Disability and Medieval Studies: Then and Now (Lee & Doherty-Harrison)
- mmapodcast1
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
Medievalists with Disabilities was founded in 2017. Since then, the organization has organized annual panels at the largest UK medieval conference, Leeds International Medieval Conference (Leeds IMC), and has just published an edited collection of essays from the first five roundtables: Towards an Accessible Academy: Perspectives from Disabled Medievalists. Contributors to Towards an Accessible Academy describe their lived experience of disability and how this intersects with the discipline of medieval studies, embracing both the challenges and the joy this can bring. This volume provides a unique perspective on the state of accessibility within the field and in the university environment more broadly. While offering real-life testimonies of disability in the academy, many chapters also include practical advice on best practices in supporting disabled scholars and students, as well as how the authors feel connected to the medieval sources they study.
In this podcast episode, Dr. Alex R. A. Lee and Dr. Hope Doherty-Harrison chat with contributors to the volume, reflecting on individual experiences to which listeners may relate, sounding a call to action for all medievalists to actively practice allyship, and providing clear examples of how we might implement the advice given by contributors to improve the academy’s accessibility.
Please be aware that this episode contains mentions of suicide (22:50–22:55, 23:33–22:50, 24:03–25:28) and of surgery/surgical wounds (28:34–28:36, 30:40–32:00, 36:42–36:54).
Dr. Alex R. A. Lee is a medieval historian who works on the intersection between popular religion and epidemic disease in late medieval Italy. She currently teaches Liberal Studies and Writing at New York University London.
Dr. Hope Doherty-Harrison is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, working on a book about portrayals of Judas in medieval literature and iconography. Her first book, Love and Anti-Judaism in Medieval English Romance: Typologies of Violence and Desire, was published by Manchester University Press in 2025.
Other contributors to this episode include Alicia Spencer-Hall, Matthew McCall, Edward Mills, Amy Louise Morgan, and E. R. P. Champion. Jude Seal’s chapter is read by Matt Griffin. The anonymous contributor’s chapter is read by Will Howard.
Further reading:
Towards an Accessible Academy: Perspectives from Disabled Medievalists, ed. Alexandra R. A. Lee, Hope Doherty-Harrison, and E. R. P. Champion (De Gruyter, 2025) https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501517341/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOoogKw-2CGYNrVlB9HJZ7RvgdGJ1hhie4B3muUT-NvyvmxcJ7xQh#contents (The appendix, one chapter, and top 10 action points are open access)
Elizabeth Champion, “(In)accessibility in Higher Education and the Myth of the Ideal Academic”, De Gruyter Conversations, 17 December, 2025 https://blog.degruyter.com/inaccessibility-in-higher-education-and-the-myth-of-the-ideal-academic/
Carolyn Dinshaw, How Soon is Now? Medieval Texts, Amateur Readers, and the Queerness of Time (Duke University Press, 2012).
Margaret Price, Crip Spacetime: Access, Failure, and Accountability in Academic Life (Duke University Press, 2024)
Richard H. Godden, “Getting Medieval in Real Time,” postmedieval 2 (2011): 267–77, https://doi.org/10.1057/pmed.2011.13
Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages: https://ssdma.hcommons.org/