International Health Humanities Network: Health Care Area Blog Entries

On 6-7 December 2014, the University will host the 8th International Conference on ‘Disease, Disability and Medicine in Medieval Europe’. This conference, which is organized in connection with the Exzellensforschungsprojekt ‘Homo Debiles’ at the University of Bremen, will focus on infectious disease as a disability, an area that has hitherto been overlooked. In discussions of medieval disability the status of those who have suffered leprosy or tuberculosis, conditions that were clearly visible to their contemporaries, has not been discussed.

Infection has largely been studied by historians, but it does appear widely in texts as well, where it is often connected to ideas of exclusion and shaming. The impact on the culture and literature of the Middle Ages has only been studied on a few examples, namely Plague and leprosy, but the effects of infection, such as measles or mumps, will have had ramification for communities, since these diseases can result in a large number of people with weakened immunity, and in the worst case scenario, to encephalitis and severe mental disabilities. How did these communities deal with the aftermath of infection? The conference aims to bring infectious disease to the attention of researchers in the medical humanities. Pivotal to this approach is that papers at this conference will be given by medievalists, but also by colleagues researching infectious disease in microbiology (current work in Yersinia Pestis research and quorum sensing), with a presentation of the outcomes of the pilot study on the efficacy of recipes Anglo-Saxon leechbooks and modern anti-bacterial research (the quest for a replacement of antibiotics).

The Graduate workshop:

Disability is now studied across a range of different disciplines in the Arts and Medical Sciences, but while a range of academic meetings have discussed the problems of researching medieval disease and disability, graduate students outside medieval studies, are not always part of the discussion. We aim to offer a free workshop for any student with an interest in medieval disability can take part free of charge. The format is planned as followed:

A pre-arrival pack of reading will be sent out to each participant via e-mail. These will contain key texts. The workshop will be structured into 4 different themes (Material & visual culture; legal positions; language and literature; historical positions). Each theme will be led by a leading scholar in the field (Material culture: Sally Crawford; legal positions: Wendy Turner; language: Sonja Kehrt; historical approaches: Irina Metzler and Cordula Nolte).