Reducing Inequality: Reframing disability through History, Osteoarchaeology, Arts and Biomechanics

TY - CONF

T1 - Reducing Inequality

T2 - Lessons from the past: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

AU - Aranceta-Garza, Ale

AU - Yu, Sean

AU - Beach, Alison

AU - Ross, Karyn

AU - Mubarak, Sally

AU - Farber, Eleanor

AU - Houlton, Tobias

AU - Grant, Jane

AU - Duncan, Alan

AU - Nasir, Sadiq

PY - 2026/3/22

Y1 - 2026/3/22

N2 - This poster highlights the aims and preliminary results of Visible Disabilities in Premodern Europe, an international and interdisciplinary research project that seeks to revolutionise understandings of disability across historical and contemporary contexts. The poster will illustrate how our team combines osteoarchaeology, biomechanical engineering, and 3D animation and visualization technology to make the lives of premodern individuals with physical impairments in medieval Europe tangible and relatable across the centuries, while illuminating aspects of their personhood, including but not limited to disability. We work in collaboration with contemporary individuals with physical impairments as we investigate the meaning of disability in the past, challenging ableist narratives about past exclusion that continue to shape attitudes and policies in the present. Through a case study of a medieval female individual with Pott's disease, we will demonstrate the power of this interdisciplinary approach to historical disability to a) make visible the lives of past individuals marginalised by traditional historiographical and archaeological narratives of exclusion, b) challenge resilient assumptions about the role of individuals with physical impairments in the religious, economic, social, and cultural landscapes of premodern Europe, and c) redefine how we understand disability – both past and present – whilst creating tangible benefits for clinical practice and reducing inequality.

AB - This poster highlights the aims and preliminary results of Visible Disabilities in Premodern Europe, an international and interdisciplinary research project that seeks to revolutionise understandings of disability across historical and contemporary contexts. The poster will illustrate how our team combines osteoarchaeology, biomechanical engineering, and 3D animation and visualization technology to make the lives of premodern individuals with physical impairments in medieval Europe tangible and relatable across the centuries, while illuminating aspects of their personhood, including but not limited to disability. We work in collaboration with contemporary individuals with physical impairments as we investigate the meaning of disability in the past, challenging ableist narratives about past exclusion that continue to shape attitudes and policies in the present. Through a case study of a medieval female individual with Pott's disease, we will demonstrate the power of this interdisciplinary approach to historical disability to a) make visible the lives of past individuals marginalised by traditional historiographical and archaeological narratives of exclusion, b) challenge resilient assumptions about the role of individuals with physical impairments in the religious, economic, social, and cultural landscapes of premodern Europe, and c) redefine how we understand disability – both past and present – whilst creating tangible benefits for clinical practice and reducing inequality.

M3 - Poster

Y2 - 23 March 2026 through 24 March 2026

ER -