges modern narratives of bodily integrity and autonomy” (334). The non-standard body in the Middle Ages takes on a variety of forms both familiar and unfamiliar to us today, from the use of spectacles to colonies of lepers. Disability is here understood inclusively as a broad spectrum of somatic and sensory capacities, and contributors are encouraged to explore the topic widely, including considerations of disability within medieval studies from lived realities to fictional representations.

Papers might consider:

• Constructions of disability and difference, and the power structures they engage
• Ideas of “stare-able” (Garland-Thompson) or “eccentric” (Baswell) bodies and how they reconfigure identities and societies
• Prosthesis and/or prostheticized bodies
• Mobility impairments and aids, and/or responses to them
• Sensory impairments and/or responses to them
• Rethinking bodily coherence and integrity
• Differing medieval understandings of disability
• The temporality of disability
• How disability intersects with other axes of identity (religion, race, queerness, class, etc.) in the medieval period

Presentations may be in either English or French and should be 15- 20 minutes in length. Please submit proposals by email by January 5, 2026. Please note that while this is an in-person conference, the EDID committee can try to arrange some Zoom participation as needed for accessibility reasons within the parameters of what is possible at St Francis Xavier University. For Inquiries or Proposal Submissions, please contact Emma-Catherine Wilson at emma-catherine.wilson@hertford.ox.ac.uk. 

Proposal Submission Details: Paper proposals must include a document giving the title plus a one-page abstract (without identifying the author). A separate document should consist of a one-page curriculum vitae which includes the paper’s title at the top.

**Scholars need not be members of the Canadian Society of Medievalists to submit proposals but, by the time of the conference, must be members in good standing and are expected to pay their 2025-26 annual membership fees to CSM / SCM by March 15, 2026 if they are not already members.