Byzantine Responses to Minorities: The Case of the Physically Impaired

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture

Organizer Name

Maroula Perisanidi

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Leeds

Presider Name

Georgios Makris

Presider Affiliation

Princeton Univ.

Paper Title 1

The Invisible Woman? The Case of Eudokia the Macedonian

Presenter 1 Name

Shaun Tougher

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Cardiff Univ.

Paper Title 2

Defining Physical Impairment in Byzantium: The Case of Italo-Greek Hagiography

Presenter 2 Name

Anna Lampadaridi

Presenter 2 Affiliation

British Academy/Univ. of Oxford

Paper Title 3

Is Your Priest Missing a Thumb? Byzantine and Anglo-Norman Canonical Views on Disability

Presenter 3 Name

Maroula Perisanidi

Start Date

9-5-2019 10:00 AM

Session Location

Fetzer 1060

Description

Sickness, disfigurement, and disability were commonplace in the Byzantine world. Yet the histories of those who did not conform to ‘able‐bodied’ norms are often left untold by Byzantinists. This session aims to address this imbalance by using histories, saints’ Lives, and canon law to explore the experiences of the chronically-ill, disfigured, or otherwise incapacitated, between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Taken together, the papers in this session aim to illustrate that integrating disability as a category of analysis and a system of representation can deepen and challenge our understanding of Byzantine identity. Brandie Ratliff